Improving community participation in administration of newly established senior secondary schools in the Eastern region through intense public education

Abstract

The study was an action research to help improve community participation in the Administration of newly established senior secondary schools in the Eastern Region through intensive public education. The data for the study were collected from five selected community senior secondary schools with a sample size of 100 at each of the data gathering stages of the study. There were 20 respondents from each community made up of 7 from the schools and 13 from among the citizens in the towns. The duration for the study was one academic term. The data gathering instrument for the study was a questionnaire, which was used to gather data at both the pre-intervention and post-intervention stages. The preintervention data were meant to determine the real nature of the problem envisaged as it existed between the school and community members. The data results were analysed by using simple percentage of the responses. The most outstanding finding during the pre-intervention stage was that some of the newly established schools in the Eastern Region were experiencing poor community participation and undue interference by some of the community members. On the basis of the findings from the pre-intervention data, an intervention was put in place, which included, among others, the sensitization of the community members about their roles and responsibilities towards their schools and their wards' education. The post-intervention data were collected and analysed to find out the extent to which the intervention had helped to change people's perception and attitudes towards improving the situation. It was found that when regular public education was organized in the selected communities for opinion leaders and community members, community participation in the administration of the schools improved. Among the recommendations made is that, there is the need to continue educating members of the community on their regular involvement in the schools' administration for the development and proper management of their schools.