The effect of central-local governments’ relations on local government autonomy and secondary education service management in Tanzania

Abstract

The concern of this paper is to examine the central-local government relations and the extent and the manner in which this relation undermines or promoted the local government autonomy in Tanzania. Nevertheless, the knowledge about the effect of central-local government relation on local government autonomy and education service management is sparse. The central government is responsible for provision of public services such as education and healthcare because the central government cannot perform each function given the wide jurisdiction. This work was guided by the following research objectives: A) to examine the extent in which central-local government relations undermine local government autonomy. B) to explore the power of the local councils to hire and fire staff under central-local relation management. C) to explore the effect of central-local relations on service delivery management in Local Government authorities. The paper used a case study design with a sample of 40 respondents elected using purposive sampling. The method of data collection was interview and documentary review and the data were analyzed using thematic data analysis and descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that the failure of Local Governments Authorities in Tanzania in provision of services depends partly on the central-local relations in terms of central government interference which undermine local government autonomy, the structure of local government revenue is weak, institutional capacity of the Local Government Authorities, and modalities in place for the public services that the central government directly provides at the local level. The paper recommends that local government finance and administrative autonomy should be strengthened by Enshrining Decentralization by Devolution (D by D) in National Constitution.