Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increasing discontent in the Tanzanian community regarding what has been described as 'educational decline'. Although the causes have been, almost entirely, reported to be associated with the absence of instructional resources, the current education literature suggests the presence of other important variables that also affect educational performance. This study set out to investigate two hypotheses: (1) There is a declining trend in educational performance that varies with school types and locations in Tanzania; (2) There are factors other than instructional resources that affect educational performance in Tanzania. To test these hypotheses the researcher selected data by using sampling methods. A sample of Sixteen Secondary Schools, accounting for 414 teachers and 480 students, were selected. A variety of instruments were used to collect the data: questionnaires, group discussions, interviews and school records. Records of the performance of students in the National Examinations were also an important source of information for the study.