Understanding Strengthening Administration of Justice through Experiences of Child Sexual Abuse Victims in Tanzania

Writing of this paper was inspired by reading of Tanzania “Child Justice Five Year Strategy for Progressive Reform, 2013-2017” (Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, 2012), and the making sense of a paper by Honorable Murtaza Jaffer (2012) titled, “Strengthening Administration of Justice and Upholding the Rule of Law in East Africa”. The two inspiring documents recognize that the administration of justice depends on the rule of law, which depends on just laws to begin with. The Child Justice Five Year Strategy for Progressive Reform in particular, acknowledges “the challenges the justice system faces in dealing with children’s cases expeditiously but fails to stipulate strategic plans for addressing social-cultural factors inhibiting reporting of abuse and exploitation by children and their families. This paper attempts to draw justice administrators’ attention to cultural adjustment the Tanzanian society made to Sexual Offenses Special Provision Act, 1998 (SOSPA) through sharing of documentary research experience with enforcement of child sexual offenses law in Tanzania where only 11% of perpetrators were found guilty of sexual offense charges brought before the court. Keywords: Barriers to child justice, cultural adjustment in Tanzania, child sexual abuse

Social Construction of Dishonesty and Integrity in Tanzania: A Reflective Piece from an Interdisciplinary Perspective

No potential employer is looking forward to hiring dishonest staff. All learning institutions have tight admission and evaluation criteria to guard against risk of academic dishonesty in students, and any wise individual will not take a dishonest person for a life partner. Yet, dishonesty is a much more complex phenomenon than it seems. Always, there are some acts of dishonesty that are considered “normal” or “legitimate’ or even highly praised in some avenues, including buying an examination for a child, or leaking a test paper to a student for a pay, or concealing an important truth for some gains, or cheating on a number of hours worked as well as deceitfully bargaining to get more money. There are even common phrases in our daily idioms like “riziki kitako” (daily bread is found from where one is seated), “cha kuokota si cha kuiba” (monopolizing ‘lost and found’ does not amount to theft), or “mtembea bure si mkaa bure” (walking around one has greater chance of finding something valuable), to rationalize dubious gains on public resources or “lost and found” items. Dishonesty seems something others do?“criminals”, “evil ones”, “politically motivated and selfish people”, or “inadequately trained staff”. Such acts when done by “good people” are not branded dishonesty. They are brushed aside as oversights since good people do not engage in dishonest behaviours. If they unfairly bargain, it is justifiable as they act for a noble cause of meeting their rightful demands in this unfair world or overwhelming working conditions. This paper seeks to shed some light on these views and tries to dismiss some myths. Today more than ever before, it is critical to have a clear understanding of dishonesty. Trying to understand dishonesty is not encouraging or condoning it. It is seeking to grasp the sources of our own dishonesty and condemn them. In fact, one can only denounce dishonesty when one comprehends it clearly; and two points need to be established if one has to understand dishonesty: First, honesty and integrity as human values and behaviours are culturally relative; and secondly, one cannot explain dishonesty unless he/she can contrast it with honesty. For these reasons, the paper attempts to answer two questions: Is dishonesty a problem today than ever before? Is it really a problem in universities in Tanzania? Keywords: Dishonesty, academic integrity, social construction of honesty.

Analyzing Gender Difference in Leadership Styles and Behaviour of Heads of Schools in Tanzania

This study made a comparative analysis of leadership styles and behavior of male and female heads of primary schools in Kasulu District, Tanzania. One hundred and ninety participants were sampled purposively and randomly from 22 public primary schools. A multi-method data collection strategy including interviews, questionnaire and documentary analysis, was deployed. The data collected were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The descriptive statistics used included frequency tables, charts, mean scores, and t-test. Overall, results revealed that, participative, democratic, team management and authoritative leadership styles were deployed by both male and female heads of schools in running primary schools. Similarities and differences were observed in terms of frequency and manner in which those leadership styles were used by male and female school heads. Moreover, both male and female heads of schools were found with the same amount of task oriented leadership behavior. However, female heads of schools showed more task oriented leadership behavior than male heads. The study thus recommends addressing the situation of gender imbalance in schools leadership so as to utilize the revealed leadership talents and skills of female heads of schools as it has been done for male school heads. Keywords: Gender and school leadership, leadership styles and behavior, primary school heads

The Perceptions of Teachers, Parents and Students on the Effects of Mobile Phone Use on Student Learning in Tanzania

The use of mobile phones enables learners to interact with vast resource materials to facilitate learning. Yet in Tanzania, mobile phones are strictly prohibited in many schools. This study examined parents’, teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the effects of students’ access to mobile phones on students learning performance. It was conducted in four selected secondary schools in Dodoma municipality. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed as data were collected from 280 respondents through questionnaire, interview schedule and documentary review. Cross-tabulation and Chi-square tests were among data analysis techniques employed in the understanding of different perceptions of respondents. The findings show that, parents and teachers agree that students with mobile phones perform poorly and misbehave more often than students without mobile phones. Also, in order to have value-based control system for appropriate use of mobile phones, providing proper education on mobile phone use and re-introducing censorship board to control the quality of contents on websites are recommended. Keywords: mobile phone use in school, effects of mobile phone use on academic performance, school mobile phone use policy in Tanzania

Exploring Classroom Teachers' Awareness of Pupils with Learning Disabilities: Focusing on Public Primary Schools in Tanzania

This study explored the presence of pupils with learning disabilities in regular primary schools and whether or not the classroom teachers were aware of their presence. Data were collected using questionnaires, classroom observation guide, interview schedules, and documentary review checklist. Based on exploratory research design, the study was guided by the Activity theory. A sample of 200 participants was drawn out of 11,304 eligible persons (100 pupils out of 10,000 eligible children and 100 teachers out of 1304 in public schools). The collected data were analyzed thematically. The descriptive statistics used included frequencies, means, charts, and tables.  Indeed, 15% of pupils in regular schools have learning disabilities even though few teachers were aware of their presence and how to provide appropriate instruction for their learning. This is higher than 10-12% portrayed in the existing literature. Keywords: special needs education, learning disabilities, learning difficulties, disabilities, impairment, and inclusive education