Community Participation in Primary Education: The Case of Former Group ‘A’ Schools in the Northern Central District of Harare Metropolitan Province, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The study explored community participation in the provision of educational resources in primary schools in Northern Central District of Harare Metropolitan Province. Specifically, it sought to illustrate how the local community participates in the primary schools under study. In addition, the study also examined the participation of urban communities and their representatives in the provision of educational resources within the framework of the Statutory Instruments as well as identify the successes and challenges of the implementation of urban community participation in the provision of educational resources. To achieve the research objectives, a qualitative research approach was used and focus group discussions and interviews were used for data collection. The study largely included 25 key informants who comprised of School Development Association members, parents, teachers and headmasters from two schools in the Northern Central District of Harare. The study findings showed that the decentralisation of education helped in improving community participation in primary education. Consequently, that helped in the improved access to resources and equity in education and brought a sense of ownership and responsibility by the communities. The research did show that the implementation of community participation in primary education also faced some challenges as the community did not fully understand and comprehend the Statutory Instruments. In particular, the School Development Association and parents lacked the basic knowledge about their functions and mandate. Thus, lack of trained manpower is a potential challenge for the promotion of community participation. The findings also showed that the government adopted community participation as a means of achieving development goals, but put less focus on the empowerment of the people. On the basis of the findings the study recommends that government should ensure that it provides Statutory Instrument 379 of 1998 and other related guides to all schools for successful fiscal decentralisation and community participation. In addition, The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education through its supervisory team, should ensure that the School Development Associations understand policy circulars from the ministry through some training before the implementation of the policies. The study also recommends that School Development Association should work as clusters and Learning Organisations which share ideas at the same levels. Furthermore, the study recommends community awareness and empowerment as this would help in strengthening community-school relationship and surrendering local decision-making power to the community. The study was limited to parents‘ participation; thus, research on the involvement of other stakeholders such as NGOs, and industry associations, would contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of SDA mechanisms.