Provision of quality education in private schools: reflective practices in low-cost private secondary schools in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Zimbabwe
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Quality in education has become a cause for concern to every stakeholder in education.
The study sought to assess the provision of quality education in low-cost private
secondary schools in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province. The study adopted the
interpretivist paradigm in qualitative approach, using a case study design. Semistructured interviews and document analysis were used for collecting thematically
analysed data from purposively sampled four school heads and six teachers from lowcost private secondary schools. The study established that in pursuit for quality
education, selected schools employed qualified teachers who engage in continuous
professional development programmes to sharpen their teaching skills. The findings
revealed that the schools understudy are making efforts to offer practical science and
computer lessons using the limited resources to ensure the provision of quality
education. It emerged that selected schools use e-learning and multimedia resources
which arouse learners’ interests and increase the retention rates. It came out that the
schools understudy have environmental clubs which work together with school health
departments in attending to sanitary issues. Whilst selected schools practiced
heterogeneous grouping, the findings revealed that learners with physical disabilities are
not enrolled in those schools due to lack of appropriate physical facilities and there are
no teachers with relevant expertise to teach learners with special needs. The study
revealed that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education provided guidelines in
the form of policy documents and circulars to monitor the provision of quality education in the selected schools. Despite the efforts made by low-cost secondary schools in
providing quality education, the study found that high staff turnover is negatively
affecting the quality of education due to lack of continuity in learning. The findings
indicated that inadequate learning resources and infrastructure such as libraries,
computer and science laboratories, internet services, and lack of teachers with special
needs expertise adversely affected the provision of quality education. The study
concludes that lack of financial resources is a hindrance in the provision of quality
education in low-cost secondary schools. The study recommends that a comparative
study on provision of quality education should be conducted in private trust secondary
schools.
Description
Keywords
Citation
JMidzi, S., Sibanda, L. and Mathwasa, J. (2021) Provision of quality education in private schools: reflective practices in low-cost private secondary schools in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Zimbabwe. European Journal of Social Sciences Studies, 6(2): 142-162