| dc.description |
The study examined on how Fee-Free Education Strengthens Girls’ Education in
Mvomero District, specifically on enrollment rate of girls, retention rate of girls and
girls’ academic performance in public secondary schools.
The study employed a case study research design, whereby documentary review, focus
group discussion and interview were used as methods for data collection. Thematic
analysis techniques were also used to analyse the qualitative data, which have been
presented as indirect quotations. The researcher found that girls were reported to
participate effectively on Fee-Free Education in schools in Mvomero District by
increasing girls’ enrolment rate. For the year 2019, it reported that the number enlarged
to 118 (23%) girls in public secondary schools.
The study found that Fee-Free Education had improved enrolment rate of girls in public
secondary school since most of the students who selected to join secondary education did
so, also the retention rate of girls who had been enrolled in public secondary schools
was increased by 97.5% in the year 2019 and was due to different strategies used by
schools to make girls learn, apart from that girls’ academic performance in Form Two
Nation Assessment (FTNA) was increased by 9% in the year 2019.
The study recommends that the government should provide financial and non-financial
support to disadvantage groups, so that they would benefit from the fee-free policy.
Since some of the students are from low-income households, so may still not be able to
attend school, despite the abolition of school fees. The policy should not only consider
school fees but also should consider other direct contributions paid by parents but not
the indirect cost of schooling. Also, the government should have a set of strategies in place
to mitigate the retention rate of girls who enrolled in schools. In the course of study,
the researcher observed some challenges caused by new education policy such as
inadequacy of teachers, classrooms and textbooks. These challenges need to be
addressed urgently and find a better way to resolve the situation. |
|