Dissertation (MA Education)
Despite many initiatives taken by the government, as well as Non-Governmental Organizations to eradicate illiteracy in Tanzania; yet large proportion of pupils face the problem inability to read among primary pupils in Tanzania. There is a problem of pre-reading skills among primary children in Tanzania. This study explored the implementation of competence-based curriculum in developing pre- reading skills among pre-primary children in Tanzania. The study was guided by the following research objectives: first, to examine the methods and strategies used by pre-primary teachers in enhancing competence based curriculum in developing pre-reading skills.
Second, to explore teachers‟ perception on the roles of implementation of CBC in developing reading skills among pre-primary children. Third, to identify factors affecting pre-primary teachers in implementation of competence based curriculum to pre-primary children. The study employed a phenomenological research design in attempting to understand people‟s perceptions and perspectives on implementation of CBC in developing pre- reading skills among pre-primary children. A maximum variation was involved to select a sample of ten (10) pre-primary teachers, eight (8) head teachers, and one (1) quality assurer, three (3) ward educational officers, and one (1) District educational officers which made twenty-three participants, were engaged in the study. Data were collected through classroom observations, semistructured interviews, and documentary reviews. Data were analysed through themes and sub-themes to generate the findings. The analysis of the data obtained revealed that, pre-primary teachers were using pictures, songs, play, dance and talking classrooms. Moreover, analysis about teachers‟ perceptions on the roles of implementation of CBC revealed that, pre-primary teachers were using CBC because they believed that CBC would develop curiosity, facilitate memorizing capabilities and develop the ability to use the prior experiences to pre-primary children.
Furthermore, most of the pre-primary teachers were found to understand the role of CBC however, they were not implementing it to pre-primary children due to the large number of children in the classrooms. In addition to that, the findings revealed that, there were some factors affecting pre-primary teachers on the implementation of CBC. These were such as; lack of training on how to implement CBC, inadequate of infrastructures, large number of children, low cooperation from pre-primary children parents and insufficient of teaching and learning materials. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the Government provide training for the available preprimary teachers, prepare colleges special for pre- primary teachers to recruit more teachers and to improve the infrastructures. In addition, the study recommends that teachers increase their efforts in exploring more strategies relevant for pre-primary children to further promote the development of learners in pre-reading skills