UNIT THREE

The Essence of Participatory Approach in Education

Participation definition:
involvement through the mere use of a service (such as enrolling children in
school or using a primary health care facility);
involvement through the contribution (or extraction) of money, materials, and
labor;
involvement through ‘attendance’ (e.g. at parents’ meetings at school),
implying passive acceptance of decisions made by others;
involvement through consultation on a particular issue;
participation in the delivery of a service, often as a partner with other actors;
participation as implementers of delegated powers; and
Participation “in real decision making at every stage,” including identification
of problems, the study of feasibility, planning, implementation, and evaluation.
 Shaeffer(1994) provides some specific activities that involve
participation:
• collecting and analyzing information;
• defining priorities and setting goals;
• assessing available resources;
• deciding on and planning programs;
• designing strategies to implement these programs and dividing
responsibilities among participants;
• managing programs;
• monitoring progress of the programs; and
• Evaluating results and impacts.
 Decentralization, Accountability, Autonomy, and Empowerment

 Decentralization transfers the decision making power to the local

community or to the beneficiaries of educational services.
Decentralization is another concept, however, fraught with multiple
and often contradictory variations (Rondinelli et al1990, Hallak, 1990,
Bray, 1987, Bloomer, 1991).
 Deconcentration: sometimes called administrative decentralization,
involves handing over more routine authority and decision-making
power from a higher level of the central government to lower levels
regional, district, cluster), still accountable to, and staffed by, the
central ministry.
 Delegation transfers (or lends) certain specific management
responsibilities or some activities to other units, governmental or
non-governmental, implying somewhat stronger (but easily
cancellable) local autonomy
• Privatization: is the divesting of functions to
the private sector, to it her voluntary or for-
profit organizations.
• Devolution: (sometimes called political
decentralization) strengthens sub-national
units of government and actually transfers
considerable decision-making powers to local
political bodies’ relatively independent of the
central government.
 Accountability
 Accountability relates to who is required to report to
whom about - and therefore can ultimately be held
responsible for - the determination and implementation
of policies and procedures, the achievement of goals, the
performance of institutions, and compliance with
standards and regulations.
• Autonomy: to guarantee some degree of autonomy or
'self-government' to lower levels of the system. This
includes both autonomy for organizations to make and
implement decisions regarding their own operations, and
for individuals, to make decisions regarding matters
pertaining to their own concerns.
 Empowerment
 One important outcome of more participatory processes will
be empowerment. Greater participation in a decentralized
system, with multiple and more democratic processes of
accountability of more autonomous institutions, implies that
people:
• gain knowledge and awareness of their own social, economic,
and political conditions;
• take action - to make and act on choices and to construct "their
own futures through a process of analysis and action”;
• gain control over the goals and processes of development, and
• People who are empowered "have the power to find direct
solutions to their problems- they propose solutions, they do
not beg for them (Bemard Van Leer Foundation, 1990:5);
 Major Goals of School-Society participation

 Ideological goals: to empower people in order to ensure their greater control

over development and their greater influence over decisions that affect them;
 Economic goals: both to seek more resources from a wider range of actors
and to share the price of development by transferring some Costs from the
'suppliers' to the 'consumers';
 political goals: from the government's side, to strengthen the legitimacy of
the current government and make people co-responsible for social problems;
from the 'popular' side, to gain greater share of power in policy-making and
budget allocations;
 Programmatic: to increase program or project demand, coverage, relevance,
effectiveness, efficiency, success, and sustainability; and
 capacity-building: to develop new knowledge, skills, and attitudes and
provide beneficiaries a useful share in management tasks, monitoring, etc.
 The difficulties of participation

• Heterogeneity: Social stratification, divisions along caste, religious, and ethnic

lines, personal rivalries and social factionalism, and the incompatibility of interests
are all factors which make it difficult to talk of 'community' mobilization through
participation.
• lack of experience: lack of experience and skill in participatory and collaborative
activities
• lack a sense of self-confidence: potential participants, especially those
economically and socially weakest, may lack a sense of self-confidence and political
efficacy
• Lack of economic capability: marginal communities (and many governments)
cannot bear the added expense of participatory processes .
• Complex managerial and supervisory skills: participatory processes do not just
happen by themselves or by fiat, but rather require new and complex managerial
and supervisory skills, attitudes, and behaviors
• Conflict with a political culture: participation is often in conflict with a political
culture where initiatives toward reform may require clear sanction from above and
where, for example, both parental participation in designing (let alone questioning)
school policies and flexible, non-standardized responses to a variety of
development contexts are difficult to imagine.
 The particular weakness of the intermediate (regional, district, sub-district) level of
government. This level is necessarily a crucial actor in any kind of educational
change, especially given the variety of important roles it can play. These include:
 providing professional assistance and technical support to schools and their
personnel,
 promoting the exchange of information across schools,
 mediating and channeling communication between the top and the bottom and
passing information both up and down the system,
 participating in the selection, placement, and promotion of teachers and
principals, and
 given its links to a community beyond that of a particular school (e.g.,
intermediate-level offices of other development sectors such as health and
agriculture), connecting the school to this wider range of potential partners and
resources.
• a lack of the time, energy, and sense of 'efficacy' required for such
involvement;
• a lack of appreciation of the overall objectives of education and a mismatch
between;
• what parents expect of education and what the school is seen as providing;
• the belief that education is essentially the task of the State; the length of
time required;
• to realize the benefits of better schooling;
• ignorance of the structure and functions of the school;
• the school's disinterest or resistance to community or parental involvement
in what are;
• often seen as specialized and professional matters; and
• an underestimation by parents of their own competence in educational
issues and the
• fear of being blamed for their children's 'backwardness' (UNESCO:1990).
 Major Partnerships in School and Society Relation

• The government: bureaucracies and

bureaucrats
• The school: heads and teachers
• The community: parents and local
organizations
• Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
 AREAS OF SOCIETAL PARTICIPATION IN EDUCATION

 The Diagnosis of Educational Conditions, Needs,

Priorities, and Resources
 Policy making and Governance
 Instructional Process
 The Diagnosis of Educational Conditions, Needs, Priorities, and Resources

 The Importance of Community Involvement in the

Diagnosis
 In order to be responsive to the local needs, and to the
needs of the disempowered and marginalized in
particular, it is important to ensure that those who
actually do the teaching (teachers) and the learning
(pupils), those who directly or indirectly finance the
schooling (parents and government), and those who
will benefit more generally from education (community)
are involved in the process of educational diagnoses
(Shaeffer, 1994).
• Encouraging participation of different community members in the
process of educational needs assessment will help teachers to better
understand the population's own perceptions, priorities, and capacities
regarding educational activities. Particularly, it will enable:
 to make a more accurate need assessment
 to identify relevant educational goals and objectives
 to increase the motivation of the learners, parents, and the community
to participate in educational programs;
 to identify the main effects of emergencies on education;
 to assess available human resources;
 to assess existing education facilities and services;
This can be facilitated in the following ways:
 Seeking parent and community opinion;
 Forum for the synthesis of data and the setting of educational priorities.
 The participatory process of Diagnosis
A more participatory process of diagnosis
entails two things:
 (1) The creation of a data-based development
'profile' of the community (of perhaps of the
kebele or woreda), especially in the sector of
education, and
(2) The development of mechanisms to
encourage the involvement of members of the
community in the process.
 The creation of a community profile
 (a) Indicators and needs of general
development
• Population dynamics and health status
• Economic development, income levels, and
employment patterns
• Housing and transportation
• The existence of disadvantaged areas or
groups
 (b) Indicators and needs of educational development

• Absolute totals and rates of enrolment, graduation, and

literacy
• Pupil-teacher ratios
• The magnitude and causes of non-participation, of both
pupils and teachers (absenteeism and drop-out)
• Gender imbalances in education
• The absence of education opportunities for particular
groups (pre-school children, illiterate adults, unemployed
youth, ethnic minorities)
• The status of mother-tongue education and of traditional
knowledge in school
 Available local resources

• Available educational programmes and facilities, in and out

of school
• Financial and human resources
• Local organizations and other sectors involved in education
(d) Educational processes
• Patterns of school management
• Teaching-learning processes
 (e) The nature of participation in education

• The motivation and activities of teachers

• The extent to which parents and community organizations are involved in
education
(f) Educational needs and priorities
• What is more important: greater quantity (more places) or higher quality
(better teaching, more relevant content)?
• Where should new schools be located (school mapping)?
What are priorities?
• by level (pre-school, primary, secondary, adult?)
• by type (academic or vocational?)
• by pupil gender (a special focus on girls?)
 The involvement of more actors in diagnoses

More consistent, systematic, and integrated

data collection.
The seeking of parent and community opinion.
The involvement of other actors in diagnoses.
For a synthesis of data and the setting of
priorities.