An Exploration of the Implementation of Digital Education Policies in Public Secondary Schools in Tanzania: A Case of Kilimanjaro Region

The employment of technologies for learning purposes has attracted much concern in many nations across the world, but the gap between policy formation and implementation has been a challenge in many developing nations. In this research, the implementation of digital education policies in public secondary schools in Tanzania has been examined with emphasis on Kilimanjaro. Using the theoretical framework of Policy Enactment Theory (Ball, Maguire & Braun, 2012) and Street Level Bureaucracy Theory approach (Lipsky, 1980), this study adopted an exploratory qualitative case study approach in which the data was collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with 24 interviewees comprising district education officers, school heads, ICT teachers and classroom teachers, observation and review of documents. Though there have been some successes in the implementation of ICTs in teaching and learning in many public schools, most of them face challenges like inadequate infrastructure, insufficient digital skills of the teachers, unfavorable attitudes towards use of technology in learning, insufficient time to integrate ICT in teaching, poor technological support services, and low digital skills of students. Other variables considered by this research include better cooperation among the public and private sectors, focus on the need for ongoing professional development, local adaptation of digital materials, and good mechanisms of monitoring and evaluation as methods that could be used to address the challenges in implementing successful transformation of digital education. This paper has reached the conclusion that for the transformation of the process of learning into a digital one in Tanzania and Sub-Saharan Africa, a multi-sectoral approach is necessary.