SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN
Date
2011-05-06
Authors
KAUNDA, ZIKANI HAWKINS WATSON
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Abstract
Many scholars and development practitioners have looked upon community participation
in Basic Education as one of the fundamental principles for improving educational
quality. History has established that many developed and developing countries that are
doing very well in terms of education have involved communities. Numerous case studies
are well documented talking about the success stories of communities contributing
towards improvement of basic education quality. However, it is not very clear as to how
the various communities that contributed towards improvement of basic education
viewed their participation. Many countries where the basic education quality standards
are low are pointing to lack of community participation as one of the contributing factors.
At times the participation of the communities has been termed as unsustainable. Little is
known about the perception of the communities towards their participation in improving
basic education.
This research report assesses communities’ perception on what they think they could
effectively participate in school management. This is cross- checked with what they have
actually done in the past and why. The report has also tried to establish what factors
contributed to little or no participation of communities in improving basic education of
their children.
The research was guided by the following main areas of focus: the activities the
communities perceive they could participate in school management; the activities they
actually engaged in and under whose guidance; the role of school management bodies;
the governance of the school and its effect on community participation and the prospects
of the community to participate in all the activities outlined in the National Strategy for
Community Participation in Primary School Management policy document for the
government of Malawi.
The findings have revealed that the communities have their own standards that they use
in order to classify themselves as active participants in improving educational quality.
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They also have their own definition of “community” which has a bearing on
participation. It is therefore critical to define “community” before one can categorize
participation as “sustainable” or “unsustainable”. From the research, governance and
social capital are other elements that need to be considered when deciding on what
community should participate in school management. Capacity building of both the
change agents and the community cannot be over emphasized if sustainable community
participation is to be achieved. The research findings have again revealed that in Malawi,
contrary to many documented papers, there are some communities that have reached, to a
certain degree, some levels of sustainability when it comes to community participation.
Some areas that the Government of Malawi needs to look at when tackling the issue of
community participation have also been pointed out in the research report
Description
MM - P&DM
Keywords
Primary schooling, Malawi, Community participation, Malawi