Roles of Parents in Students’ Discipline Management at Community Day Secondary Schools in Misungwi District, Mwanza Region-Tanzania

Dorothea Mabula & Dr.Nestory Ligembe
St. Augustine University of Tanzania
P. O. BOX 307, Mwanza
Email: dorotheamabula76@gmail.com

Abstract: Parents are key component in dealing with students’ discipline. Once parents get encompassed in student’s matters, students tend to have positive effects on their development, including discipline issues. However, their involvement is still low, which results into the increase of disciplinary cases in most community secondary schools. Thus, the study sought to assess the effectiveness of parental activities in students’ discipline management in community secondary schools in Misungwi district, Tanzania. The study used a mixed research approach and convergent parallel design. Data was obtained using questionnaires together with interview guides. The sample size of the study involved 101 respondents including teachers, parents, education quality assurance, ward education officers, students and students discipline leaders. Content and face validity were checked to establish the validity of research instruments. The questionnaires achieved a correlation coefficient of 0.81, which indicated high reliability of research instruments. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the help of (SPSS) version 20 and the qualitative data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The results revealed that parents played little role in providing guidance and counseling and teaching good moral rather than communicating with teachers. The study recommended that government under MoEST should provide education to parents on their roles so that they can voluntarily engage in students’ discipline management.