School Committees in the Context of Preparing and Implementing Whole School Development Planning

Abstract

This paper focuses on the involvement of school committees in the preparation and implementation of Whole

School Development Planning (WSDP). The data employed is based on a cross-sectional survey was conducted

between October and November, 2006 in 16 public primary schools in Tabora Municipality, Tanzania. In all, 60

respondents made up of one Municipal Education Officer (MEO), 16 head teachers, 13 school committee

chairpersons and 30 statutory members of the school committees were selected to participate in the study using

both purposive and random sampling procedures. Interviews, questionnaire and documentary reviews were

deployed to collect the requisite data. The findings of the study reveal that the majority of public primary

schools under study had functional WSDPs. The implication is that the aspiration of the Primary Education

Development Programme Phase One (PEDP I, 2002-2006) to provide training to school committees on WSDPs

was—to a large extent—on the right track. Moreover, the study established that school committees were mostly

involved in the preparation, implementation monitoring and evaluation of WSDPs. However, there is a need for

the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) to provide intensive on-going training that include

initial induction programme and on-going WSDP preparation and implementation support to equip the key

players with knowledge and skills, especially in rural-based primary schools and those unable to properly

prepare WSDPS in a bid to enhance efficiency and achieve optimum returns from the WSDPs.