Understanding the Contribution of Teachers Union Towards Improving Standards of Teaching in Mkuranga District

This study is about teachers’ union (TU) contributions towards enhancing standards of teaching in Tanzania, focusing on Mkuranga district. Through questionnaire, interview and focused group a total of 142 teachers responded to the questionsrelated to the role of TTU in the improvement of standards of teaching.Role of holding teachers accountable to teaching; pressurizing government for making better conditions for teachers are the most identified findings by the researchers to respond the question of role of TTU towards standards of teaching. Furthermore, various condition caused by TTU that considered to affect standard of teaching were identified such as strikes especially to the time when the demands of the teachers are not been heard. However, some respondents had a negative views on the way to be not appropriate as for them strikes impeded teachers from using the assigned time to teach. Various factors that considered to hinder TTU towards contributing for quality teaching were identified such as lack of political power to the union, absence of political support and poor recognition from the government. Based on these findings, the following are recommended; TTU need to be strengthened so as to contribute towards standard teaching, this includes training to the staffs both of the Union and school managers as to make them effective in handling the demands of the teachers. More research is needed to find ways to strengthen TTU to contribute more to the improvement of teaching and education in gene