PROVISION OF QUALITY EDUCATION IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS: REFLECTIVE PRACTICES IN LOW-COST PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BULAWAYO METROPOLITAN PROVINCE, ZIMBABWE

نویسندگان

  • Senamiso Midzi Department of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
  • Lwazi Sibanda Department of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
  • Joyce Mathwasa School of General and Continuing Education (SGCE), University of Fort Hare, East London, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v6i2.1016

کلمات کلیدی:

quality education, low-cost secondary schools, resources

چکیده

Quality in education has become a cause for concern to every stakeholder in education. The study sought to assess the provision of quality education in low-cost private secondary schools in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province. The study adopted the interpretivist paradigm in qualitative approach, using a case study design. Semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used for collecting thematically analysed data from purposively sampled four school heads and six teachers from low-cost private secondary schools. The study established that in pursuit for quality education, selected schools employed qualified teachers who engage in continuous professional development programmes to sharpen their teaching skills. The findings revealed that the schools understudy are making efforts to offer practical science and computer lessons using the limited resources to ensure the provision of quality education. It emerged that selected schools use e-learning and multimedia resources which arouse learners’ interests and increase the retention rates. It came out that the schools understudy have environmental clubs which work together with school health departments in attending to sanitary issues. Whilst selected schools practiced heterogeneous grouping, the findings revealed that learners with physical disabilities are not enrolled in those schools due to lack of appropriate physical facilities and there are no teachers with relevant expertise to teach learners with special needs. The study revealed that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education provided guidelines in the form of policy documents and circulars to monitor the provision of quality education in the selected schools. Despite the efforts made by low-cost secondary schools in providing quality education, the study found that high staff turnover is negatively affecting the quality of education due to lack of continuity in learning. The findings indicated that inadequate learning resources and infrastructure such as libraries, computer and science laboratories, internet services, and lack of teachers with special needs expertise adversely affected the provision of quality education. The study concludes that lack of financial resources is a hindrance in the provision of quality education in low-cost secondary schools. The study recommends that a comparative study on provision of quality education should be conducted in private trust secondary schools.

Article visualizations:

Hit counter

بیوگرافی نویسندگان

  • Senamiso Midzi، Department of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
    Senamiso Midzi is a holder of a Master of Science Education in Accounting and Business Studies and a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Accounting and Business Studies from National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Zimbabwe. She has taught commercial subjects for over 17 years in secondary schools. She has vast experience in teaching in both public and private schools.
  • Lwazi Sibanda، Department of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
    Lwazi Sibanda holds Doctor of Philosophy in Education from University of Fort Hare in South Africa and is a senior lecturer in the Department of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, in the Faculty of Science and Technology Education at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Zimbabwe. She is currently the Executive Dean in the Faculty of Science and Technology Education. She specialised in Education Management and is involved in teacher education. She teaches education courses (modules) to undergraduate and postgraduate students. She supervises undergraduate research projects and postgraduate dissertations and theses at Master’s and Doctoral Levels. She has vast teaching experience extending from primary to higher education. She worked as a primary school teacher for fifteen years and moved to Secondary Teacher Education College as a Professional Studies lecturer for three years. She joined NUST ten years ago and is involved in conducting qualitative research in education management including science education. Her interest is on improving instructional delivery in all levels of education, that is, primary, secondary and higher education. She has published quite a number of journal articles and book chapters individually and collaboratively. She has reviewed various manuscripts from a number of journals. She is also involved in UNESCO programme for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) which emphasises on inclusion of ESD concepts in teacher education curriculum.
  • Joyce Mathwasa، School of General and Continuing Education (SGCE), University of Fort Hare, East London, South Africa
    Joyce Mathwasa began her career in education after obtaining a teaching certificate specialising in Infant classes. She taught in the Early Childhood for twenty years raising through the ranks to headship of primary schools for fifteen years. She furthered her education attaining a Bachelor’s degree in Educational Administration, Planning and Policy Studies (University of Zimbabwe); Master in Educational Administration, Planning and Policy Studies (Zimbabwe Open University) and PhD (University of Fort Hare, South Africa). Currently she is a Researcher in the Early Childhood Development School of Excellence in the University of Fort Hare. Dr. Mathwasa is also an Adjunct lecturer with Lupane State University in Zimbabwe and supervisor in the UNISA Teaching Practice Unit for SDAC students (Zimbabwe). She has a teaching experience extending from early childhood to tertiary education. She has several journal articles in accredited journals and five book chapters.

مراجع

Berg, B. L. (2007). Quantitative Research Methods for the social sciences. (6th Ed.). California: Pearson.

Bryman, A. (2008). Analysing Qualitative Data. London: Routledge.

Chuchu, T., & Chuchu. V. (2016). The impact of inclusive education on learners with disabilities in high schools of Harare, Zimbabwe. Journal of Social and Development Sciences, 7(2), 88-96.

Creswell, J. W. (2007). Research Design. Qualitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. London: Sage.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design. Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage.

Dornyei, Z. (2007). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. New York. Oxford University.

Fayani, O., Ayo, C., Ajayi, L., & Okorie, U. (2015). The impacts of e-learning in facilitating academic performance among private secondary schools and tertiary institutions in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. Retrieved from: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/95550783.pdf.

Government of Zimbabwe. (2001). Education Act. Harare: Government Printers

Harris, A., & Goodall, J. (2008). Educational Research. London: Oxford University Press.

Heyneman, S. P., & Stern, J. M. B. (2013). Low-cost private schools for the poor: What Public policy is appropriate? International Journal of Educational Development, 35, 3-15

Holloway, I. (2005). Qualitative research in health care. London: McGraw-Hill Education.

Hsieh, C., & Shen, J. (2010). Is school choice a mechanism for sustaining changes? Implications from national survey. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 75(2), 88-91.

Kanyongo, G. Y. (2015). Zimbabwe’s public education system reforms: Successes and Challenges. International Educational Journal, 6(1), 65-74.

Madzivanyika, N. (2018). The Impact of Independent and Private Schools in the Education Sector in Zimbabwe with Particular Reference to Harare Metropolitan Province. The International Journal of Business and Management, 6(11), 37-50.

Mangwaya, E., Ndlovu, E., & Manyumwa, C. (2014). The impact of private and independent colleges on the education system in Zimbabwe: the case of Gweru urban high schools. Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Sciences, 3(5), 78-85.

McAleese, M. (2013). Improving the quality of teaching and learning in Europe’s higher education institution. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/education/library/reports/modernisation-en.pdf.

Mugisha, F. (2008). School Choice among Slum and non- Slum communities in Nairobi, Kenya. Realities after free primary education. Nairobi: African population and Health Research Centre

Rice, J. K. (2003). Teacher Quality: Understanding the effectiveness of teacher attributes. Retrieved from: https://www.epi.org/publication/booksteacherqualityexecsumintro/

Sallis, E. (2002). Total Quality Management in Education (3rd Ed.). London: Kogan Page.

Sango, M. G., Chikohomero, R., & Saruchera, K. J. (2017). Supervision for quality implementation of school curriculum blueprint: The case for Manicaland Province. International Journal of Case Studies, 6(8), 20-26.

Silverman, D. (2009). Doing Qualitative Research. A handbook. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Tooley, T. (2009). The beautiful tree: A personal journey into how the world’s poorest people are educating themselves. New Delhi: Penguin.

Mapolisa, T., & Tshabalala, T. (2013). Instructional Supervisory Practices of Zimbabwean School Heads. Greener Journal of Educational Research, 3 (7), 354-362.

UNESCO (2005). Literacy for life. Paris. UNESCO.

UNESCO (2011). Financing education in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Meeting the challenges of expanding equity and equality. Montreal Quebec: UNESCO Institute for statistics.

UNICEF (2014). The state of the World’s children in numbers: Every child counts. New York: UNICEF.

دانلودها

چاپ شده

2021-03-09

شماره

دوره 6 شماره 2 (2021)

نوع مقاله

Articles