Abstract:

The advent of decentralization of education management brought in its wake the establishment of School Management Committees (SMCs) and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) for each school as vital structures of educational decentralization reform. The objective was to create a new governance landscape based on community participation as well as devolution of power to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies. The effectiveness of these two bodies have varied considerably, depending on capacity availability at particular communities, with poor rural communities being the most disadvantaged due to lack of social capital. In some cases, SMCs seldom work as the de facto representatives of the community, as decisions are made and critical interactions occur outside this formal structure for community representation and engagement in school governance. This affects the visibility of SMCs and appears to undermine their credibility and capacity to play their intended role. PTAs on the other hand, are more visible and show much interest in the school by providing financial and other resources for the development of the school and well being of teachers and they appear more trusted than SMCs. This paper argues that the roles of the two bodies appear to be a duplication rather than value addition. It argues further that owing to the emotional attachment PTAs have with schools they are likely to give more attention to the development and management of schools than SMCs and calls for rethinking of the policy with respect to the roles of the two bodies.

Keywords:

SMC, PTA, Community Participation, Decentralization, Policy.