The Influence of School Self-Reliance Projects in Enhancing Students’ Academic Performance in Morogoro Municipality

The study on the influence of school self-reliance projects in enhancing students’ academic performance was conducted in Morogoro Municipality. The study was guided by the following research objective; to explore the uses of income generated from the available school self-reliance project in private secondary schools in Morogoro Municipality. The study used a sample of 50 respondents and the data were collected through questionnaires and interviews and were analysed thematically and by using descriptive statistics. Data were extracted from primary and secondary sources. The study revealed the following; the dominant income generation projects which were identified in the field were; farming (vegetables), brick making, livestock keeping, school shop and canteen. These were the dominant self-reliance projects which are used by the school management to produce extra income within school compounds. The study also revealed that from 2017 to 2020, St. Peter’s Junior Seminary generated 10,456,400 million Tz shillings from income generation projects, Kitungwa Secondary School generated 163,245,000 million


INTRODUCTION
Self-reliance is one of the bases of effective community development in most Sub-Saharan [elf-reliance has been voiced in more explicit terms by other scholars. For example, Brett (1988) has called for cooperative and voluntary alternatives, while Sandbrook (1985) has emphasised the need for "small-scale community solutions". In its fundamental sense, self-reliance is defined as a state of mind that regards one's own mental and material resources as the primary stock to draw on in the pursuit of one's objectives and finds emotional fulfilment not only in achieving the objectives but in having achieved them primarily by using one's resources.
The concept of self-reliance does not differ significantly from the principles of self-help and mutual help. The self-help philosophy is closely related to self-reliance as defined by Ghai (1977) that self-reliance through cooperation is now being promoted throughout the developing world for no egalitarian society should be chronically unable to meet a self-defined, local need. Self-help enables the local people to exploit to their advantage resources, which would otherwise lie dormant and thereby perpetuate the ignorance and poverty of their community, by making use of the underutilised labour; the instance, self-help for community development can increase the competence and confidence of a community in handling its affairs. The habit of self-help is a prerequisite for survival in the modern world (Anyanwu 1992). Self-help initiatives enable people to look inwards by rallying local resources and efforts. This is especially appropriate to the concept of community development, which stresses the importance of people increasing their sense of responsibility and looking for assistance as just supplementary but never replacing popular initiatives or local efforts. The emphasis is on democratising with reliance on what people can do for themselves.
Student academic performance has been contested as the attainment of academic matters with consideration of imparting knowledge and skills. Many developed countries have committed and extensively invested in middle and secondary schools which led to higher academic achievement among students in schools, OECD (2004a) reported that 36 countries out of 40 European countries were ranked as having the best education performance and motivation, but few of them had not achieved their level of targeted academic performance.
For instance, Portuguese secondary students were reported to be the lowest in academic performance, while secondary school students in the Netherlands were pronounced to have attained a higher level of academic performance in European countries (Eurydice, 2002). The shortcomings in academic performance are evidence of either something somewhere is not on the right track. European Commission (2004) tuned out factors such as the wrong choice of subjects, absenteeism, unqualified teachers, inadequate facilities, lack of motivation, and school-related factors for student academic achievement as parental behaviour, student subject choices and learning environment as contributing factors. Other factors contributing to poor academic performance may be inadequate funds allocated to schools, school facilities, lack of school self-finance projects and inadequate human resources. Academic performance in most developing countries indicates significant progress although many shortcomings have not yet been sorted out.
In Kenya, 56% of the students felt that their science laboratories were not well equipped, while 66% of the students felt that their final exams were in Ghana (OECD, 2004b). Also, in Nigeria poor academic performance reported has merely increased over the last two decades likely at close to 11.3% (Burtless, 1996). However, most developing countries still have the lowest academic performance in secondary schools. Few developing countries have managed to upswing academic performance (Rebecca, 2014). Asikhia (2010) argued that financial support and home learning are often necessary for academic achievement.
Most developed countries do support that schools should have projects as a source of income, in countries like the USA and UK teachers prefer teaching students through practical; they discourage theoretical approaches because their interest is to see students discovering new things; projects in schools give an opportunity to students to learn better (OECD, 2012). Projects stimulate the economy in the community in various ways, if people are well engaged in projects that generate funds, it will make them lower their dependence on the government, which is healthy for the economy of the country (Munns, 1996). Tanzania is among developing countries that have made a dramatic improvement in secondary education, especially in increasing the number of public and private secondary schools. Lauglo and Kelvin (2011) claimed that economic projects could lead to better academic performance as students concentrate more on the field and see the results of any activity they practice. Similarly, Lauglo and Kelvin (2011) stated that projects act as the economic creator in the schools in a way that economic projects can help to generate income throughout the project lifecycle. Some secondary schools engage in different activities that generate school income which may reduce financial dependence on the government (Munns and Bjeirmi, 1996). This can be done only if secondary schools may rely on their own source of income. However, there are studies which established that socioeconomic factors, institutional factors, and policy influence students' academic achievement, but very little had been done on the link between school projects and students' academic performance.
This provides evidence that secondary schools with projects can enhance student academic performance and produce more qualified and useful people in the country. Economic projects boost the financial status of the country as they increase the revenue, and it is obvious that the more the country engages itself in many projects the more it increases its financial status since some projects need foreign investors which can help in generating foreign currency (Kamzora, 2011). Projects boost community awareness, knowledge, and skills; as it has been pointed out, in some schools, there are such projects like agriculture, livestock and school shops designed to reduce the social distress of students. The focus of these projects in schools was to make students productive and independent.
Projects were introduced in schools so that students could learn through practice which is in most cases, very effective in learning. (Miller, 1995). Projects can lead to better performance as students learn and practice at the same time. The common projects in schools are such as shops and farms, so projects can be an instrument of learning in secondary schools (Miller, 1995et OECD, 2012. School Projects create self-employment for the graduates, after school, students may engage themselves in such activities as small-scale agriculture or livestock (cattle raiding) or business to sustain their living (Suleiman, 1989). Currently, more than 75% of the graduates are unemployed; hence if they were exposed to various projects in schools, it would not have been an alarming issue (URT, 2015).
Academic performance in most developing countries indicates significant progress although many shortcomings have not yet been sorted out. In Kenya, 56% of the students felt that their science laboratories were not well equipped, while 66% of the students felt that their final exams were in Ghana (OECD, 2004b). Also, in Nigeria, poor academic performance is reported to have merely increased over the last two decades are close to 11.3% (Burtless, 1996). However, most developing countries still have the lowest academic performance in secondary schools.
Projects stimulate the economy in the community in various ways, if people are well engaged in projects that generate funds, it will make them lower their dependence on the government which is healthy for the economy of the country (Munns, 1996).
Tanzania is among developing countries that have made a dramatic improvement in secondary education, especially in increasing the number of public and private secondary schools. Lauglo and Kelvin (2011) claimed that economic projects could lead to better academic performance as students concentrate more on the field and see the results of any activity they practice.
Government secondary schools are mostly funded by the government. At the same time, private secondary schools are privately funded. This is usually paid on a termly basis. There is a wide range of fees that are charged dependent on the educational provision given. These fees are used to fund the school. Heads of schools are required by the law to familiarise themselves with the financial requirements of the laws of the country relating to the operation of a business and how it applies to a school with charitable status if it falls into that category. Due to the persistence of budget deficits in academic institutions, the concept of self-reliance is now practised in many private schools.

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Theory
The theory as advocated by Alkin (1970), compares the relative costs of running an institution to the outcomes (effects) of two or more courses of action. The theory was designed to assist managers in choosing alternative courses of action or policies when resources are limited (Edejer, 2003). Most educational decisions face constraints in the availability of budgetary and other resources. Some alternatives may be costlier than others for the same results, meaning that society must sacrifice more resources to obtain a given end. It is desirable to choose those alternatives that are least costly for reaching a particular objective or that have the largest impact per unit of cost. This is intuitively obvious because the most cost-effective solution will free up resources for other uses or allow a greater impact for any given investment in comparison to a less cost-effective solution.

Theory of Income Generation
This theory was propounded by Keynes (1936). This theory focuses on the circular flow of income. This is the process by which payments flow from firms to households in the form of payment for the factors of production and from households back to firms in the form of inputs-land, labour, capital, and entrepreneurship. In other words, the government invests money in education, but ironically, the same government collects the money back from the parents in the form of school fees and Parents Teachers Association levies, developmental levies, among others. Under this circumstance, it left the school management without funds to embark on any project which the government could not embark upon.

Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework shows the action of creating or formulating something by thinking up ideas intended to deal with a problem (Kombo and Tromp, 2006). It shows the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables. In this study, the dependent variable was students' academic performance. The independent variables are school self-reliance projects. In order for the independent variable (self-reliance projects) to cause an effect on the dependent variable (students' academic performance), there must be intervening variables (income that will be used to supplement the school deficit budget) and that income must be produced through school-self-reliance projects. The researcher assumes that once the income generated from school self-reliance projects are used to run remedial classes, provide lunch for teachers, maintenance of school buildings, buying of school facilities, and employ teachers and non-teachers, it will bring effects the independent variable (Students' academic performance). The effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable was assessed by checking the number of divisions one to three in the national examinations, the selected number of students to join further studies and the number of students who successfully completed form four education level.

Independent Variable Intervening Variables Dependent Variable
Source: Researcher (2021)

RESEARCH METHODS AND METHODOLOGY
The study employed a descriptive study research design based on a qualitative research approach. A descriptive design is used to obtain information concerning the current status of the phenomena and to describe what exists with respect to variables or conditions in a situation. The reason for using this descriptive research study was to enable the researcher to asses and understands the influence of self-reliance projects in enhancing students' academic achievement, where the views of the head of schools and income-generating project coordinator at school were intensively considered.
A total of 12 respondents were selected, i.e., three heads of schools and nine income-generating project coordinators at schools in Morogoro Municipality. Data were collected through interviews to determine the uses of income generated from the available school self-reliance projects in private secondary schools. Moreover, the validity of the data collection was tested using a pilot study. Reliability was tested and a coefficient of 0.7 was realised, which was considered reliable. The qualitative data were coded thematically for easier narration.

School Self-Reliance Projects
• Agricultural farms

Available School Income Generation Projects
The first objective of the current research study aimed to explore the school income generation projects available in private secondary schools in Morogoro municipality. The researcher used an open-ended questionnaire to collect the information from the respondents. The respondents were requested to list the income generation projects. The findings show that private schools under study in Morogoro have been generating income not only from school fees and grants from domestic and international organisations but also from their income-generation projects. The summary of the findings is shown in Table 1 below:  Table 4.2 the findings show that the schools under study have been running different projects, as indicated in the first column. According to the respondents, it was revealed that the projects are run by students while teachers are always making monitoring to ensure that the projects yield the intended production and meet the intended goals of the school.
During an interview, one of the respondents said that; Some of these projects are being operated by the students and teachers are always there to ensure that they provide the intended results. Putting other objectives of establishing these projects aside, the projects aim to strengthen entrepreneurship skills among students but also to encourage them in building self-reliant mindsets St. Peter's Seminary engages in farming, livestock keeping (they keep pigs, hens, and cows. Kitungwa secondary school engages in brick making and farming; they own a truck which is used in the construction industry, and also they own a hall used for hiring, particularly when there are big events in Morogoro. Kigurunyembe secondary school has a canteen and school shop, and they participate in farming, especially gardening

Income Generated from Available School Projects
The second objective of the current research study aimed at exploring explore the income generated from the available school income-generation projects in private secondary schools in Morogoro Municipality from 2017 to 2020. The researcher used an open-ended questionnaire and an interview to collect the information from the respondents. The respondents were requested to provide data on the income generated from the income generation projects available at school. The summary of the findings is indicated in Table 2. 88 | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License  (2022) The findings in Table 2 show that the three private secondary schools have been engaging in different income-generation projects. For example, Kigurunyembe secondary school has been engaging in farming activities, especially on vegetables and also, the school is operating a shop and a canteen as a reliable self-reliance project at the school. The researcher wanted to explore how much money has been generated from these existing projects.
In Table 2, activities performed at Kitungwa secondary school are shown. These activities include gardens, a school shop, brick making, a hall for meetings and other paid events, and a truck which is used in the construction sector. From all five activities, Kitungwa collected 163,2465,000/= from 2017 to 2020. One of the reasons Kitungwa started farming, especially in the production of vegetables, was to influence students in some of the geography topics, especially agriculture.
St. Peter's Junior Seminary coordinator of selfreliance projects said that from 2017 to 2020, the projects had generated Tshs 10,456,000 from farming and livestock keeping projects. The coordinator said that hens, cows, and pigs have been vital in income generation at the school. During an interview, the respondent from St. Peter's Junior Seminary said that; These projects have been vital in our school not only that it generates income but it is also among the strategies which we use to strengthen the self-reliance spirit among students. You know, self-reliance is the best way of changing the life of Tanzanians. We are planning to improve them for the betterment of our students and teachers.
The coordinator of income generation projects from Kitungwa Secondary School said that they had generated income amounting to Tshs 4,845,000 million. The respondent said that the income from these projects was challenged in 2019 after closing the bricks-making project. Since 2019 we have been dealing with farming, particularly vegetables. Vegetables are not making a high income. During an interview, the respondent said that; In previous years we used to make bricks for sale, the project was very beneficial, but in 2019 we stopped due to an avoidable circumstance. We are currently dealing with vegetables for health purposes Kigurunyembe Secondary School's self-reliance projects coordinator said that these projects are very important since they help the school to generate non-school fees income. They are reliable sources of diversifying the sources for the betterment of our school's future. According to the coordinator of income generation projects, Kigurunyembe secondary school has been generating more than Tshs. 5,370,250 since 2017 from its projects such as running a canteen, school shop, and farming (vegetables). The respondent from Kigurunyembe during an interview said that; Our students have been facing difficulties in finding food, so the school management decided to establish a canteen to help our students to get food easily. Also, we established a school shop to cater to the needs of our students within the school compound.
These findings are supported by the findings of Omukoba, Simatwa & Ayodo (2011) who conducted a study in Kenya on the contribution of income-generating activities to financing secondary school education. The findings indicated that it is still evident that there are financial gaps that need additional funding; the schools' managers need to mobilise available institutional resources such as land, physical facilities, and equipment to generate income through commercial and agricultural projects and renting school facilities to provide the necessary learning resources to enable the schools to run efficiently (Achumbi, 2012).
In line with these findings are the findings of Jidamva (2012), who emphasised that in 1967 Tanzania introduced the philosophy of education for self-reliance (ESR) aimed at equipping learners with skills for work and life (Nyerere, 1968;Benson, 2006). So, the advocacy in the education for self-reliance (ESR) was terminal and complete education (Nyerere, 1968). By terminal and complete it was meant that each level of education provides knowledge and skills that offer the necessary skills for work and life, which would empower individuals to co-operatively develop their societies (Ishumi & Maliyamkono, 1995). The emphasis of ESR was on cooperation, citizenship, and work (Nyerere, 1968).
A recent study on the influence of school-basedincome generating projects on students' retention rate in secondary education by Nyangaresi et al. (2016) found that secondary schools had various IGPs with the majority of schools engaging in agriculturally based projects; other activities were hiring of school-facilities such as school bus, hall, tents, fields for recreation and houses for renting (Gongera & Okoth, 2013). This concurs with the study on income-generating activities and social mobilisation in rural women in Uganda done by Jada (2010), which included the following IGPs; rearing of goats and cows, poultry farming, piggery, farming of food/cash crops, tailoring, selling fish and baking as the major projects that led to greater economic dependence of women (Hajdu & Chipeta, 2011). The third objective of the current research study aimed at exploring the uses of income generated from the available school income generation projects in private secondary schools in Morogoro municipality. The researcher used a questionnaire to collect the information from the respondents. The respondents were requested to choose from the alternatives. The findings show that private schools under study in Morogoro have been using the generated income in different areas, including variable costs and academic issues. The summary of the findings is indicated in Table 4. Table 4.3, the findings show that in 2017 St. Peter's Junior Seminary spent more of the income generated from self-reliance projects to finance remedial classes and pay for electricity and water bills. 800,000/= was used at St. Peter's seminary to pay for remedial classes, St. Peter's junior seminary also used 400,000 to buy school facilities, and one million was used to pay for water and electricity bills. Also, the remaining amount was used to prepare lunch for teachers to make them active in teaching students to the level that they acquire the required skills and knowledge.

The Expenditure of Income Generated from the Available School Income Generation Projects in Private Secondary Schools in Morogoro Municipality
The findings in the table show that in 2017 Kitungwa secondary school used eight million to facilitate remedial classes with the intention of improving academic performance, especially in national examinations, and four million were used to offer lunch to teachers with the intention that teachers are motivated daily to make them more active and productive when they are teaching in classrooms. Kitungwa management used eighteen million to buy laboratory chemicals and other facilities needed in the laboratory; the intention was to help students perform better; 8,160,000 and 5,000,000 were used to pay for electricity and water bills, respectively.
In general terms, Kitungwa used all 40,000,000/generated in 2017 for academic purposes. The main question to ask is how these 40,000,000 have impacted the academic performance at Kitungwa Secondary School.
In 2018, Kitungwa secondary school used two million for paying teachers and awarding students who performed better in remedial classes. One of the respondents said; We award students who are performing better in their remedial classes every week. So, we did this in 2018 as a way of motivating students. Also, teachers are being paid for remedial attendance to motivate them to teach to their best level.
Also, 1.5 million was used in 2018 to offer lunch for teachers. Instead of allowing them to go back to their homes, Kitungwa has been offering lunch for their teachers, especially during the days of the week which is for remedial classes. During an interview, respondents said that they do all this for the purpose of improving the quality of education by ensuring that all stakeholders of education are satisfied with the care that they are given by the management of the school. Generally, all forty million were used for academic purposes in 2018, as described in table 6. The same expenditure applies in other years (2019 and 2020).
The question about the expenditure was responded to in percentages as the respondents were required to choose among alternatives.
The findings from Table 4 show the uses of income generated from different income generation projects. These findings show that the income generated through self-reliance projects is used to implement many issues in private secondary schools.
For example, 13 respondents said that the income generated from income generation projects is used to pay teachers during remedial classes to help students perform better in academic issues. During an interview, one of the respondents said that; Remedial classes are always supported or financed with non-school fees income, including farming, livestock keeping and school shops. Remedial classes are doing their best to prepare students for their national examinations.
On the other hand, three respondents said that the income generated is used to offer lunch for teachers to make them more efficient, here the respondent said that; We tend to use the income from our projects to prepare lunch for our teachers, this is done to motivate them and love their work for the betterment of our students academically.
Another respondent said that the income generated from the available self-reliance projects is used to buy school facilities, to support this usage, the respondent said that; Although we have other means of buying school facilities, sometimes we use the generated income from our self-reliance projects to buy chalks and other facilities Many respondents about 17 respondents said that the income generated from the available selfreliance projects is used in private secondary schools to pay for electricity and water bills to facilitate the learning of students when they are in their dormitories or school compounds. To support this, one of the respondents said that; The generated income is used to pay for water and electricity bills to support the learning process in our school.
While 6 respondents said that the income generated is used in the maintenance of school buildings, 9 respondents said that the school management tends to use the generated income to employ teachers and non-teachers.
These findings are also supported by the work of Nwakpa (2016) who in his study on the alternative sources of financing secondary education in Ebony State by the school administrators; identified specific sources of funds that included Parents Teachers Associations pays levy to improve school facilities and motivating students and teachers; use of direct labours in carrying out school projects in order to reduce expenses instead of using contractors; payment for extra lessons for students after the official school hours which organised by school principals; proceeds from school activities such as sales of students handicrafts, sales of books and stationery, staging of school plays and raffles, sales of farm products from school farm, fundraising activity; appeal fundraising to wealthy persons in the community where the school is located for financial assistance, donations from NGOs and Old student's associations, which normally provides both cash and materials for the growth of the school (Martin, 2011;Charles, 2012).
In 2019 St. Peter's seminary increased the amount to 5.7 million on academic issues while Kitungwa maintained the amount used in 2018; they added 100,000 to the previous amount leading to 40,250,000. Kigurunyembe reduced the amount to be used in academics, so they invested 827,350. This spending was compared with what they achieved academically throughout the year 2019, the study found that St. Peter's Junior Seminary had 22 division one and Kitungwa had 24 division one, and both had no division zero or division four. In contrast, Kigurunyembe had eight division one and 83 division four. These findings prove that if you invest little financial resources in academic issues, do not expect huge or impressive results.
In 2020, Kitungwa secondary school used 39,700,000 in academic issues, St. Peter's seminary used 374,300 m only, while Kigurunyembe invested 832,400 in academic issues the amount which increased to 5,350 only on the previous budget. The findings show that Kitungwa secondary school had 71 division one with no division four and zero in the 2020 national examinations. St. Peter's seminary had 50 division one with no division four and zero, while Kigurunyembe had 33 students with division one, division four was 26 and two students got division zero.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the study findings, it can be concluded that; private Secondary schools have adopted the new Education Policy in practical ways by engaging themselves in school-based activities. Most secondary schools engage in crop and vegetable farming, poultry, and piggery. Other school-based income generation projects include cattle rearing and school shops. These enable them to produce food for their students and staff members as well as funds for financing quality education provision. This enables them to solve financial problems necessary for catering to immediate needs in schools like teaching and learning materials, instead of too much depending on school fees only.
On top of that, these activities enable the students to learn entrepreneurship skills which will be a great help in their future as far as Tanzania 2025 vision of industrial middle-class economy concerns. Teaching and non-teaching staffs are in a position to sharpen their talents and skills by engaging in various school-based income-generating activities which in turn, they can decide to introduce their self-based projects for financing their families. Also, the heads of schools improve their leadership and communication skills with their subordinates while supervising school projects. The findings show that; most parents do not support school-based income-generating activities in secondary schools privately managed due to negative attitudes towards school projects. This manifested itself with the shortage of financial capital and expertise to run different school-based income-generating projects. As a result, schools rely on school fees to get capital for their projects which are also not paid on time.
In addition, the study findings show that; Students, teaching, and non-teaching staffs are not highly involved in decision-making pertaining to the establishment and consolidation of school-based income-generating activities. All the decisions are made by the school's administration and the profit obtained does not improve the living standards of subordinates. In order for the success of any schoolbased income-generating activities, primary stakeholders such as students and staff members should be involved in such projects in all stages, from the design of the project to implementation and evaluation of the projects. By doing that, all stakeholders will consider themselves as part of school-based income-generating activities. Contribution to Knowledge. Therefore, the study recommends that secondary schools managed privately can initiate other schoolbased income generation projects such as canteens for students and staff, charging school rents to the staff's houses, using the available infrastructures such as assembly halls, dining halls, classrooms, school equipment such as tents, chairs and playing grounds so as they can produce more additional funds for financing quality education provision.
Parents should be ready to participate effectively in school-based income-generating activities by giving out their ideas and moral and material support to the schools on how to introduce and run school projects. This is so because parents come from different geographical locations with variations in terms of experiences, skills, and knowledge of handling school projects.