Challenges Encountered by School Heads in Carrying out Instructional Supervisory Activities in Public Secondary Schools in Lindi Region-Tanzania.

The purpose of this study was to determine the challenges heads of schools encounter while carrying out their instructional supervisory activities in schools. The study conducted in Lindi region, Tanzania Mainland. The study used descriptive design in which qualitative and quantitative approaches were involved. The study sample comprised of teachers (N=114), heads of schools (N=57) from 57 randomly selected secondary schools. Data collected through questionnaires, focus group discussion and interview. Thematic used to analyse qualitative data, while IBM SPSS version 20 used as a statistical tool for analysing quantitative data. The study findings revealed several challenges encountered by heads of schools while carrying out their instructional supervisory activities in public secondary schools in Lindi region. Challenges identified by this study included; multiple responsibilities, lack of qualification, negative attitude of teachers toward supervision, inadequate training among heads of schools and large number of teachers as well as poor communication skills. Heads of schools have to be relieved with multiple responsibilities by school boards. The study recommends leadership training to heads of schools, establishment of good communication system through which teachers will not consider supervision negatively. Moreover, provision of awareness seminars to teachers on the importance of supervision. As for further research, the study recommends the comparative study involving a number of heads of schools to determine the role of an individual head of school in effective supervision at school

Assessing the relative importance of parameter and forcing uncertainty and their interactions in conceptual hydrological model simulations

Predictions of river flow dynamics provide vital information for many aspects of water management including water resource planning, climate adaptation, and flood and drought assessments. Many of the subjective choices that modellers make including model and criteria selection can have a significant impact on the magnitude and distribution of the output uncertainty. Hydrological modellers are tasked with understanding and minimising the uncertainty surrounding streamflow predictions before communicating the overall uncertainty to decision makers. Parameter uncertainty in conceptual rainfall-runoff models has been widely investigated, and model structural uncertainty and forcing data have been receiving increasing attention. This study aimed to assess uncertainties in streamflow predictions due to forcing data and the identification of behavioural parameter sets in 31 Irish catchments. By combining stochastic rainfall ensembles and multiple parameter sets for three conceptual rainfall-runoff models, an analysis of variance model was used to decompose the total uncertainty in streamflow simulations into contributions from (i) forcing data, (ii) identification of model parameters and (iii) interactions between the two. The analysis illustrates that, for our subjective choices, hydrological model selection had a greater contribution to overall uncertainty, while performance criteria selection influenced the relative intra-annual uncertainties in streamflow predictions. Uncertainties in streamflow predictions due to the method of determining parameters were relatively lower for wetter catchments, and more evenly distributed throughout the year when the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency of logarithmic values of flow (lnNSE) was the evaluation criterion

Parental Involvement in Literacy Development of Primary School Children in Tanzania

Despite several initiatives to enhance primary education provision in Tanzania, and as a consequence high enrollment rates, there have been limited improvements in early literacy development of Tanzanian children. The current education system of Tanzania focuses mostly on schools and teachers as the key educators in children’s learning with little attention to the role of parents and the home environment. This PhD project aimed at exploring and supporting parental involvement in primary school children’s reading development, and at creating a framework to encourage teacher-parent partnership in Tanzania. The research in the dissertation (a) explored motivational factors that influence parents’ decisions to be involved in educational activities at home and schools, (b) assessed the relationship between parental reading support activities with children’s reading skills, and (c) evaluated the effectiveness of a one year intervention programme that intended to enhance children’s reading development. We used Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement as our theoretical framework. The intervention was based on practices that were shown in the research literature to be effective for children’s learning, and included a teacher and parent training, teacher-parent communication, reading at home, and parent involvement in their child’s homework. Participants in the study were 600 second grade primary school pupils and their parents (68.2% mothers) from 24 schools in Dar es Salaam. Questionnaires and tests (reading, intelligence) were used to measure the study variables. We used a school based cluster randomized controlled trial with baseline, post-intervention and follow-up measurement to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention (n = 336 intervention group, n = 224 control group). Statistical analyses included regression analyses and multilevel modeling. Findings showed that parents are willing to be involved in their children’s education. Involvement at home was related to parents’ expectations for children’s school success, next to parents’ perceived time and energy, child invitations and parents’ self-efficacy. School involvement was predicted by perceived time and energy, and school and child invitations. There were weak associations between parental reading support activities (modeling, reinforcement, encouragement and instruction) with three aspects of children’s reading (decoding, fluency, and comprehension). The evaluation of the intervention revealed that children in the intervention condition made more progress in reading (decoding and comprehension) compared to children in the control condition. Throughout the study we found a relationship between parents’ education level and children’s reading skills. This indicates that parents with a low level of education need more attention and support. We can conclude that the intervention through feasible activities, is able to foster parental involvement. Schools need to support teachers and create a warm environment to all parents, regardless of their social economic status. The government should make parental involvement a policy issue by setting regulations and guidelines for effective parental involvement in the literacy development of children

Parental involvement in literacy development of primary school children in Tanzania

Despite several initiatives to enhance primary education provision in Tanzania, and as a consequence high enrollment rates, there have been limited improvements in the early literacy development of Tanzanian children. The current education system of Tanzania focuses mostly on schools and teachers as the key educators in children's learning with little attention to the role of parents and the home environment. This PhD project aimed at exploring and supporting parental involvement in primary school children's reading development, and at creating a framework to encourage teacher-parent partnership in Tanzania. The research in the dissertation (a) explored motivational factors that influence parents' decisions to be involved in educational activities at home and schools, (b) assessed the relationship between parental reading support activities with children's reading skills, and (c) evaluated the effectiveness of a one year intervention programme that intended to enhance children's reading development. We used Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's model of parental involvement as our theoretical framework. The intervention was based on practices that were shown in the research literature to be effective for children's learning and included a teacher and parent training, teacher-parent communication, reading at home, and parent involvement in their child's homework. Participants in the study were 600 second-grade primary school pupils and their parents (68.2% mothers) from 24 schools in Dar es Salaam. Questionnaires and tests (reading, intelligence) were used to measure the study variables. We used a school-based cluster randomized controlled trial with baseline, post-intervention and follow-up measurement to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention (n = 336 intervention group, n = 224 control group). Statistical analyses included regression analyses and multilevel modelling. Findings showed that parents are willing to be involved in their children's education. Involvement at home was related to parents' expectations for children's school success, next to parents' perceived time and energy, child invitations and parents' self-efficacy. School involvement was predicted by perceived time and energy, and school and child invitations. There were weak associations between parental reading support activities (modelling, reinforcement, encouragement and instruction) with three aspects of children's reading (decoding, fluency, and comprehension). The evaluation of the intervention revealed that children in the intervention condition made more progress in reading (decoding and comprehension) compared to children in the control condition. Throughout the study, we found a relationship between parents' education level and children's reading skills. This indicates that parents with a low level of education need more attention and support. We can conclude that the intervention through feasible activities, is able to foster parental involvement. Schools need to support teachers and create a warm environment for all parents, regardless of their social economic status. The government should make parental involvement a policy issue by setting regulations and guidelines for effective parental involvement in the literacy development of children.status: publishe

Obstructions in waste stabilization pond use in Uganda

Obstructions in waste stabilization pond use in Ugand

Statistical downscaling of precipitation in the Upper Nile: use of generalized linear models (GLMs) for the Kyoga Basin

General circulation model (GCM) climate projections cannot be relied on to provide information at scales finer than the GCM model-grid resolutions; hence, fine-scale information can be achieved by the use of high spatial resolution in dynamical models or empirical statistical downscaling. This study briefly reviews methods of downscaling climate projections with particular emphasis on rainfall simulation and the results of a first attempt to apply generalized linear models (GLMs) for statistical downscaling in the Upper Nile (a challenging equatorial climate of East and Central Africa)

Parental involvement in educational activities in Tanzania: understanding motivational factors

In Tanzania, the education system focuses on schools and teachers as key educators of children, while little attention is paid to the home environment. This study examines motivational factors that may influence parental involvement at home and at school, using Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement as a theoretical framework. Participants were 580 parents of Grade 2 children attending primary schools in three districts of Dar Es Salaam. Parents were invited at school to complete a questionnaire. Regression analyses showed that parents’ expectations for children’s school success predicted home involvement, next to parents’ perceived time and energy, child invitations and parents’ self-efficacy. School involvement was predicted by perceived time and energy, and school and child invitations. In a mediation model role construction had an indirect effect on school involvement through child and school invitations and perceived time and energy. Implications for educational policy are discussed.status: Published onlin