Accountability leads to better primary education

“Not good enough.” That was the clear message from the members of Njoro Primary School Committee when 100 long-awaited new desks arrived from the carpenter. The desks intended for the pupils at Njoro Primary School were of bad quality, came in different sizes and did not meet the official standard for a school desk in Tanzania.

“It is evident, that the quality is very poor,” says the chairperson of Njoro Primary School Committee, Khlfa R. Ngwasi, as he displays the discarded desks. New desks have been ordered – 50 have already arrived and the other 50 will hopefully arrive soon.

 “These desks are very uncomfortable and should not be offered to our children. If our children sit at these desks all day, they will get tired, lose their concentration and will not benefit from the school day,” explains Khlfa R. Ngwasi, who besides being the chairperson of Njoro Primary School is a parent and has 3 children in the school.

Roles and responsibilities

The discarded desks at Njoro School are very evident signs that the situation has changed since the school committee members at Njoro Primary School received training on their roles and not least responsibilities.

According to the Primary Education Development Programme under the Local Government Reform Programme procurement of e.g. books, furniture etc. should be done in close consultation with the school committee members. Both to avoid corruption and misuse of the school funds and to ensure requirements are met.

However, that has never been the case at Njoro School or many other schools in the district, until last year when the members of the school committee through the training provided by KINNAPA, realized that not only did they have the right to be informed and involved they also had an obligation to get involved.

“We would never have questioned something like this in the past,” says Khlfa R. Ngwasi, who adds that in general the training of the members has led to much better cooperation between parents and teachers because everyone is now aware of their roles and responsibilities.

Also at district level the change has been visible.

“We have much fewer cases of corruption and irregularities in the procurement procedures like in the case of Njoro School,” tells Yassin Mohamed, who is an investigator with the PCCB.

“That means the parents are more willing to contribute funds to the schools when needed and they cooperate with the teachers and school administration to ensure better conditions in the schools. And that has a good impact on the quality of education of the children in the district, says Yassin Mohamed.

The organisation:

KINNAPA Development Programme is a non-profit organisation formed in 1990, which works to improve the quality of life of pastoralists, hunter-gatherers and small-scale agriculturalists in the Kiteto and Simanjiro districts. KINNAPA is working on gender equality; livestock and agricultural development; water supply and sanitation; environmental management; and education.

The partnership;

The core of ActionAid Tanzania’s support to KINNAPA is based in the area of local governance. It aims to empower community members to participate in local government and demand accountability through civil society organisations (CSOs) in the district. Thus, the partnership’s activities include capacity-building among CSOs, enabling increased accountability and cooperation with local government authorities on service delivery and development projects.

The partnership also aims to contribute to higher-quality primary education in four schools in the Kiteto district, through the creation of four school committees - democratic structures - which empower community members to participate in decisions regarding the management and accountability of their local schools.