Key Stakeholders' Awareness on the Implementation of Re-Entry Circular No. 2 of 2021: Evidence from Public Secondary Schools in Mwanza Region, Tanzania

This study sought to examine key stakeholders’ awareness on the implementation of re-entry circular No. 2 of 2021 in public secondary schools Mwanza region. A convergent design was employed under a mixed research approach. The target population was 216 public secondary schools, 6604 teachers,149936 regular students, 57 re-entry students and 8 District Secondary Educational Officers. The sample size for the study comprised 613 respondents. This included 7 district educational officers, 22 heads of schools, 22 guidance and counselling teachers, 57 re-entry students, 270 regular students, and 235 secondary school teachers. Purposive and stratified simple random sampling techniques were used to obtain the sample. Data were collected through an interview guide, Focus group discussions and questionnaires. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative data were analysed thematically. The findings indicated that there is moderate awareness of the re-entry circular among key school stakeholders. Some of regular students were not aware of the targeted group of the circular, and they did not know about the necessary procedures to be followed during re- admission. Also, teachers were not aware of the key objective of the circular and had little understanding that a re-entry student could transfer to another school. Hypothesis testing shows that there is no significant difference in the means scores among regular students and teachers on the level of awareness regarding implementation of the re-entry circular in public secondary schools. The study concludes that the low success of circular implementation is associated with a low level of awareness among public secondary key school stakeholders on the re-entry circular. The study recommends that key implementers of the circular in schools should ensure all school community members are aware of the circular so as to improve implementation of re-entry circular Number two of 2021.