The goal of any kind of activity that attempts to involve community and families/parents in
education is to improve the educational delivery so that more children learn better and are well prepared
for the changing world. There are various reasons to support the idea that community participation
contributes to strengthen and develop schools. This assignment it will seek to discuss the activities that
can be done by the community to strengthen and develop the school. Moreover, it will further begin by
defining the terms “community and school".
Community according to Jones and George (2006) refers to physical location like towns or cities
or to social milieus like ethnic neighborhoods in which an organization is located. A community provides
an organization with the physical and social infrastructure that allows it to operate; it utilities and labour
force; the homes in which its managers and employees live; other organization such as hospital, town
services, carriers and theatres that service their needs and so on. School is a training Centre helps to
develop pupils into efficient social being and to train them to further educate the backward members of
their society.
In spite involving communities in the process of research and data collection can reveal to them
factors that contribute to lower enrollment and attendance, and poor academic performance in their
schools, Bushman, B. (2017). Furthermore, parents are usually concerned about their children’s
education, and often are willing to provide assistance that can improve the educational delivery. In places
where teacher absenteeism and poor performance are critical issues, parents can be part of the system of
monitoring and supervising teachers, ensuring that teachers arrive at classrooms on time and perform
effectively in the classrooms.
Communities and parents involvement helps to achieve curriculums and learning materials that
reflect children’s everyday lives in society. When children use textbooks and other materials that
illustrate their own lives in their community, they can easily associate what they are learning with what
they have already known. The schools consider the community as the center of learning as well as the
focus of education. As a result, the community schools have become central to the national curriculum
development which enables community life, such as festivals, customs, musical instruments, and local
business activities, to be reflected in the curriculum.
Communities can help identify and address factors that contribute to educational problems, such
as low participation and poor academic performance. This is well illustrated in the case of the Gambia, in
which the techniques of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) were adapted to education. The work was
carried out in order to understand why girls do not attend schools, to mobilize communities around these
problems, and to assist them in organizing their own solutions.
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Community participation can contribute to promoting girls’ education. Through participating in
school activities and frequently communicating with teachers, parents and communities can learn that
girls’ education contributes to the improvement of various aspects of their lives, such as increased
economic productivity, improved family health and nutrition, reduced fertility rates, and reduced child
mortality rates, Hornby, A. S. (2000). Involving parents and communities in discussions as part of school
activities also helps to identify factors that prevent girls from schooling. Parents are encouraged to
express their concern, and reasons why they are not sending their daughters to school. For instance, many
parents in rural areas are reluctant to send their daughters to schools located in distance, concerned about
the security of their daughters on the way to and from the school.
Communities can contribute to schools by sending respected community members, such as
religious leaders or tribe heads, to the classrooms and talk about community history, traditions, customs,
and culture, which have been historically celebrated in the community. Schools themselves can
contribute to community efforts by developing sustainable solutions to local problems. Egbezor. D. E.
(2005), the purpose of the project is to change teaching, learning, and school-community relations by
involving fifth and six grade students in studies of local village problems related to forest management.
Community members helped them understand concepts taught in schools, and students used any resource
available within the communities to enhance their understanding.
Parental involvement in education, particularly in school governance, is seen as a means of
making schools more accountable to the society which funds them. This has been witnessed in some
places such as England, Wales, Canada and the United States, Mishra, R.C. (2007). The notion of
parental involvement for accountability derives from a more market-oriented concept in which school-
family partnerships are viewed rather like business partnership, through which the two parties receive
mutual and complementary benefits which enable them to operate more effectively.
Committees exist to manage the schools and members are empowered to exert their influence.
They also argue that accountability is developed through routine parents’ meetings and reporting systems
on student progress, Hornby, A. S. (2000). When parents contribute their time, labor, materials, land, and
funds, they tend to be more involved in school activities, including participating in meetings with
teachers and monitoring teachers’ performance. Teachers and school staff, in turn, feel more obliged to
deliver better education for the students in order to respond to the needs of parents and communities.
Participation can greatly help develop accountability, which contributes to improving the education
delivery.
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A Community Support Program (CSP) process in schools was developed to ensure village
commitment to girls’ education. It defines the responsibilities of the community and the Directorate of
Primary Education. Mishra, R.C. (2007), the greater participation of the community, both financially and
in-kind, means they are more likely to demand accountability from staff. Parents are also more involved
in the day-to-day management of the school where they see what is happening and what needs to be
corrected.
Despite, Community Support Program (CSP) has formed Village Education Committee (VEC)
that consists of five to seven men whose daughters will attend the school. VECs are formed to serve as
the school’s official representative to the government. The forming of VECs has contributed to the CSP’s
establishment of an organizational structure that encourages teachers’ and local administrators’
accountability to parents. Once the school is opened, VEC members are empowered to report teacher
attendance or behavior problems to the government and to recommend teachers for training.
One of the major factors to ensure sustainability of programs is the availability of funds, whether
from governments, private institutions, or donor organizations. In this regard, community participation in
education cannot ensure the sustainability of schools by itself since communities oftentimes have to rely
on external funding to keep the program sustained,Jones, G. R. & George, J.M. (2006).However,
involving community is a way to ensure that the benefits brought by a development program will be
maintained after the external interventions are stopped. Thus, sustainability is dependent on the degree of
self-reliance developed in target communities and on the social and political commitment in the wider
society to development programs that support the continuation of newly self-reliance communities.
Egbezor. D. E. (2005), community participation can contribute to preparing and improving home
environment, by encouraging parents to understand about the benefits of their children’s schooling.
Which analyzed primary education in India, discovered that families aware of the importance of
education can contribute much to their children’s learning achievement, even in disadvantaged districts.
It also shows that students from families that encouraged children’s schooling, by allocating time at home
for study, encouraging reading, and supporting their children’s educational aspirations, scored
significantly higher on tests of learning achievement.
In conclusion, Community engagement in schools is essential for several reasons. First and
foremost, it fosters a sense of belonging and ownership among community members, creating a
supportive environment for students. Thus, Communities can contribute to schools by sending respected
community members, such as religious leaders or tribe heads, to the classrooms and talk about
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community history, traditions, customs, and culture, which have been historically celebrated in the
community.
REFERENCES
Bushman, B. (2017). Social psychology and human nature. Los Angeles: Cengage Learning.
Egbezor. D. E. (2005). School and society.Port Harcourt: Davidstone Publishers.
Hornby, A. S. (2000). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Jones, G. R. & George, J.M. (2006). Contemporary management (4th Ed.). Irwin: McGraw Hill.
Mishra, R.C. (2007). History of education administration. New Delhi: APH Publishing
Corporation.
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