Challenges Facing Community Involvement in Ensuring Quality Education in Public Secondary Schools in Meru District, Arusha Region-Tanzania

The purpose of this paper was to examine the challenges facing community involvement in ensuring quality education in public secondary schools in Meru District. The study employed mixed research approach and convergent parallel design. The study used a sample size of 89 participants which were solicited using both probability and none probability sampling techniques. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through questionnaires and interviews respectively. Descriptive statistics used to analyze the quantitative data through SPSS version 20 and Microsoft excel Packages, the data were presented through frequency, percentage, charts, and tables. Qualitative data were recorded using field note book, and audio recorder device and were analyzed using thematic analysis. The instrument for quantitative was validated using content validity while Cronbach coefficient of 0.7 was obtained. Qualitative instrument was validated using peer review. The findings revealed that, ignorance, poor school leadership, poverty, political interference, poor beliefs and customs and lack of communication between the school and the community are the major challenges facing communities in participating in schools. Finally, the study recommends that for improving and inhibiting the highlighted challenges, deliberate strategies should be laid down and the government should sensitize educational partnership so as to improve the community participation in schools.