Community participation in the educational reform - the SMC factor in the Shama-Ahanta East metropolitan area

Abstract

At a time in the nation's history when government policy was in the direction of community participation in the educational delivery process, this research was undertaken to establish the effect the attitudes of School Management Committee members have on the academic performance of their respective basic schools. The study centred on school communities in the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan area of the Western Region of Ghana. The metropolitan area has quite a good number of basic schools. The 18 school committees sampled for the study were spread equally over the three submetros of Takoradi, Sekondi and Shama. The descriptive approach formed the design for the research. Structured questionnaires, the return rate of which stood at 88.2 percent were used to collect data for the project. These questionnaires were distributed among SMC members, Headteachers/teachers (secretaries), GES personnel at the Education office. In the analysis of the data collected, simple percentages were used. The findings were that the attitudes shown by members of School Management Committees had an effect on the academic work of basic schools. It was further revealed that SMC members in the urban parts of the metropolis had a better attitude to their work than their counterparts in the rural setting, while male SMC members showed a more positive attitude than the female members. Though achieving a fifty-fifty parity of male-female members on School Management Committees could be an uphill task difficult to accomplish, well planned workshops to educate SMC members were recommended to improve their attitudes. Also it was recommended that some stipend paid to SMC members would go a long way to improve upon their performance.