Major Issues and Problems of Full-Day Schooling in Second Cycle Primary Schools of Addis Ababa
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Date
2009-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Countries have employed different alternative models of schooling in their school systems and
also altered from one to the other in times, most commonly from half-day to full-day schooling.
In the case of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa City Administration has launched its effort to realize such
alteration in primwy schools since academic year 1999E.C. With scarcity of resources of the
country, employing fiill-day schooling would have significant implications on the provisions
and achievement of primary schooling. Taking these all into account, this study was carried
out to assess the major issues and problems of fiill-day schooling in second cycle primary
schools of Addis Ababa. It surveyed the benefits and challenging factors of the schooling model
along with its implications on the internal efficiency and educational equity in schooling. In
order to attain its objective, descriptive survey method was employed. The study was conducted
in six governmental primary schools sampled from two sub-cities of Addis Ababa; namely,
Kirkos and Akaki-Kaliti. Sub-cities, schools, teachers and students were selected using multistage
sampling techniques. The main sources of the data were teachers, students, principals,
Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) representatives and Kebele 's educational team leaders.
Questionnaires were administered to 65 teachers and 273 students sampledfrom the respective
schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a principal and a PTA representative
of each sampled school and two educational team leaders from the sub-cities selected. Besides,
document review and direct school observation were also conducted to secure additional
information on the basic questions of the study. The sequential exploratory research design
was employed to collect and analyze quantitative data first, qualitative data next and finally to
interpret the entire analysis of both types of data. Frequency count, percentage and mean were
used to analyze the quantitative data through the use of Statistical Package for Social Studies
(SPSS) for Windows. One-sample T-test was used to compare class sizes and weekly teaching
loads of respondents to the target set by Addis Ababa Education Bureau and Ministry of
Education (MOE). The qualitative data were analyzed using focus by question approach.
Accordingly, the major findings of the study revealed that lengthening school day was
considered as the least determinant of effectiveness in the schools, three-fourth of the
respondents confirmed that fUll-day schooling contributed to better students' behaviors and
performance, the majority of parents have very narrowed view on the benefits of the schooling,
the schooling has contributed to increase in drop-out rate of 5 -8 grade students in the schools,
half of the teacher respondents rated the effect of the schooling as "high" to exclude children
with economic problems from school and the practices of the schooling were found to be
entangled with economic problems of students and inadequacy of school facilities and services
and as a result, increased students' absenteeism and truancy. On the basis of the conclusions
drawn from these findings, the researcher recommended that parental awareness and
involvement need to be enhanced, students with economic problems should be supported either
through school feeding program or material supports, mounted political, financial and
material commitment is required to improve school facilities and more importantly, it is highly
commendable to investigate the implications that the schooling model can have on achieving
the development goals of the country.
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Major Issues and Problems of Full-Day Schooling