SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT TOOLKIT

United Republic of Tanzania Ministry of Education and Vocational Training SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT TOOLKIT Practical Guide for Head teachers and Heads of School July 2013

Contents Abbreviation... iii Preface... iv 1. Introduction... 1 2. Objective of the toolkit... 1 3. Roles and responsibilities of school heads... 1 3.1. Core functions of heads of schools... 1 3.2. Key activities in each function... 1 3.3 Time Splits for Best practice... 3 4. Who can help you... 6 5. Practical interaction guide... 7 6. Practical Guidance for Key Issues... 8 6.1 School community involvement... 8 6.2 Continuous Assessment... 10 6.3 Most common critical student issues... 11 6.4 Teacher attendance... 12 6.5 Teacher motivation and accountability... 14 6.6 Enforcement of supervision and coaching of teachers... 15 6.7 Sourcing for teaching & learning materials... 16 7. Dashboard and metrics to track for performance... 17 7.1 Why do we need transparency on school ranking of results... 17 7.2 School ranking methodology... 18 7.3 Accountability checklist... 19 ii

Abbreviation BRN CA CBO DEO ETP FBO GER LGA MOEC MoEVT NECTA NGO PMO-RALG PTA REO SEDP SIT TSC TSD WEC Big Result Now Continuous Assessment Community Based Organization District Education Officer Education and Training Policy Faith Based Organization Gross Enrolment Rate Local Government Authority Ministry of Education and Culture Ministry of Education and Vocational Training National Examinations Council of Tanzania Non Government Organization Prime Minister s Office Regional Administration and Local Government Parent Teachers Association Regional Education Officer Secondary Education Development Programme School Improvement Toolkit Teachers Service Commission Teachers Service Department Ward Education Coordinator iii

Preface The government of Tanzania through Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) as well as Prime Minister s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PMO-RALG) are committed to the provision of quality education through empowering school heads by giving them more authority to manage schools effectively and efficiently. Efforts to improve school performance and attaining quality education are fundamental to Tanzania s development. In this pursuit, the school heads play an important role. As leaders of individual schools, the school heads constitute a key portion in the educational system. Simply put, unless our school heads are successful, our schools cannot be. Thus, we are focusing our efforts on how to support heads of school to improve education in Tanzania. The School Improvement Toolkit (SIT) is an important tool in this endeavor. The SIT is a tool which is intended to be a practical guide that school heads can utilize to solve the challenges they face. The toolkit includes guidance on some of the most crucial aspects of being a successful head of school. It contains material on how school heads should allocate their time and also different ways to find resources and additional support. The SIT aims to support heads of school and ensure their success. It is important to note that the SIT is to be used as a supplement to the other materials available to heads of school. Whenever possible, the SIT will point readers to other relevant materials that will help heads of school. It is our belief that by using the SIT, heads of school will be better equipped to lead school. By following the guidance herein, heads of school will be able to improve accountability, teacher performance and, ultimately, student educational outcomes. Prof. Eustella Bhalalusesa Commissioner for Education Ministry of Education and Vocational Training iv

1. Introduction School Improvement Toolkit (SIT) is guide to school heads which will be used as quick reference handbook in the management of schools. The use of SIT will enable the school head to improve school performance and attain quality education in the country. 2. Objective of the toolkit The general objective of this school improvement toolkit is to assist heads of school in performing their daily duties. It provides the practical guidelines on how to solve different problems encountered in schools while performing their duties. The specific objectives of school improvement tool kit will be to: Clarify role and core functions of school heads Update on latest changes in policies, teaching and learning information Provide practical guidance to school heads for school improvement 3. Roles and responsibilities of school heads 3.1. Core functions of heads of schools a) Plan, reviewing and monitor the implementation of the work of teachers, non-teaching staff and students. b) Ensure that the curriculum is implemented according to current regulations. To ensure that lessons are taught, tested, marked, and returned to students and teachers make corrections, keep proper records and reports are provided on time. c) Supervise the utilization of school funds d) To supervise teachers service and ensuring disciplinary matters e) To performing other functions assigned by District Executive Director. 3.2. Key activities in each function 3.2.1 Managing instructional activities a) To supervise preparation of school annual calendar, time table and distribution of teachers workload. b) To supervise teachers' preparation of schemes of work, lesson plans and teaching in a classroom setting. Participate in teaching, monitoring the teaching process of all teachers, monitoring class attendance of teachers and students, and supporting junior staff. c) Set a mechanism for assessment and evaluation especially internal assessments, establishing school rules and regulations pertaining to internal 1

examinations, to provide resources for internal and external examinations, and to supervise preparation of the internal and external examinations. d) Identifying types and quantity of instructional resources needs, supervising procurement and allocation of resources to teachers as well as improving learning environment e) To put in place mechanism to encourage teachers and students to take teaching and learning seriously, to make them accountable for their performance and establishing clear communication and feedbacks. f) To set motivation system for students and teachers 3.2.2 Management of Teachers and non-teaching staff should make a daily follow-up of both teachers and non-teaching staff attendance, Determine staffing needs, prepare and execute staff development as well as ensuring proper record keeping mechanism. Use participatory techniques that make the entire school community feel and see that the improvement of their school is in a collective responsibility. Delegate roles and responsibilities to teachers and non teaching staff and give them authority to perform their duties. 3.2.3 Managing resources Mobilize, manage and prioritize the use of available resources effectively for performance improvement. Translate policies and financial documents into action and establish mechanisms for managing school finance. Supervise school budget preparation, monitor income and expenditures, and supervise preparation and submission of monthly, quarterly and annual financial reports to relevant authorities. Supervise preparation of school inventory, approve all school purchases, manage school tenders and non tendering purchases, manage school projects, supervise establishment of school projects, monitor and evaluate the progress of school projects 3.2.4 Managing students Establish rules and regulations that all students must stick to and provide them with regular guidance and counseling. Supervise establishment of student admission book and class attendance lists, monitor and evaluate daily, weekly, monthly and annual students attendance. Communicate students attendance to relevant authorities (District, Regional Education offices, MoEVT, NECTA and parents/guardians.) 2

Supervise establishment of students personal particulars, records and academic records (Examinations performance, Continuous Assessments etc) Supervise preparation of students examination reports. Establish student government /leadership and participatory mechanisms regarding school matters Take proper and timely actions regarding students discipline matters 3.2.5 Managing school-community relationship Establish collaboration between school management and community to enhance the improvement of school performance. Coordinate school Board/ Committee meetings to strengthen schoolcommunity relations. Organize and communicate with parents to attend school meetings and events to contribute towards school development. 3.2.6 Managing Extra-curricular activities (quarter moon) Establish subject clubs and assign teachers to supervise clubs for adequate management of the activities. Strengthen and facilitate sports and games activities. Supervise implementation of school income generating projects 3.3 Time Splits for Best practice Heads of schools must balance their many responsibilities in order to be effective. Below is a chart that offers guidance on how school heads should allocate their time. S/N Core functions of a school head Suggested time split (hrs) Suggested time split (percentage) 1 Managing instructional activities (full moon) 2 Management of Teachers and non-teaching staff (full moon) 3 Managing resources (Financial and admin) (full moon) 620.8 40% 310.4 20% 232.8 15% 3

4 Managing students (halfmoon) 5 Managing school-community relationship (quarter moon) 6 Managing Extra-curricular activities (quarter moon) 155.2 10% 155.2 10% 77.6 5% Total 1552 100% *Percentage allocated time assumes an 8 working hours per day time 194 days per year 3.4 Resources available to your service There are many documents which are useful for school management. These documents are available either in the Ministry, Regional or at the Council level offices and some may even already be in schools. The list below is a partial one; consult DEOs and WECs to acquire those missing from your school and to find further resources. S/N LIST OF DOCUMENTS OBJECTIVE OF THE DOCUMENT INSTITUTION YEAR OF PUBLICATION 1 Secondary School Head Management guide To guide head of a school on the roles and responsibilities vested on him/her as head of school Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) 1997 (under review) 2 Primary school head teacher management guide To guide Primary school head teacher on the roles and responsibilities vested on him/her as a head teacher 1982 4

S/N LIST OF DOCUMENTS OBJECTIVE OF THE DOCUMENT INSTITUTION YEAR OF PUBLICATION 3 Financial Management guide To assist heads of the school in using financial resources allocated to school Ministry of Finance 2004 4 Procurement Procedures for SEDP II 5 Guidelines for school supervision 6 Whole School Inspection Checklist 7 Whole School Development Plan Manual for Primary school 8 Self assessment form for schools To assist school heads in procuring different items in school To assist school supervisors at all levels of education sub sector To provide a broad list of items to be used in inspecting and supervising education delivery To assist in planning, supervising and implementing school development activities To provide guidance for individual school self assessment MoEVT 2010 MoEVT 2010 MoEVT 2010 MoEC 1998 - - 9 Education and Training Policy Doc 1995 To guide education delivery at all levels in the country MoEC 1995(Under review) 10 Education Act 1978 with its Amendments 1995, 2002 11 Guidelines for the use of Capitation Grants To guide education delivery at all levels in the country To serve as guidance to all education stakeholders for implementation of SEDP MOEC MoEVT 2010 1978 (Amended 1995/2002) 5

S/N LIST OF DOCUMENTS OBJECTIVE OF THE DOCUMENT INSTITUTION YEAR OF PUBLICATION 12 Construction Guideline for SEDP II (2010-2015 13 Education circulars by Commissioner for Education II Activities To serve as guidance to all education stakeholders for implementation of SEDP II constructions To guide stakeholders in execution of acts, policies and programs MoEVT 2010 MoEVT 4. Who can help you Although school management is a responsibility of the head of school, other stakeholders do play an important role too. School heads can seek advice and guidance related to school management from the MoEVT, PMO-RALG, REOs, DEOs, and WECs and TSD. Their roles are defined hereunder to help the head of school understand who to consult for different problems encountered in school management. 4.1 Roles and Responsibilities of Regional Education Officer: Is the Chief Academic Officer in the region a) Ensuring implementation of educational policies and directives in the LGAs in the region b) Monitoring performance of LGAs c) Coordinating deployment of teachers d) Coordinating, collecting and reviewing District Education Plans to comprise the Regional Education Development Plan. e) Linking region with Higher levels of supervision from the Ministry and Agencies f) Playing advisory role g) Translating the implementation of education acts, rules and regulations 4.2 Roles and Responsibilities of District Education Officer Is the Chief Academic Officer in the Council a) To ensure that the curriculum is properly implemented. 6

b) To coordinate, collect and analyze data on secondary education in the Council. c) To supervise and monitor the rehabilitation, expansion and construction of secondary schools. d) To estimate the hierarchical needs of teachers. e) To import and distribute school supplies according to the needs of the school. f) To monitor income and expenditure of schools. g) To monitor the provision of various educational multi-service delivery in schools. h) To perform other functions as directed by District Executive Director. 4.3. Roles and Responsibilities of Ward Education Coordinators: a) Perform ongoing monitoring of the delivery of education in their areas of work, which will help to make informed decisions in a timely fashion. b) Encourage the community to know the importance of students having learning materials c) To promote community and educational stakeholders in achieving the delivery of education d) Cooperate with school officials to ensure that teachers and students have acceptable values; e) To educate the public about the role and contribution of the teacher in society by involving the community to put concrete strategies for attracting newly appointed teachers to remain and work hard in their existing schools f) To provide clarity and focus performance of the implementation of guidelines for the conduct of education. g) To monitor the implementation of training for teachers (in house training) in conjunction with the school management and the Board in order to build competence to teachers for provision of better education; h) To monitor attendance of teachers and students as per school time table and school calendar; i) To conduct meetings and take appropriate actions regarding arguments given for achieving quality education; j) To enable the development of friendly teaching and learning environment in schools; k) Undertaking examination evaluation and take appropriate measures regarding challenges identified during the evaluation process. 5. Practical interaction guide 7

The following guide will assist school heads on how to interact with different parties in the school system. 5.1 Interaction with higher education authorities Receive instructions and guidelines relating to education from WECs/DEOs and manage its implementation at school level Communicate with the district education officer, receive and send school reports and other information on time. Timely forward incoming and outgoing letters, reports for teachers, nonteaching staff and parents/guardians 5.2 Interaction with teachers and non-teaching staff Practising collective leadership by delegating roles and responsibilities to teachers and non-teaching staff. Listening and understanding the problems and difficulties faced by teachers and non-teaching staff and try as much as possible them. Creating and use staff discipline committee to solve teachers /non teaching staff discipline matters Encouraging interschool cooperation among teachers of different schools. 5.3 Interaction with political leaders To recognize their presence and acknowledge their contribution in kind or cash which is useful for improvement of teaching and learning environment. To maintain a politically neutral stance in school, hoping that whichever government comes into power will have the same interest in education development as the outgoing one. 5.4 Interactions with students Seek to understand students concerns through students government and strengthen school BARAZA, and school assembly. Involve students government in school decision making 6. Practical Guidance for Key Issues 6.1 School community involvement The relationship between schools and their surrounding communities cannot be ignored. The surrounding community can often play a constructive role in ensuring that schools are operating effectively. WECs are an important link between the school and wider community and when 8

involve parents, the exercise can assist schools to accomplish educational goals. Common issues and reasons There is generally low support of schools in the community due to poor relationship between schools and the community. Community members do not assist schools to ensure students school attendance. They often assist students to misbehave with regard to school attendance. Some parents are not ready to assist schools in terms of paying school fees and supporting their children by providing learning materials (e.g. textbooks). Most parents have little time to spend with their children in their learning. Lack of parents involvement negatively affects students performance because students do not get correlated activities as regarding lessons while at home or away from school. Checklist for ideas for improvement Ensure dialogue between school and community. Have regular meetings with nearby community members to discuss the importance of student school attendance and give them opportunity to report students matters. Foster more interaction. Prepare activities once a term to help students interact and work with community around school to help them share the importance of school and protection of children from dangerous activities. The head of school can also prepare a list of items that parents and community members can assist the school voluntarily. This can help to create transparency between parents and school hence harness the community s resources to help the school become more effective. Establish a PTA. Ensure the establishment of a fully functional PTA to help teachers and parents discuss issues related to students and schools. Encourage parents to visit their children s schools and give suggestions on how to improve students performance. 9

Create more regular links with parents. Prepare a school diary for every student, which will allow parents and teachers to send messages about the student in order to improve communication. Weekly homework assignments that will require parents review their children s work and sign the diary ensuring parent s involvement. By increasing parents cooperation, students performance will improve. For more help on building a relationship with the outside community see school board/committee, WECs and DEOs. 6.2 Continuous Assessment Continuous assessment (CA) is a crucial tool to improve the quality of education. One of the most important roles of the head of school is to ensure that CA is administered properly and regularly. The CA also makes up 30% of students final grade results of the national examination administered by the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA). Common issues and reasons Tests, quizzes, and assignments are not administered frequently as required due to lack of teachers commitment on evaluating students and inadequate supervision by school heads. Students are given low quality tests and examinations, due to inadequate skills among teachers to set and moderate test and examination questions, low supervision and mentorship by the head of school. Poor record keeping of students caused by mismanagement of students files and wrong entering of students marks in their respective files. Checklist for ideas for improvement Ensure clarity in marks. Establish a clear format for recording the CA marks. The head of school can do this at the end of every month. The head of school should make regular checks of CA assignments including tests, quizzes and other assignments. Start a midterm reflection session. Establish midterm reflection sessions with teachers to discuss the CA results and create a mechanism to handle feedback. Coach inexperienced teachers. Help new teachers on how to set and 10

moderate a quality test, and present reliable records of CA to NECTA for inclusion in the final National Examinations results. Establish proper record keeping for student s CA by assigning academic master and heads of department to have files in their offices for each stream and ensure that they are filled frequently. Establish moderation team comprising of experienced subject experts to moderate mid-term tests terminal and annual examinations. The team can have 5-7 members, 5 of them being permanent members for specified time and other two will change according to subject moderation. If you still have issues with continuous assessment consult inspectorate office, District Education Officers and NECTA. 6.3 Most common critical student issues Students are the most important (and vulnerable) stakeholders in education. As children, students need guidance and protection in order to thrive. Effective school systems must be able to support students to make good decisions that allow them to learn in the classroom. Outside the classroom and in their community, students face many challenges. Some of the common students issues in schools are strikes, drug abuse and early pregnancies. Common issues and reasons Students frustration with school often boils over into school strikes and riots. Students are spurred by the lack of transparency in schools and poor school leadership. Increasingly, students are engaging in drug abuse. This is because of increased access to drugs and the lack of proper training in students behavior by parents and teachers. Among girls in schools, teen pregnancy is a major issue. Many girls in schools have unplanned pregnancies which interfere with their studies. The problem is particularly serious with those girls who are admitted in schools away from their home. These girls often live in rented houses near the school without proper supervision. Checklist for ideas for improvement Improve transparency. Improve transparency in school 11

management through class meetings, school assembly, dormitory meetings and students school BARAZA. This will instill trust of leadership among students and teachers. Assist with social services. Devise ways of providing social services (health and hygiene, meals, information media like TV radio and newspaper) to reduce discontent and unnecessary complaints among students. Increase collaboration between teachers and parents to reduce drug abuse. To reduce drug abuse cooperate with parents and teachers, non teaching staff and community at large when students exhibit any unusual or suspicious behaviors. Strengthen school guidance and counseling unit to divert students from drugs. Curbing early pregnancies. Cooperate with parents and the community in monitoring of girl s behavior especially when they reach adolescent age. Enhance periodic check up Solicit funds from the community to construct hostels to accommodate girls and other vulnerable students within the school campus. Additionally empower the school guidance and counseling unit to guide and counsel girls about the issues relating to pregnancy. If you still have problem with students matters seek consultation with school board/committee, parents, WECs and DEOs. 6.4 Teacher attendance The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers and the only way to improve the quality of student outcomes is to improve instruction in the classroom. Ensuring that teachers are present in the classrooms. Focusing on instruction is an important role of the head teacher and head of school. Common issues and reasons One important reason for absenteeism is low motivation of the teachers. This might be due to different reasons, ranging from complaint regarding working or living condition, to personal issues. Perhaps not all teachers can be motivated but many of them can be. Some teachers can be working in additional profession to earn their living. This may cause them to be out of school, or can divert their attention from teaching when they are in the school. 12

Some teachers also fail to attend classes because they feel underprepared to teach. This is observed mainly with experienced teachers who have low confidence; it is typically not mentioned explicitly but it is usually covered with other reasons. If teachers will not see any punishment for not being in the classroom, the absenteeism will spread quickly within the school. Therefore lack of accountability measures for teachers causes the problem to accelerate. Checklist for ideas for improvement Track teacher attendance. Use existing template to record teachers attendance daily. Then compile a weekly and monthly report for your records to share with teachers, and to report to WECs, DEOs, and REOs. Visit classes and teachers without notice, supervise the situation personally in the school. Have conference sessions to understand the issue. Schedule a 30 minutes one-on-one session with teachers on school issues. The head of school should try to understand the unique reasons for low motivation and to develop solution with the teaching staff. Coach teachers. If you see the problem is teacher s confidence, try to coach them on how to prepare for classes and to develop their teaching skills (i.e. lesson planning, classroom management.)the head of school can also ask for help for more experienced teachers to coach the younger ones Recognize and reward teachers who are performing their duties. You can also minimize problems by praising good behaviors. Recognize good work within the school and reinforce those positive behaviors. You can use school board to communicate with teachers with attendance problem. Leverage community to create pressure. Inform and engage parents and community; if you see that the problem is too big for you to deal with, tell parents how important it is to have teachers in the classroom to teach their children Strengthen accountability and enforce disciplinary measures. Use disciplinary measures as last resort for teachers who are not cooperative. You can issue an official warning to the 13

teacher first, if behavior persists, record the situation with official proof and file the case to DEO. Personally follow-up on the case for quick processing. If you still have issues with teachers attendance, consult school board/committee, inspectorate office, District Educational Officers and TSD. 6.5 Teacher motivation and accountability Teacher motivation remains at a very low level creating an enormous barrier to improving the quality of education. There are a few reasons for this. First, is the widely held feeling of under appreciation. This is with regard to salary and compensation, but also with proper support and respect from the school system. Additionally, motivation and accountability go hand in hand. As accountability of teachers plummets, the incentive for teachers to excel is greatly diminished. In too many schools, teachers are able to skip their teaching duties with little to no repercussions. Other forms of motivation exist such as monetary offers (e.g. salary, allowances, and fringe benefits) as well as non-monetary offers such as training opportunities, materials and more responsibilities according to ability. Common issues and reasons Some teachers have outstanding claims which make them demoralized and lose the morale to perform their duties. Teachers have a low status accorded to them by the system and community and are thus not recognized for their work. This may be due in part to the fact that their impact is not realized immediately like other professions. Teachers poor living conditions and their lifestyle due to poor salary provided by the government create more demotivation in their daily performance. For many teachers who stay in the same school for a long period of time, there is also the issue that these schools lack of stimulating and challenging environment for teachers. Checklist for ideas for improvement 14

Simplify reporting claims. Create the opportunity for teachers to report their claims to your office and expedite the process of disbursing those funds. Reward the best teachers. Establish a system of recognizing best performance by teachers and plan together the reward package to be given to those who excel. Foster collaboration. Create a community of teachers within the school and with other schools to foster collaboration and learning. Plan activities for teachers, which can help boost teacher morale and competence. Be flexible in supporting teacher needs. Be attentive to the concerns and needs of your teachers and design a mechanism to formally acknowledge and work on addressing teacher issues. Make sure that teacher needs will be met wherever possible. An example of such initiative is establishing a loan scheme in school to help needy teachers. Improve mobility. Advise authorities to not have teachers in one station for more than five years. A change of station for teachers can often lead to challenges that help stimulate and motivate teachers to become more effective. If you still have issues related to teachers motivation consult employer, school board/committee PTA and community through consultation and meetings 6.6 Enforcement of supervision and coaching of teachers Teachers need to have better understanding of their roles and responsibilities. The better they understand this, the more improved teaching will be. One way to achieve this is through coaching and close supervision of the teachers by the head of school. The role of the head of school in this area is to put in place a system of rewards and punishments to improve teaching. Additionally, the head of school has the flexibility to put in place other programs such as coaching to support teachers. Common issues and reasons inadequate supervision due to lack of commitment and accountability by school heads leads to lack of commitment to teaching responsibilities among teachers and their immediate supervisors such as academic masters and heads of departments. 15

Inappropriate time split by school heads on various roles and responsibilities accorded to him/her due to inadequate skills on time management. School heads being out of school for many hours either for administrative matters, meetings, financial and procurement issues leads to poor supervision. School heads feeling incompetent in supervising and coaching teachers due to lack of management and leadership skills. Checklist for ideas for improvement Organize coaching sessions with inexperienced teachers to help them improve their jobs. The head of School may use an experienced teacher/ academic teacher to assist (peer learning) and prepare a sample of well prepared schemes of work, lesson plans and lesson notes. Devote substantial amount of time in supervision of school activities and make effective delegation of roles and responsibilities to other staff members in school to allow you have more time for supervision. Learn from successful and experienced school heads from other schools on how they manage their time and supervise school activities. You may use your mobile phones, internet and other means of communication to share experience. Strive to distribute your time to accommodate all school activities with stress on priority roles Read management books and other guides, internet materials related to school management to empower yourself with more skills. Collaborate with other schools to share good practices to help them improve their management and leadership practices in their particular schools. If you have other issues related to supervision of teachers consult inspectorate at District and Zone level 6.7 Sourcing for teaching & learning materials Making sure schools have adequate, quality teaching and learning materials is an important challenge in delivering quality education in schools. The student-book ratio signals not well as in most of our schools there is a wider gap student-book ratio. It is the role of the head of school to design a mechanism that will deliver these materials 16

in the school. The head of school also has a role to encourage and support teachers in maximizing current resources to improve learning. Common issues and reasons Often, there is a delay of the delivery of educational materials to schools from higher authorities. Inadequate availability of teaching and learning materials in school is due to inadequate funds to purchase the required materials. Lack of creativity and innovation in using natural or local environment as areas where the teaching and learning materials can be derived from. Checklist for ideas for improvement Use local environment. Seek to develop innovative solutions with the teaching staff that circumvent the issue of poor distribution of educational materials. Support any efforts by teachers to create their own improvised teaching materials. Increase pressure. Closely liaise with higher authorities to ensure availability of teaching and learning materials at the school. Mobilize resource from parents and use the school fees (secondary) and capitation grants to purchase the school materials Mobilize other sources of funds from government and private sectors, NGOs, CBOs, FBOs and parastatals 7. Dashboard and metrics to track for performance 7.1 Why do we need transparency on school ranking of results Support where needed most: The first step of ranking school ranking on results is to identify the starting point based on current performance. This is done so that needed support can be provided to the school that shows consistent efforts in improving students outcomes. Staying on track: Transparency of school performance results is practiced as a means to improve performance. Heads of school, teachers, parents and 17

even students get access to performance raking data compelling for school improvement by demanding accountability. Catalyzing performance: Transparency facilitates competition, which motivates and drives schools to strive for better results. It highlights schools that have maintained best performance, and those showing significant improvement over time. Underperforming schools will be spurred on to raise aspirations, align efforts to do better and identify schools they can learn from good practices. Celebrate success: Highly ranked schools will be rewarded through a national recognition scheme. Eligibility: Every School is eligible to be awarded this incentive on condition that it ranks amongst the top 100 Secondary Schools and 300 Primary Schools within each region in terms of: improvement of pass rates compared to the previous year absolute performance The rewards can be both in terms of monetary and non monetary incentives. Non monetary will include: Certificates, Publicity and Teaching and learning materials and will be based on improvement and also absolute performance, while monetary incentives will be reserved for performance improvement alone. 7.2 School ranking methodology What criteria will we use to rank the schools? Formula for primary Formula for secondary ( ) Rationale for selection 18

Transparency of expenditures The decision to use the funds awarded to a school will be done in a transparent manner. It is required that the school board/committee, members of staff and students representatives be involved in deciding on how the funds can be used. The funds are aimed at improving the learning environment and team spirit for better performance in schools. Reporting All expenditure of this reward has to be accounted for and reported to relevant authorities within a month after the date of receiving the funds. 7.3 Accountability checklist Common issues and reasons Head of School has no mandate to withhold employees salary and hence fails to hold teachers accountable for their performance No clear link between the employer and TSD, they work as separate entities while they are serving the same employee. In the current set-up, TSD is responsible for disciplinary issues and promotion of teachers. They do not employ teachers. Handling of issues related to teachers like employment, confirmation, re categorization, promotion and discipline matters done by TSD while having inadequate information for teachers Procedure for handling offence warranting formal proceedings has long beaurocracy and hence delays immediate action for teachers Lack of resources for printing, dissemination and orientation of delegation authority guide to stakeholders for immediate implementation Checklist for ideas for improvement Establish link between teachers performance appraisal with teachers earning and promotion to make them accountable and responsible to their teaching job. There should be possibility of head of School to sign payroll before being approved by the employer to ensure authenticity of payments. It is recommended that TSD is supposed to be an independent commission under the name Tanzania Teacher Services Commission (TSC) as recommended in the Presidential Commission for Education of 1982 (pp 261-262, section 5.130). The Presidential Commission went as far as to suggest 19

responsibilities of the recommended TSC as follows: 1. Restoring teachers professional morale 2. Provide respect to teachers that they deserve 3. Encourage teachers to pursue professional development 4. Recruit and retain quality teachers 5. Make teaching profession attractive The LAB recommends the TSC structure as recommended by the Presidential Commission. This structure will help to regulate teachers disciplinary matters and maintain fairness. Issues related to employment, confirmation, re categorization, promotion and discipline of teachers to be handled by the employer like other public servants. The procedure for appeals should be upheld The delegation of authority guide be included in the school improvement Toolkit for printing, dissemination and orientation for implementation purposes. This will be possible if the process of signing circular will be fast tracked to BRN. 20