INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOME:

1. Synthesize the significance of the school and community partnership.

2. Explain how the school and the community help each other in achieving its goals.
STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS: Note: Do not submit your answers to these questions.

1. Who are these two parties helping each other for the good of the system?
2. What are the activities the community do to help the school?
3. How do schools help the community in return?
4. Explain the African proverb, “It takes a village to educate a child.” in the context of
partnership.
5. Can the school replace the primary obligation of the parents? Why?
6. What is RA 8582 all about?
7. What is Philippine EFA 2015 Plan? What is its vision?

THE WHY AND HOW OF SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP

Opportunities for School-Community Partnership

Partnership implies two parties helping each other. Both parties benefit. This means that if a
school-community partnership exists, both parties benefit from the relationship. Thus, in the following
paragraphs, we shall present what communities can do for schools and what schools can do for
communities.

What can the community do for schools?

Here are examples of what a community can do for schools:

1. Brigada Eskwela – This program engages all education stakeholders to contribute their time,
effort and resources to ensuring that public school facilities are set in time for the forthcoming school
opening. It takes place more or less two weeks before classes begin in June. This is a school maintenance
program that has been institutionalized since 2009 when DepEd issued DepEd Order # 100.

2. Curriculum Development – This can mean use of community resources for learning, e.g.
museum, elders of the community as key information in research or resource persons in the study of
local history.

3. Work experience programs – Business establishments and offices in the community can serve
as training ground for learners. A concrete example is the Work Immersion required of Senior High
School students. In this Work Immersion, students are given the opportunity to work in relevant
establishments or offices in the community to help develop in them “the competencies, work ethics, and
values relevant to pursuing further education and/or joining the world of work… Partner offices the
immersion provide Senior High School students with opportunities: 1) to become familiar with the work
place; 2) for employment simulation; and 3) to apply their competencies in areas of specialization /
applied subjects in authentic work environments (Enclosure to DepEd Order No. 30, s. 2017).
 In this school-community partnership, the school can fulfill what curriculum requires and may
improve on their curriculum based on community feedback, enables the students to undergo hands-on
work experience, while community establishments contribute to the formation of graduates who are
more ready for life and more equipped for the world of work. Business establishments or any world of
work in the community are the ultimate beneficiaries of these graduate who have been more prepared
through work immersion.

Some schools call this service learning since it actively involves students in a wide range of
experiences which benefits students and the community at the same time fulfilling the requirement of a
curriculum.

4. Remediation and enrichment classes – Parents and retired teachers may be involved in the
School Reading remediation and Learning Enrichment Programs.

5. Youth Development Programs – The young may involve themselves in youth development
programs and develop their skills and talents, learn how to deal positively with peers and adults and
serve as resources in their communities.

6. Community Service – Examples of community service are students participating in tutorial

programs, community reforestation programs, clean up drive for a river, assisting in medical mission;
school head involved in planning local celebrations, teachers managing programs, projects, activities;
school band playing in fiesta parade.

What can schools do for communities in return?

Schools may allow the community to use school resources. Here are concrete examples
enumerated by the DepEd Primer on School-Community Partnership:

 Classroom used by community organizations for meetings

 School used as a polling place and venue for medical mission in which it may co-sponsor with
the Rural Health Unit

 School used by the Rural Health Unit for mothers’ class on child care

 School used as an evacuation center

 School facilities used for community assemblies

 School basketball court used for local celebrations and barangay sports league

 Schools conduct livelihood skills-training programs for parents and out-of-school youth by
using school resources

 Livelihood skills-training for parents and out-of-school youths by teachers themselves

Sociological Basis of School-Community Partnership

 The functionalist theory states that institutions must perform their respective functions for the
stability of society. Other institutions must come in if one institution fails to do its part for the sake of
society.

The school cannot do it all. “It takes a village to educate a child,” so goes the African proverb. It
has to work in partnership with other institutions in the community such as the church, government
organizations and non-government organizations. With the breakdown of families, schools face greater
challenge in educating the young.

The rearing and education of the child is the primary obligation of parents. The school, the
Church and other social institutions come in to assist parents and families to fulfill their irreplaceable
obligation. The breakdown of marriages, the demand for both mother and father to work to meet the
demands of a rising coast of living resulting to less or practically no more time for parents to spend time
with their children have, however attacked the stability of families and have adversely affected families
in the performance of their irreplaceable duty to educate children. Added to these is the increasing
number of families composed of single mothers struggling to raise a family. With the burden of earning
lodged solely on the shoulders of one parent, single parents struggle to earn enough to provide for their
families. Consequently, this responsibility leads to their having a limited amount of time to spend for
and with growing and developing children who, unfortunately become more likely single-parent families
themselves. The cycle goes on.

This is not to mention the negative effect of uncontrolled and unregulated use of technology on
the young. While the use of technology has brought a lot of convenience its uncontrolled and
unregulated use by the tech-savvy kids expose these kids to all sorts of information not necessarily
favorable for their development. So families, schools and other school institutions need to work
together to save the youth.

Legal Bases for Parents and Community Involvement

It is no wonder why even our laws support and school-community partnership. RA 9155,
Governance of Basic Education Act, Section E (10) explicitly states one of the responsibilities of school
heads is “establishing school and community” networks and encouraging the active participation of
teachers organizations, nonacademic personnel of public schools, and parents-teachers-community
associations.”

Section 3 (f) of the same Act encourages “local initiatives for the improvement of schools and
learning centers and to provide the means by which… improvements may be achieved and sustained.”

Batas Pambansa Blg. 232, otherwise known as the Education Act of 1982, Section 7 states that:

Every educational institution shall provide for the establishment of appropriate bodies through
which the members of the educational community may discuss relevant issues and communicate
information and suggestions for assistance and support of the school and for the promotion of their
common interest. Representatives from each subgroup of the educational community shall sit and
participate in these bodies, the rules and procedures of which must be approved by them and duly
published.

Another law, RA 8582, Adopt-A-School Program Act, also provides for school-community
partnership. It allows “private entities to assist a public school, whether elementary, secondary, or
tertiary… in, but not limited to, the following areas: staff and faculty development for training and
further education; construction of facilities; upgrading of existing facilities, provision of books,
publications and other instructional materials; and modernization of instructional technologies.”

Even the Philippine Education for All (EFA) 2015 Plan, then a vision and a holistic program of
reforms that aimed to improve the quality if basic education for every Filipino by end of 2015 likewise
states: “Schools shall continue to harness local resources and facilitate involvement of every sector of
the community in the school improvement process.

This EFA 2015 Plan was extended in Education for All Beyond 2015 – Agenda 2030. Agenda 2030
has 7 new educational targets from 2015-2030 that must involve education stakeholders which in
essence is school-community partnership. UNESCO Assistant Director General for Education, Dr. Qian
Tang, himself admits that Agenda 2030 cannot be realized without schools partnering with community.
He said: “Our vision must be more aggressive, more committed not just involving government,
nongovernment agencies but all stakeholders.”

RA 9155, states that partnership between school and community also ensures… that: 1)
educational programs, projects and services take into account the interests of all members of the
community (Sec. 3, d); 2) the schools and learning centers reflect the values of the community by
allowing teachers/learning facilitators and other staff to have the flexibility to serve the needs of all
learners (Section 3, e); and 3) local initiatives for the improvement of schools and learning centers are
encouraged and the means by which these improvements may be achieved and sustained are provided
(Sec. 3, f). So schools and communities function better when they work as a team.

LESSON TASK:

Do this task individually. Upload to your folder and name this PARTNERSHIP.

1. Illustrate with a cartoon or a diagram the partnership between the school and the community.

2. School and community partnership enhances sense of ownership and sense of belonging. What do
these mean? How will this impact on schools and communities?

3. One instance that proves that school-community partnership that has been established is the Brigada
Eskwela of the Department of Education. Inquire on what Brigada Eskwela is and the good things it has
brought to schools. Note: You may ask the perception of any of the following: teacher or administrator,
parent, community partner.