IMPROVING SCHOOL-COMMUNITY RELATIONS IN THE TOLONIKUMBUNGU DISTRICT OF THE NORTHERN REGION

Abstract

The building of cordial working relationships among stakeholders is necessary in the provision and management of quality education. Unfortunately, a history of the antecedence of Western education in Ghana does not support the existence of cordial relations between the school and community. This study seeks to identify strategies for improving school-community relations in the Tolon/Kumbungu District. The data for the study was generated from both primary and secondary sources. Secondary data was extracted from books, articles, journals, and news publications. The study combined both qualitative and quantitative methodologies for data collection and data analysis. The study employed Focus Group Discussion and personal interviews in gathering the data. The data was analyzed by coding and transcribing audio recordings through the use of Computer Aided Data

Analysis. Questionnaires were used to gather quantitative data while analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. One hundred respondents were purposively sampled from 30 school-communities in the district. Also, 30 focus group discussions were held with executives of School Management Committee/Parent Teacher Association in all the selected school-communities. Interview sessions were also organized with representatives from; District Education Office, District Education Planning Team, District Education Oversight Committee, World Vision, and BIBI R. The study results revealed that, the causes of poor school-community relations are: teacher misconduct, poor communication, lack of transparency and accountability, encroachment on school land, community interference/teachers intrusion, and failure on the part of the school to meet community expectations. The study identified major signs of teacher misconduct in schools to include, absenteeism, lateness to school, failure to write up-to-date lesson notes, misappropriation of school funds, sexual misconduct /immoral relations, with others. The following recommendations were made: basic schools in the district must operate on a management structure that is based on the Democratic Model. Also, the open/cooperative system of school-community relations is recommended in the district.