DECENTRALIZATION IN DELIVERING PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES: A CRITICAL REVIEW IN SECONDARY EDUCATION IN TANZANIA

Abstract

This study investigates the decentralization in delivering social services particularly in education sector, in the respect of shedding light on the determinants of efficient public administration, effective development together with good governance. In to obtain reliable and sufficient information the study employed both quantitative and qualitative approach whereby, a cross-sectional survey was used accompanied with 286 respondents from both rural as well urban settlements. Focus group discussion, structured questionnaires, key informants together with observation was used to collect information relevant for the study. Basically, the findings revealed that decentralization program contributed considerable impacts on public service provision of various categories. By taking the point of delivery of this service from the central administrations to local authority, this clearly contributed to improved operational efficiencies. However, decentralization has not been sufficient to meet citizens‟ expectations and fulfillment on quality education, perhaps due to shortcoming of new mechanisms for disseminated planning and strong coaching programs of the Public Institutions Perspective.