Factors Influencing Parents' Choice Of Private Pre-primary Schools In Tanzania

This PhD thesis examines factors that influence parents' choice of private schools in preprimary school education in Tanzania.Globally,the access to pre-primary education is an essential ingredient to the well-being of child growth and development in all aspects of life.Besides,pre-primary education acts as a foundation of all formal education levels.The expansion of demand and importance of pre-primary school education makes parents' school choice for pre-primary education become a critical issue in any society.The present study aimed at examining factors that influence parents' choice of private pre-primary schools for their children's education in Tanzania.The study was conducted in Njombe region which has five administrative districts.The study adopted a mixed research design with the use of questionnaire,interview,and documentary review for data collection methods.The population of study comprised of parents with children studying in private pre-primary school level,the sample size involved 312 parents who were randomly selected and 20 parents were purposefully selected for interview from 20 urban private pre-primary schools.The literature revealed that parents in urban areas make choice of pre-primary schools for a different number of factors.The number of preprimary schools in Tanzania increased from 38,248 in 2009 to 40,211 in 2014,representing annual growth of 1%.In the same period,public pre-primary schools increased at the rate of 0.8% compared to private pre-primary schools which grew at the rate of 1.4%.The enrollment of students in private pre-primary schools is increasing annually.The findings of the study showed that parents perceive pre-primary school as an essential foundation for life-long learning process of their children and there were various factors that parents considered in making choices of private pre-primary schools for their children's education.For instance school environment,quality of teachers and teaching,school facilities,language of instruction,class size and transport.The implication of the study is to help educational stakeholders become aware of pre-school learners' parents preferences under the Tanzania new free education policy.