The Open University of Tanzania Online Journals System
Not a member yet
933 research outputs found
Sort by
Success Factors for Academic Performance among Private Secondary Schools in Tanzania: A Case of Selected Schools in Dar Es Salaam, Morogoro and Coast Regions
No full textThe study sought to assess success factors for academic performance among private schools in Tanzania. The purpose of the study is to address the problem of declining academic performance in secondary school system. Most of the past studies have attributed this decline to limited availability of teaching staff and physical learning infrastructure. These studies examined the quantitative elements of school’s internal physical resources; little efforts were made to assess quality aspects of the resources and most of them studies were conducted in public schools, treating schools as public service rather than business entities. Furthermore, the theoretical approaches used in assessing secondary education problems in these studies were pedagogical as opposed to business theories which are more relevant to private schools. There is therefore limited knowledge on quality aspects of resources and business orientation of factors behind successful academic performance among private schools. The respondents of the study were school owners, managers, teachers, and students. Data collection instruments were interview checklists and questionnaires, complemented by documentary review and researcher’s observation. Data analysis revealed a number of factors contributing to successful school academic performance, namely, school factors, student factors and market or community factors. The study came out with conclusion that the academic performance among private schools in Tanzania depends much upon availability of internal resources (Resource Based View) complemented with improved service quality (Gronroos Service Quality Model). External resources played limited role. The study came up with a number of recommendations to school owners and the government: in additional improving school resources such as facilities, teachers and materials, schools should improve service quality; schools should use strategies that halt students’ vices which affect class-room attendance and concentration; they should match teachers, incentives with their socio-demographic attributes; they should incapacitate school heads with business management skills or recruit professional managers to manage schools rather than using teachers school heads; furthermore, low performing schools should improve owner-manager cooperation; the government should review ICT policy (2003) and enact strict laws to regulate ICT users; the government should not leave fee rates charged by private secondary school be determined by forces of demand and supply; it should also review teachers curricula to accommodate business management skills;Â
The Intervening Influence of Economic Growth on Fiscal Policy Stance and Public Expenditure in Kenya
No full textThis paper investigates the intervening influence of economic growth on the relationship between fiscal policy stance and public expenditure in Kenya from 1964 to 2015 using a Vector Error Correction Model. The results indicate that economic growth has an intervening influence on the relationship between fiscal policy stance and public expenditure in Kenya. The findings further show that fiscal policy, economic growth and public expenditure are cointegrated using the Johansen test and the bound test but there is no short-run causality between the variables as indicated by the Wald test statistics. The findings suggest that economic growth explains the extent to which fiscal policy stance affects the level of public expenditure in Kenya even though fiscal policy stance has a negative relationship with public expenditure
Influencing public policy in Tanzania: Trials and tribulations of the Tanzania Horticultural Association
No full textInterest groups aim to influence public policy and, therefore, interest groups representing business advocate improvements to the business enabling environment. Researchers claim that it is difficult to assess the extent to which interest groups influence public policy. Most research in this area focuses on the US and EU and little explores the factors that may determine whether business membership organisations (BMOs) are likely to be successful. This paper addresses those gaps. It explores the attempts by a BMO in Tanzania, the Tanzania Horticultural Association, to influence reform of public policy. It offers evidence that the association was successful, though mostly on issues that might be regarded as technical rather than contentious or political. The paper reviews the factors that have contributed to its success, which include providing good evidence, preparing a persuasive argument, using champions amongst public officials and engaging in dialogue, without confrontation, across government and concludes that this approach makes a difference in whether BMOs are successful
Ethnobotanical Survey of Medicinal and Pesticidal Plants used by Agropastoral Communities in Mbulu District, Tanzania
No full textEthnobotanical study was carried out to establish an inventory of medicinal and pesticidal plant species currently used by agro-pastoralist communities in Mbulu district, Tanzania. The survey involved collecting information on available plant species, plant parts used, route of administration and method of preparation during use using semi-structured interviews and field observation. Sixty five plant species that belong to 41 families were identified. Dominant families in use are Fabaceae, Solanaceae, and Euphobiaceae, accounting for 43.9% of all identified species. Results indicated that 55% of the plant species are used for medicinal purposes, 29% are used for pesticidal purposes and 16% are used for both medicinal and pesticidal purposes. Forty six percent (46%) of the plants were prepared and administered orally, while 21% were administered by spotting. Whereas 27% of the plants involved the use of leaves during preparation, 22% involve the use of roots. Preparing a juice and soaking in water were the major methods of preparing medicinal and pesticidal formulations. However, ascertaining the specific amount of dose for both medicinal and pesticidal formulations was difficult. There is a need to scientifically test the plant extracts that are active against pests and pathogens. The urgency of identifying and recording this knowledge before its disappearance from the community particularly when there is advancement of farmers’ age
Environmental Management Tool for Treatment of Wastewater and Re-use in Aquaculture and Agriculture: The use of Wetlands and other Bio-systems in Treatment of Wastewater & re-use/recycling
No full text STELLA II v9.1.4 Modelling Software (1985-2010) was used to develop a fish pond model which is a good environmental health management tool. The problem studied was to reduce environmental pollution and encourage efficient reuse of used resources. The methods used in the study were quantitative by grabbing the wastewater samples three times a week seasonally in one year and data for model calibration was collected daily for a period of three months. Temperature, pH, and DO were measured “in situ†using portable Multi-parameter, HACH Model SENSION 156 (2001). Org-N, TKN, NH3-N, NO3-N, N-Sediments, Chlâ€aâ€/NPlanktons, N-Fishes and F-Coliforms were measured in laboratories by standard methods of water and wastewater treatment. The results obtained indicated that Ammonia-Nitrogen (NH3-N) in fish pond receiving outlet from Horizontal Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetland (HSSFCW) reached an average of 3.3 mg/l NH3-N more than 1.2 mg/l standard for re-use in agriculture and body threshold of 0.1 mg/l. N-Fishes was 21.1% higher than the Standards of 4-10% in animal tissues. The dominant routes of Nitrogen removal were sedimentation, accretion, decaying and denitrification resulting in 87.48% total N-removal at 95% confidence level. Sensitivity analysis of fish pond model gave the uptake rate of 0.3 d-1 NH4-N (R2 = 0.71) and fish growth rate of 7.0 d-1 (R2 = 0.99) as the most important parameters. It is concluded to construct two further HSSFCWs to buffer N-nutrients. It is recommended to conduct another research to examine Nitrogen and toxic heavy metals in soils and yields from farms to safeguard human health and the environmen
The Southern African Development Community and the Challenges of Southern Africa Regional Security
No full textSouthern Africa currently faces several challenges threatening the regional’s security architecture. Many of these challenges are inter connected and can be identified as causes of insecurity or factors contributing to insecurity, and take many forms, including governance issues, intra-state conflicts, and social inequality and election manipulations. Moreover, they constitute a major impediment to the socio-economic development of the African continent. This paper draws upon mostly primary sources including treaties, protocols, reports, communiqué, and statements, as well as secondary information from previous research.Based on data from official documents and qualitative interviews, this paper found that SADC lacks the capacity and culture to deal with some of the challenges facing the region. And its legal and political framework in dealing with some of challenges is seriously questioned. Thus the regional body needs time and more experience for the successful evolvement in dealing with variety of challenges and crises such as unconstitutional government changes in Southern Africa. The paper recommended that SADC member states must strengthen regional body, and they must enhance the capacities of the regional security architecture in order to address challenges pertaining to the region.Â
The Fluoride and Trace Metals Contents in the Rift Valley Lake Eyasi Salt a Possible Threat to Human Health
No full textThe objective of the present investigation was to determine the actual concentrations of both fluoride and trace metals in Lake Eyasi salts and later to decide whether the salt is safe for human consumption. The importance of knowing optimum concentration of both fluoride and trace metals in human meals cannot be overemphasized, however, if it is left to exceed a minimum set by WHO may be detrimental to human health in both short and long term. This paper has revealed that lake brines and salt crusts contain fluoride concentration with mean values of 273 mg.dm-3F- and 2.30 g.Kg-1F-, respectively of which are above the acceptable values. In addition, lead content in lake brines is up to 1.83 mg.dm-3 Pb; Cd = 1.40 mg.dm-3; Mn = 0.46 mg.dm-3, and iron is up to 6.60 mg.dm-3 Fe, thus exceeding WHO and Tanzanian limits which are 0.10 mg.dm-3 Pb and 0.10 to 1.00 mg.dm-3  Fe, respectively. In fact silicon is another contaminant noted in the salt crust which is up to 72.40 g.Kg-1. It is imperative for Lake Eyasi salts to undergo a thorough purification to remove all contaminants found and stop population from using impure salts which might have long term health problems (ageing, fluorosis, thyroid gland, hypothyroidism, neurological complications, urinary stone deposition of iron oxide and inflammations)
Women Status and Culture on Contraceptive Use: The Case of Mbeya and Pwani Regions
No full textThe purpose of the study was to establish the impact of customs and beliefs and women status on contraceptive use. The concern was that, there is still low level of the use of contraceptives to control child bearing despite the government effort to sensitize both men and women in reducing the number of children per woman for purpose of regulating rapid population growth. Rapid population growth in any nation has big effect on the economy of the country and on provision of essential services to all. Despite high level of awareness about contraceptives and related advantages, accessible and affordable; contraceptives were not being used by couples and single mothers. This has raised lots of concerns. Reasons for this situation had to be sought. This study therefore intended to unfold the causes for the low use of contraceptives. The study was conducted in two regions; Mbeya for Wanyakyusa and Pwani for the Wazaramo. The study was cross sectional and used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The sample was 748 women both rural and urban districts of rungwe and kibaha. The methods used to collect data were Focus Group Discussion, Face to Face interview and Questionnaire Administration. Data analysis used SPSS programme to process data. Before this stage, data went through factor analysis. After extracting some variables, a pearsons chi square test was run to get the association of variables. The results were that, inheritance, prestige and barrenness as customs and beliefs variables have close association with contraceptives. This demonstrated that, the variables are barriers and have to be removed so that they seize to be barriers for women use of contraceptives. As regards to indicators of women status variables, education, participation in decision making and employment proved to have close association with contraceptives. This indicates that, when women are empowered, they can use contraceptive and thus be able to limit the number of children to bear. It is recommended that customs and beliefs which are a barrier to contraceptive use be removed. women status indicators analyzed; education, decision making and employment were found to have a strong association with contraceptive use, therefore, the government should ensure women are empowered through education, giving women opportunities to participate in decision making and ensuring they are employed or self employed
Lessons Learnt on Forestry as an Instrument to Reduce Impacts of Climate Change in Tanzania: A Review
No full textThis paper presents the role and contribution of forest in controlling climate change in Tanzania and globally. Apart from climate change control, forests contribute to the survival of the human being; they provide shelter for wildlife and food for people, fodder to livestock, water, medicinal plants and fuel as well as other indirect benefits. Indirect benefits include regulating climate, attracting rainfall, soil erosion control and provide shade. Despite these benefits, evidence shows that some of the most adverse effects of climate change are in developing countries, where populations are most vulnerable and least likely to easily adapt to climate change. However, climate change will continue affecting the development efforts in developing countries. Climate change is happening and is increasingly affecting the poor depending on nature for their survival. The negative effects of climate change are compounded by widespread poverty, diseases and population increase. These effects are obvious to Tanzania in particular. Literature has shown that climate change would double the demand for food; water and livestock forage within the next 30 years. Tanzanian is advised to use forest resources sustainably, protect forests and plant trees as they are very important for human life. Above all, forest is an important sink for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Forests or vegetations absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and release oxygen to the atmosphere
