The Challenges Facing Primary School Teachers in Teaching Health Education in Temeke Municipality Dar Es Salaam Tanzania

Abstract

Background The provision health education is important in achieving quality health education and assisting children to build their future status. Teaching of health education in Temeke Municipality has not been effectively provided due to mainly challenges affecting the teachers. The competency of teachers teaching science or health education in Temeke Municipality primary schools and the competency influencing factors such as teachers’ background knowledge in health education and the criteria used to assign teachers to teach science subjects was not well known. Further the primary schools health sanitation status was not well known. Main Objective The main objective of this study was to identify challenges faced by teachers who teach health education in primary schools in Temeke Municipality, Dar es Salaam. Method A cross-sectional descriptive study using both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used to generate data for this study. Semi structured questionnaires were administered to 265 science subject teachers in selected primary schools. Multi-stage sampling was used to get the study sample. First, two divisions out of the three divisions in the municipality were selected. Then one ward was picked from each of the selected divisions. All primary schools within the selected wards were included in the study. Finally, all science subject teachers from the selected schools were recruited as study participants. Observation method was used to assess the hygienic status of the school toilets. Results The result shows that almost a third of the science teachers never received health education training before they started teaching in primary schools; few had been exposed to in-service training. More than three quarters (76.6%) of the study participants were assigned by school authority to teach the subject based mainly on their pre-service background knowledge from the teachers’ training institutes. More than half (55%) of the pupils’ toilets were dirty in comparison with less than half (45 %) of the teachers’ toilets. Though health education teaching guidelines were in place, the quality of health education was, in most schools found to be highly challenged by limited resources, high number of pupils to available few teachers and facilities and limited knowledge of teachers to teach health education. Conclusion The study concluded that limited of resources and lack of adequate competence of teachers was the main cause leading to ineffective provision of health education in Temeke Municipality primary schools. Most teachers had received inadequate in-service training and in-service development on health education. Recommendations It is recommended to improve the pre-service and in-service training system in Tanzania. As well as to define the criteria and the authority for appointing teachers, by providing required resources for teaching health education in primary schools.