Exploring the factors influencing parental involvement in early childhood education in Masasi district, Tanzania.

Pre-school years builds foundation or baseline for child’s growth, development and learning. For children to develop holistically they need parents’ care and support. Parental involvement in children’s affairs is very crucial because parents are the first teacher (educator) to children. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate the factors that determine the extent of parental involvement in their young children’s education, as influenced by’; socio-economic status of a family, parents’ level of education, religious awareness of parents, parents’ awareness or perception on the value of ECE, as well as parents’ inadequately involved by teachers. The study was guided by Epstein’s model of parents’ involvement which high lightened six forms of parental involvement; parenting, communication, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community. The study employed a descriptive research design, particularly a case study. The sample size involved two schools with pre-primary class (one public and one private school), four teachers (one head teacher and one ECD teacher from each school), and two parents (female and male) with children in ECD class. Interviews and document analysis were used to collect data. Interviews were used to explore views and experience of both teachers and parents. Qualitative (descriptive) method of data analysis was employed to present the findings. The findings reveled that parents tend to participate in financial based activities, that is, they counts deal done when they pay financial contribution to the school and buying materials and stationaries necessary to children’s schooling. However, they minimally engage in other learning activities due to daily business engagement, thus limiting their capacity to their full involvement in their children’s education. Thus the study conclude that parents were mostly involved in issues that require financial contributions. Teachers themselves accepted that they are not adequately involve parents. Therefore I recommend that schools should prepare outreach programs to sensitize parental involvement. The government need to formulate strict policies on parental involvement and its monitoring for the benefit of our children