Planning for Education Development Projects: Experiences from the Application of O&OD Approach in Kiroka Ward, Morogoro Rural District

Abstract

Participatory planning has been regarded as an approach to enhance development through popular participation of local people in setting local plans and preferences. In an effort to make participatory planning a reality, the Tanzanian government through President's Office Regional Administration and local government (PO-RALG) introduced Opportunities and Obstacles to development (O & OD) with the aim of promoting bottom up planning process. The O&OD approach was thus designed to promote community initiatives in the planning process as well as accelerating achievement of national development goals as per Tanzanian Development Vision 2025. Therefore, this approach functions as an essential approach to identify community preferences for developing local plans. Nevertheless, the empirical research shows that despite this initiative, the planning process is still top down. The O & OD has not realized the intended objective. This study, therefore, examined the Planning for Education Development Projects by drawing experiences from the Application of O&OD Approach in Kiroka Ward in Morogoro Rural District. The study used a case study design, drawing a total sample of 94 respondents including 14 key informants, 10 members of village council and 70 community members. Purposive sampling was used to select key informants; simple random sampling was used to select members of the village council and that snowball sampling was used to select community members. Primary data were collected through interviews, questionnaire and direct observation. NVIVO software for qualitative data analysis was used to analyze the in depth interviews while the questionnaires was analyzed using SPSS computer software. The quantitative analysis involved descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages which were presented in the form of tables and figures. The study found that, Education Development Planning (EDP) process started at the school committees, village council and village assembly. EDP in the two villages was made by community leaders. Community members were involved at the implementation stage. Therefore EDP did not follow O&OD approach. This shows that participation for education planning in Kiroka and Kiziwa is conducted by leaders this affected education project since most of the projects were not implemented as villagers were not involved.