Community Attitude Towards The Relevance Of Community Education Programmes In Tanzaniathe Case Of Wete District

ABSTRACT 

The current study sought to assess community attitude towards the relevance of community education programmes in Wete District in Zanzibar. Thus, the specific objectives of this study were to Explore the community perceptions on the relevance of community education in Wete district, determine the relationship between demographic factors and community perceptions towards community education, assess socio-cultural and economic factors associated with community participation towards community education activities, determine the extent of community involvement in community education programmes in Wete district in Zanzibar and solicit community opinions on ways to improve community education programmes in Wete district. The study was guided by community development theory (1978), constructivism theory (1978) and cultural theory (1978).A cross-section research design was used to collect data that involved survey of 85 respondents from five Shehias. SPSS computer program was used to analyse the data. Qualitative data were analyzes through content analysis and quantitative data were analyzed statistically using descriptive and inferential statistics by using SPSS Version 21, SAS and Microsoft Excel were highly used. Multiple ANOVA techniques were used to seek whether there is a relationship between demographic factors with community education participation. The survey results showed that community has positive perceptions towards the relevance of community education programmes. Either there is no significant relationship between demographic factors with the community education participation. Furthermore, their participation in community education stimulated the accessibility of information, having a sense of ownership and fulfilling social obligation factors. The findings indicate that, to large extent, the community is mostly engaged in community learning. The findings reveal that community involvement in decision making, participation of community leaders and conducting of transformative research are appropriate strategies to improve community education programmes. The study ends by recommending that special community education courses should be established in the Universities and colleges to train the existing community facilitators and produce more educators so as to bring sustainable development.