A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Public Administration of Mzumbe University
The study examined how civil society organizations promote the educational rights of children in Tanzania. Specifically, the study addressed four specific research objectives which were to examine the practices of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) towards enhancing the access to reading and learning materials for children in Tanzania schools, to investigate on how Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) influences recruitment of qualified teachers in Tanzania schools, to examine how Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) influences the access to a safe learning environments for children in Tanzania schools and to identify the challenges being faced by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in promoting educational rights of children in Tanzania.
The study involved 90 respondents and both qualitative and quantitative data was collected through interviews and questionnaire respectively. The study used the case study research design and data has been analyzed using SPSS data version (20).
The study revealed that VSO is directly engaged in the provision of goods and services in the education and learning process of children. It was revealed that VSO influences the recruitment of qualified teachers in Primary schools through the set up of teacher’s professional development platforms. In addition to that, VSO being a civil society based organization is engaged in ensuring that children learn and access education in safe learning environment and this is through establishment of children’s learning clubs, furnishing classrooms and dormitories. Also it was found that change in government policies, politicization of education projects, lack of adequate personnel to engage communities on children educational rights were identified as challenges faced by VSO in promoting educational rights of children in Tanzania
The study recommended that it is pertinent that VSO engages other stakeholders for instance the community and the government in ensuring that educational rights of children are promoted including accessing a safe learning environment and accessing the reading and learning materials.