East African Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Shortage of School Physical Facilities as a Threat to Provision of Quality Education in Tanzania: A Case Morogoro Municipal Community Secondary Schools

This paper sought to investigate the shortage of physical facilities and how it threatens the provision of quality education in Tanzania. The study was carried out in ten community secondary schools in Morogoro municipality. Data were collected by using a questionnaire, interview, and observation checklist from students, teachers, school quality assurance officers (SQAs), heads of schools, and Municipal Secondary Education Officers (MSEO) for primary data. Nevertheless, a documentary review was used to collect secondary data. The collected data were analysed by using descriptive statistics for quantitative data and content analysis for qualitative data. The findings revealed that there was an acute shortage of school physical facilities to enhance effective teaching and learning in all visited schools. Such scarcity threatens the provision of quality education in community secondary schools in Tanzania, particularly in Morogoro municipality. The study recommended that the government and its agencies, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) and Tanzania Institute


INTRODUCTION
The need for access to quality secondary education has recently raised awareness among people around the world. The international conference on education held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990 and the Dakar Framework for Action held in 2000 in Senegal recommended the need for quality education (UNESCO, 2000). The success of any educational program depends much on the availability and adequacy of school physical facilities and physical resources used in teaching and learning. These facilities play a pivotal role in ensuring that teaching and learning go on smoothly (Earthman, 2002;Adeipe, 2007), eventually resulting in quality education and quality graduates. It is imperative to invest in education to create a wide range of human capital (Lyimo, 2017). In the case of quality education, when it is less invested, the majority of young people would be poorly prepared for tertiary education, thus reducing the workforce within society (Kipesha, 2017). To support this, Hallak (1990) identified that improving secondary education goes hand in hand with improving school physical facilities as the main factor contributing to academic achievement. He claimed that quality, appropriateness, and adequacy of school physical facilities contribute to quality education. Owoeye (2011) comments that school buildings are very important contributors to the education system, emphasising that although they do not teach, their use can facilitate or hinder learning. In this case, schools without adequate and quality physical facilities are likely to have difficulties in implementing the curriculum, resulting in poor quality education and incompetent graduates.
In order to ensure access to quality education and improvement of school physical facilities, the government of Tanzania launched the Secondary Education Development Programme (SEDP) to reform the secondary education system across the country (Vavrus, 2005). SEDP has been formulated in line with the establishment of community secondary schools. The aim was to ensure greater access and equal opportunities for participation across geographic, gender, disadvantaged groups and the excluded in the community, Tanzania in particular. One such critical plan was to curb the significant increase in the number of students enrolled in primary schools, in so doing creating an increasing demand for better access to secondary education (Kambuga, 2013). To show how critical the situation was, nearly 124,884 students were enrolled in grades 1-6 in 2005 and 1,602,752 in 2012. These were definitely large enrolments over a short period (BEST, 2013). According to the latest research by MoEST (2019), there has been a huge increase in student enrolment in grades I-IV secondary schools, with enrolments increasing by 8.8% from 2,148,466 students in 2018 to 2,338,457 rose in 2019. In the case of Morogoro municipality, 28,557 students were enrolled, whereby 19754 students were enrolled in government secondary schools while 8803 students were enrolled in nongovernment secondary schools (MoEST, 2019). Such an increase in enrolments did not match with the available secondary schools in the country, which increased by 2.4% from 4,884 in 2018 to 5,001 in 2019. The number of government secondary schools increased by 2.9% from 3,636 in 2018 to 3,742 in 2019. Morogoro Municipality has a total of 50 secondary schools, with 23 secondary schools (46%) being government and 27 secondary schools 54% non-government (MoEST, 2019).
Along with this increased enrolment, Morogoro Municipal secondary schools had only 06 biology labs (shortage of 17), 06 chemistry labs (shortage of 17), and 05 physics labs (shortage of 18). On the other hand, Morogoro municipal secondary schools had a shortage of 6222 student tables and 6210 student chairs, which hampered efficiency in teaching and learning (BEST, 2019). In addition to that, only 06 government secondary schools had administrative buildings (shortage 17) and only 01 school had a library (shortage 22). Along with several initiatives by the Tanzanian government to reform the secondary education sector, it is clear that initiatives such as PEDP (Primary Education Development Program) and SEDP focused on access and equity and marginalised quality education (Mosha, 2000). The issue of emphasising education quality in Tanzania has remained as a blueprint, with good proposals on paper but little serious implementation and followup (Kamugisha, 2017). Therefore, this study intervened to see whether that situation persists and how it threatens the provision of quality education in community secondary schools in Tanzania, Morogoro municipality in particular.

METHODOLOGY
This study employed a case study research design to investigate the shortage of physical facilities and how it threatens the provision of quality education in Tanzania, Morogoro municipality in particular. Data were collected from 421 respondents, namely; a municipal secondary educational officer, 10 school quality assurance officers, 10 heads of schools, 200 teachers, and 200 students. The questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data from school quality assurance officers, teachers and students from community secondary schools who were among the respondents for this study. The quantitative data analysis involved the use of frequencies, mean and percentages. The data which were analysed qualitatively were those obtained from the interviews with the MSEO and heads of schools.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The interest of this study was to assess the shortage of physical school facilities and how that shortage threatens the provision of quality education in Tanzania, Morogoro municipality in particular. The presentation of findings and data analysis was guided by the objectives of the study which were; to assess the adequacy and status of school physical facilities among the selected secondary schools in Morogoro municipality. Secondly was to examine the adequacy of physical teaching and learning materials in the community secondary schools in Morogoro municipality and lastly it was to assess the influence of school physical facilities and physical teaching and learning materials in the provision of quality education in Morogoro municipality.

Adequacy and Status of School Physical Facilities from Students
In the case of adequacy and status of school physical facilities in the visited secondary schools, the findings from students indicated a serious shortage. For instance, when asked if the schools have adequate classrooms, 104 students equivalent to 55.3% replied no to indicate that there were no adequate classrooms, while 84 students equivalent to 44.7% replied yes to indicate that there were adequate classrooms. However, on the question of whether the schools have adequate students' chairs and tables, 128 students equivalent to 69.1% reported a shortage of inadequacy of chairs and tables, and only 60 students equivalent to 31.9% reported the adequacy of tables and chairs at schools. Furthermore, on the question of whether the schools had adequate science laboratories with adequate equipment, 131 students equivalent to 69.7% reported inadequacy of science laboratories with not enough equipment, while 57 students equivalent to 30.3% reported the adequacy of science laboratories with enough equipment. Finally, on the question of whether the schools have libraries, 159 students equivalent to 84.6% reported a lack of school libraries, while only 29 students equivalent to 15.4% reported the presence of school libraries. This implies that almost all the visited schools had inadequate school physical facilities such as; classrooms, school furniture like; chairs and tables as well as science laboratories with adequate equipment needed in schools.

Adequacy and Status of School Physical Facilities from Teachers
For the case of maintaining validity and reliability of the data collected, the same question was asked to teachers to examine the adequacy and status of school physical facilities. The findings again proved inadequate, for the case of libraries, 51 teachers disagreed that there were adequate libraries, while 71 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate libraries in the visited schools. On science laboratories, 29 teachers disagreed that there were adequate science laboratories, while 19 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate science laboratories. On classrooms, 10 teachers disagreed that there were adequate classrooms, while 7 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate classrooms at the visited schools. On staff offices, 25 teachers disagreed that there were adequate staff offices, while 29 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate staff offices. On departmental offices, 50 teachers disagreed that there were adequate departmental offices, while 29 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate departmental offices. On students' toilets, 23 teachers disagreed that there were adequate students' toilets while 7 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate students' toilets at school. On staff toilets, 15 teachers disagreed that there were adequate staff toilets while 8 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate staff toilets at school. On playgrounds, 14 teachers disagreed that there were adequate playgrounds, while 15 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate Playgrounds at school. On sports and games equipment, 27 teachers disagreed that there was adequate sports and games equipment, while 17 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate sports and games equipment at school. For the case of administration blocks, 24 teachers disagreed that there were adequate administration blocks, while 34 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate administration blocks at the visited schools. For the case of stores, 42 teachers disagreed that there were adequate, while 36 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate stores at the visited schools. On multipurpose halls, 43 teachers disagreed that there were adequate multipurpose halls, while 77 teachers strongly disagreed that there were adequate multipurpose halls at the visited schools. This implies that most community secondary schools in Morogoro municipality have a shortage of physical facilities such as libraries, science laboratories, classrooms, staff offices, departmental offices, staff, and students' toilets, playgrounds and sports and game facilities, administration blocks and multipurpose halls which threaten the provision of quality education.

Adequacy and Status of School Physical Facilities from Heads of Schools
On top of that, the respondents (heads of schools) were asked to respond to the questions: "What is the status of students' chairs and tables in your school? What is the status of staff chairs and tables in your school?" The responses of heads of schools on these questions were as stipulated in Table 1: What is the status of students' chairs and tables in your school? 0 10 (100%) 10 What is the status of staff chairs and tables in your school? 1 (10 %) 9 (90%) 10 Table 1 shows the response of the heads of schools on status of staff and students' chairs and tables in all visited schools. All heads of schools informed that there were inadequate students' chairs and tables in their schools. Likewise, 9 (90%) heads of schools showed that there were inadequate staff chairs and tables in their schools. This implies that almost all visited schools had acute shortages of students and staff chairs and tables in the community secondary schools that threaten the provision of quality education.
The results of this study revealed that there was an acute shortage of physical facilities to allow effective teaching and learning in all visited schools. Such scarcity of physical facilities threatens the provision of quality education in community secondary schools in Morogoro municipality. These findings concur with the findings by Saeed and Wain (2011) and Owoeye and Yara (2011) who identified that school physical facilities such as classrooms, libraries, and laboratories, furniture like desks and chairs are among the factors that threaten the provision of quality education in community secondary schools. Likewise, the findings of this study are in line with the findings obtained by Shami and Hussain (2005) who revealed that the availability of physical facilities in a school had a significant impact on students' academic performance. The findings also concur with the observation of Khan and Iqbal (2012) who acknowledged that adequate and quality school physical facilities are basic ingredients for the provision of quality education so as to achieve the intended educational goals.

Adequacy of Physical Teaching and Learning Materials
In this objective, the researcher asked the respondents (teachers) about the adequacy of physical teaching and learning materials. The responses are displayed in Table 2:  Table 2 indicates the adequacy of physical teaching and learning materials. Though the responses from teachers indicate that 10% strongly agree, 35% agree, 27% neutral, 21% disagree, and 7% strongly disagree, the researcher decided to visit those physical teaching and learning materials to determine the consistency of the results. The results from the observation checklist proved different from teachers' responses who count 45% of the mean average. The shortage of physical teaching and learning materials such as; models, science charts, maps, and globes was noted as all schools noted to have an insufficient ratio of those facilities to allow effective teaching and learning.
Furthermore, the researcher asked respondents (teachers) how the shortage of physical teaching and learning materials in schools affects the provision of quality education. To simplify the analysis of teachers' responses, the researcher decided to regroup their responses as provided in Table 3.  Table 3 shows the responses of teachers on how the shortage of physical teaching materials affects the provision of quality education. Seventy-one responses from teachers reported that due to a shortage of physical teaching and learning facilities, teachers had difficulties in delivering the teaching process effectively; for instance, some teachers reported that the shortage of physical teaching and learning materials has resulted in failures to achieve the intended learning outcomes, difficulties faced by students in understanding the lesson delivered by teachers, reduced efficiency of teachers in delivering the lesson, and failure to grasp the intended knowledge among students. Likewise, there was one (01) response from a teacher reported that a shortage of physical teaching materials led to failures of teachers to achieve the intended learning outcomes; furthermore, 08 responses indicated that a shortage of physical teaching materials hindered the effective delivery of the curriculum as students were not engaged in teaching and learning due to teachers' domination of teaching and learning process by employing teacher centred approach.
On the other hand, 04 responses indicate that a shortage of physical teaching materials led to a wastage of time as teachers were forced to prepare tools like maps and science charts in order to facilitate teaching and learning. Furthermore, 26 responses from teachers indicate that the shortage of physical teaching and learning facilities strongly affects students' performance since there were no teaching and learning materials to assist learners in learning. Furthermore, 01 response from the teacher indicates that teachers lack vivid teaching and learning aids, as a result, poor understanding of lessons among learners. These findings correspond with Tety's (2016) in his study on the role of instructional materials in academic performance in community secondary schools in the Rombo District. Tety found that teachers in community secondary schools, especially in rural community secondary schools had challenges in accessing instructional materials due to meagre funds provided by the government in the form of capitation grants. According to Lyimo (2017), the primary purpose of the teaching and learning process is to bring a significant change in behaviour through active participation and critical thinking of the learner. This cannot take place without the availability and adequacy of physical teaching and learning facilities.

Adequacy of Co-curricular facilities
The students were asked to respond to the following question: "Are there playgrounds together with sports and games equipment at your school?". The responses of students to the asked question were as stipulated in Table 4:  Table 4 shows the adequacy of co-curricular facilities. The responses of students on the adequacy of co-curricular facilities showed that 133 equivalent to 70.7% reported a shortage of playgrounds together with sports and games equipment, while 55 students equivalent to 29.3%, reported the presence of playgrounds together with sports and games equipment. This study has shown that there was an acute shortage of co-curricular facilities such as playgrounds as well as sports and game equipment. These results are in line with Mokaya (2013) who opined that the availability of adequate playgrounds and sports and games equipment are necessary for talent development.
According to Mokaya (2013), co-curricular activities help to raise learners' talents such as athletics, drama, music, and these talents can only be nurtured by schools through available cocurricular facilities. This observation concurs with Acquah & Partey (2014) who observed that cocurricular activities help to bring social and physical adjustments in the child which help to build up students' character and personality as well as to train their minds in order to facilitate the academic achievements of the students.

Challenges that Hinder the Provision of Quality Education in Community Secondary Schools
The study findings indicate that the visited schools had various challenges that finally threatened the provision of quality education in community secondary schools in Morogoro municipality. Such challenges include the following:

Lack of Libraries
The availability of a well-equipped library is crucial for the provision of quality education in any school. The quality of teaching and learning is influenced by adequate resources including well-planned, upto-date materials and a well-kept school library. The findings of this study indicate that majority of the visited community secondary schools had no libraries; as a result, learners grabbed their chance to acquire knowledge by reading books in the library. These findings are in line with Oberg (2001) who opined that schools must have well-equipped libraries which are adequately staffed and resourced so as to have expected results on student learning and performance. Consequently, the lack of school libraries threatens the provision of quality education in community secondary schools.

Shortage of Textbooks
Likewise, the study findings showed that the majority of visited community secondary schools had an acute shortage of textbooks, especially in social science subjects. This implies that learners were denied their right to improve knowledge and skills through reading more reference books so as to supplement what they obtain from their teachers in the classroom setting. Consequently, this situation threatens the provision of quality education in community secondary schools in Morogoro municipality. These findings concur with Mbele & Katabaro (2003) who exposed that the availability of adequate textbooks and other educational materials are among the factors that determine the provision of quality education. According to Mbele & Katabaro (2003), the quality of education is influenced by the presence of adequate and relevant textbooks. If community secondary schools could have adequate and relevant textbooks, teachers may rely on them to set the parameters of instruction and to impart basic educational content. Such observation was supported by Chonjo (1994) who revealed that students who had the requisite textbooks in all subjects taught tended to have better performance than students in schools with a relatively high incidence of textbook shortages.

Shortage of Co-curricular Sports and Game Equipment
Furthermore, the findings of this study showed that the construction of community-based secondary schools did not take into consideration the construction of playgrounds to allow students to participate in different sports and games. As a result, students were denied their right to participate in various sports and games so as to keep themselves fit mentally and physically and raise their talents in sports and games as well. This observation concurs with Mokaya (2013) who observed that when extracurricular activities are well organised and supported by the management of schools, they help much in raising the talents of learners in sports and games as well as improving the quality of education.

Shortage of Clean and Safe Water
On the other hand, it was indicated that there was a shortage of clean and safe water supply, something that threatened learners' health. It was observed in one of the visited schools that learners were using salty borehole water, which was unsafe for learners' consumption. Such an observation concurs with Mungai (2004) who declared that schools in Tanzania suffer from a shortage of facilities such as water, electricity, and proper buildings sustainable for educational purposes.

Shortage of Students' and Staffs' Chairs and Tables
Likewise, it was observed that the majority of visited community secondary schools had a shortage of students and staff chairs and tables. This situation not only reduced efficiency in teaching and learning but also created poor teaching and learning environment. These findings are in line with the findings by Mosha (2000), who showed that Tanzania is experiencing schools with a shortage of classroom furniture whereby in some schools, pupils are sitting on the floor, using each other's backs to write in their copybooks, and over twice the approved number being dumped in a classroom. Such practices threaten the provision of quality education in community secondary schools.

Lack of Dormitories
Of all ten visited community secondary schools, only one has dormitories for advanced-level female students, but others were day schools in which students selected to join them have to commute daily to the school either on foot or by public transport (Daladalas) or motorcycles (Bodaboda) as schools are located very far from home. The lack of dormitories creates an unfriendly learning environment as many students cannot afford to pay daily bus fare as they come from poor families. Therefore, most of the students who cannot afford commuting commuter busses opt to walk on foot, something that leads most of them to attend school not only late but also tired. In such situations, girls are definitely vulnerable, whereby sometimes they find themselves engaged in relationships with men, especially motorcycle drivers "bodaboda" to ease transport problems. At times, this leads to unexpected teenage pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, and unhealthy behaviours. In the group discussion with students, one of them said: It is not easy to afford daily bus fare. Therefore, I walk on foot every day to school and it takes me more than one hour. Sometimes I attend school late and tired. I always wake up very early in the morning so as to reach school timely, otherwise, I miss the first lesson. During rainy season the situation becomes cumbersome.
These findings are in line with Malekela (1983) who found that access to secondary education was highly determined by the social and economic status of individual families in Tanzania. Students sometimes have to travel long distances before they get to school. Consequently, such long distances to schools promote truancy among students, resulting to missing the early morning lessons, which are in many secondary schools in mathematics.

Shortage of Science Laboratories
It was indicated that 84 responses reported that there was an acute shortage of science laboratories. This shortage led to poor performance in science subjects as learners were learning theoretically rather than practically. This implies that almost all schools lacked basic facilities which could promote teaching and learning. Such findings are in line with Balogun (1982) who opined that science subjects could not be taught effectively without the existence of laboratories and laboratory equipment for teaching. This is because science instructional materials help learners to develop problem-solving skills and scientific attitudes. Consequently, the availability of science laboratories with well-equipped laboratory equipment and chemical reagents enables students to learn at their own paces which results to raise a quality education.

Over Enrolment
Almost all the visited institutions had enrolled more students, although they are faced with an acute shortage of school physical facilities such as classrooms and students' chairs and tables. However, all of the visited schools were not ready to display their registration permit and certificates to a researcher. Therefore, the researcher was not assured about the school size for that matter. Such enrolment is contrary to education circular no. 1 of 2007 on school size, which vividly spells that the highest school registration is 32 streams with a maximum enrolment of 1280 students. Such a situation not only deprives the rules and regulations that guide the registration of schools but also threatens the provision of quality education.

School Environment
The school learning environment involves the surroundings, atmosphere, and location of the school, which should be conducive to students' learning. Some of the visited institutions had several teaching and learning environment challenges. Of all ten visited schools, only one school had a boundary wall that secured it from intruders. The remaining nine had no fences, therefore they were faced with learners' truancy, learners' coming to school late as they could trespass anywhere to enter school or escape from school without any difficulties. Likewise, due to the lack of fences, some schools were faced with noisy disturbances from motorcyclists who used to ride their motorcycles speedily around the school surroundings. Such a situation endangers the lives of students and teachers. The researcher observed one school being surrounded by floods due to the lack of a school boundary wall as a result students had to put off their shoes so as to cross the water and enter their respective classrooms. Consequently, school fence plays a pivotal role as it helps to secure the school from theft and hazardous incidences such as floods. Therefore, in order to attain a good and quality education, a friendly education environment must be strongly considered. This concurs with Sayi (1993) who argues that physical school facilities such as school compounds, buildings with requisite facilities, teachers' houses, health facilities, recreational facilities, school transport and other resources are most needed for the provision of quality education.

Size of Class
Class sizes have been identified as a factor that plays a pivotal role in the provision of quality education. Studies indicate that schools with smaller class sizes perform better academically than those with larger class sizes. All visited schools were faced with larger class sizes and a high teacher-student ratio, something that threatened the provision of quality education. These findings are in line with Blachfold et al. (2007) in their study of the ideal class size and its effects on effective teaching and learning in Ghana, where they concluded that class sizes of above 40 have negative effects on students' achievement. Likewise, a study by Waita (2012) in Kenya confirmed this finding that Teacher-Pupil Ratio has a statistically significant effect on pupils' performance in primary schools. The study showed that as the pupil-teacher ratio increases, average test scores in primary schools decrease.

CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY
Based on the findings of the study, a number of conclusions can be set out. First, it is concluded that the visited secondary school had a shortage of physical facilities such as classrooms, student chairs and tables, libraries, laboratories, laboratory equipment, playgrounds, and physical teaching and learning materials. Moreover, the finding justified the insufficient physical teaching and learning materials that in one way tend to disvalue the provision of quality education in Tanzania. Furthermore, the findings exposed the significant role of physical facilities and physical teaching and learning materials in the provision of quality education.

Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study and conclusions, the following recommendations were made: • The MoEST should formulate participatory educational policies that will ensure the whole community is engaged in the construction of school physical facilities such as classrooms, libraries, laboratories and playgrounds so as to improve the provision of quality education in community secondary schools in Morogoro municipality, Tanzania.
• The government should ensure the provision of capitation grants in secondary schools is made regularly and timely in regard to the number of students enrolled in schools to enable the schools to procure adequate physical teaching and learning materials such as models, charts, maps, textbooks, reference books, and globes to allow effective teaching and learning to take place and improve the quality of education.
• Curriculum developers at the Tanzania Institute of Education (TIE), together with policymakers in the MoEST should come up with a policy guideline that will enhance the provision of adequate teaching and learning materials in schools so as to allow effective teaching and learning to take place. Likewise, the government should ensure the enrolment of students in schools commensurate with the number of instructional materials allocated in each school to enable students to reach their highest possible academic achievement.
The government to employ enough teachers, especially Science and Mathematics teachers in all secondary schools to make the teacher and student ratio low as recommended for secondary schools. This will enable teachers to provide adequate exercises, effectively mark students' assignments and meet the needs of individual learners so as to improve the quality of education