Management of Students’ Report Cards for Improving Learning Quality in Selected Public Secondary Schools: A Case of Kisarawe District

Abstract

The student report card is the main form of communication among teachers, students, and parents; and its purpose is to convey information from the school to parents about a students’ educational progress, usually at mid-year and the end of a school year. The study intended to assess the management of students’ report cards for improving learning quality in selected public secondary schools in Kisarawe District, Tanzania. The specific objectives were to; examine the role played by teachers in the management of SRCs towards students’ learning quality, evaluate parents’ perception on the management of SRCs in improving students’ learning quality and assess the usefulness of SRCs in influencing students’ learning. The study was guided by the Self-Efficacy Theory and the Social Constructivism Theory. The study employed a descriptive survey design. Respondents were drawn from four public secondary schools in Kisarawe District, and 132 respondents including parents, teachers, students, and heads of schools were involved. The study employed simple random sampling and purposive sampling to select respondents. Questionnaires, interviews, and documentary reviews were used as methods for data collection. Quantitative data obtained through questionnaire from teachers and students were analysed using the descriptive statistics technique. Qualitative data from interview of Heads of Schools and parents and documentary review of existing reports were analysed through the thematic analysis presented via narrations. The findings indicated that teachers were inactive in filling the assessment/progress results in SRC. Some of the reasons behind it being the large population of students in the classes, insufficient time for marking the tests, and recording of grades. Also, the study found that parents were unaware of their role in supporting their children to learn, they did not bother to attend the school meetings to collect their child’s report while others did not return feedback to the school management after receiving their children’s report cards. Recommendations are hereby made for the schools to establish a mechanism that will bring parents on board to participate in their children’s academic progress.