Bridging access and quality: Community perceptions of educational excellence under Tanzania's fee-free secondary education policy

Résumé

Community perceptions play a critical role in the effective implementation of educational policies, particularly in resource-constrained urban contexts such as Tanzania, where rapid policy expansion can strain institutional capacity. Guided by socio-ecological theory and informed by the human capital perspective, this study examined multilevel factors shaping community perceptions of the Fee-Free Education Policy (FFEP) and its influence on perceived educational quality in public secondary schools in urban Tanzania. The socio-ecological framework conceptualizes educational outcomes as interactions among individual, relational, institutional, and community-level factors. A convergent mixed-methods design was employed, combining quantitative data from 239 students analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) with qualitative insights from 20 semi-structured interviews with head teachers and academic staff. The measurement model demonstrated strong reliability and validity, while the structural model explained 26.1% of the variance in perceived educational quality (R² = 0.261). The results revealed that parental involvement (β = 0.322, p < 0.001) and community material contributions (β = 0.252, p < 0.001) were the strongest predictors of perceived educational quality, highlighting the central role of relational and organizational dynamics. In contrast, socioeconomic status (β = 0.110, p = 0.252) and policy awareness (β = 0.092, p = 0.116) did not show significant direct effects. Qualitative findings contextualized and extended these results through four key themes: the access quality paradox, socioeconomic constraints as structural mediators of parental involvement, leadership variability as a critical implementation moderator, and the unmet expectations narrative reflecting gaps between policy promises and implementation realities. These insights reveal that socioeconomic conditions influence educational quality indirectly through parental engagement and resource contributions, while leadership practices and resource constraints shape the effectiveness of policy implementation. The study concludes that improving educational quality under the FFEP requires moving beyond policy awareness toward strengthening community engagement mechanisms, enhancing resource mobilization, and addressing systemic capacity constraints. Building adaptive school leadership, aligning policy communication with implementation realities, and establishing continuous monitoring systems are essential for sustaining both equity and quality. The findings underscore the importance of participatory, system-oriented approaches that integrate community involvement into school-level governance to support sustainable educational outcomes in rapidly expanding education systems.