Centralized admission system for advanced level private schools: case of Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania

Abstract

This research takes a look at the various challenges facing admission procedures for Advanced Level (A-Level) private schools case of Kilimanjaro Region in Tanzania. A total of 150 questionnaires was distributed to parents, A-Level students and school staffs, to find out procedures likewise the challenges being faced in the course of carrying out admission procedures and their level of satisfaction of the existing admission system. Thereafter, the analysis of the survey results confirms and quantify that 93.5% of admissions into A-Level private schools are performed manually by ink and paper. This manual system has its major problems which include difficulty in locating an appropriate school and subjects an applicant can get admissions, crucial times, wastage of time, and loss of forms and mutilation of forms throughout the entire method for admission. Consequently, the findings determined that, the admission system can only be improved by a new online software tool. To mitigate these challenges a centralized web-based solution, namely a Tanzania Central Processing Admission System (TCPAS) has been developed to resolve the identified admission challenges. The TCPAS tool has indicated outstanding changes towards maintenance of admission costs, control of forgery on entry qualifications, encourage the use of paperless admission, simplify admission process, reach of several geographically scattered candidates, and enhancing centralized data handling capability.