The Role of Constituency Development Catalyst Fund (CDCF) In Improving Education Service Delivery: Bahi Constituency Case

The CDCF was introduced by an Act of Parliament in 2009 as one of the decentralized funding schemes aimed at redressing development levels inequalities among constituencies in the LGA financing disbursement framework. Through the scheme, each constituent MP receives funds to foster community identified development projects. The purpose of the study was to assess the role of CDCF in improving education service delivery in Bahi Constituency in Dodoma Region. A survey research design was adopted for the study, whereby data was collected through questionnaires and interview sessions for quantitative and qualitative research analysis respectively. The target population was 2, 500 students enrolled in 20 secondary schools within the constituency, whereby the determined sample size was 96 respondents, from selected 5 schools. The study employed stratified sampling technique to pick 20 students per each school, whilst on the teaching staff, 1 School Head and 3 other teachers were selected. The study used SPSS, version 16, for data analysis and consequently findings were presented in frequencies, percentages, cross-tabulations and bar graphs. The findings revealed that 75 % of the respondents indicated that CDCF contributed to improving the learning environment as well as in provision of teaching and learning materials among schools in the study area. On the other hand, 48.7 % of the respondents showed that CDCF contributed in provision of teaching and learning materials. Based on the findings, the study concluded that inadequate financing through the CDCF has led to insignificant contribution of the scheme in realizing expected leveraged development as far as education service delivery is concerned in the constituency, partly due to the fact that CDCF carter for many other social amenities apart from education service. The study recommends reinforcing oversight of the funds operations, through vibrant monitoring and reporting mechanism, enhanced by involving various stakeholders, building their capacity and introducing new guideline to be used by the CDCF committee.