The Practices and Challenges of Community Participation In Schools Management In The Case Of Jimma Zone Secondary Schools.

Abstract

This study is primarily focused on the Practice and Challenges of Community Participation in Schools Management, The Case of Jimma Zone Secondary Schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the Practice and Challenges of Community Participation in Schools Management. Data were collected from teachers and schools’ principals, Parent Teachers Association (PTA), woreda Education officials and Cluster Supervisors. Closed ended questionnaire and open ended questionnaire was used as the instruments of data collection. In this study, descriptive research design, which includes quantitative and qualitative methods, was used. The participants were teachers and schools’ principals, Parent Teachers Association (PTA), woreda Education officials and Cluster Supervisors. Simple random sampling was used for Teachers and schools’ principals, Purposive sampling technique was used to determine the sample of Parent Teachers Association(PTA), woreda Education officials and Cluster Supervisors. The quantitative findings showed that the practice of community participation in schools’ management is high the mean value of more than 4 and the extent to which the community participated in schools’ management is low with the mean value of more than 2 when compared to the practice of community participation. Furthermore, the qualitative findings showed that there are different Challenges of Community Participation in Schools Management such as reluctance of the school management to participate in the identification of the need assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation process; poor community participation in decision making process of the school management and poor governance and leadership skills of the principal, lack of well-developed school policies, rules, regulation, norms and no appropriate strategy for the school to encourage and provide community services, information about school improvement program, Low teacher commitment, Negative Attitudes. The researcher tried to recommend that in order to make balance the practice of community participation in schools management and the extent to which the community participated in schools management the concerned stake holders should work cooperatively