Abstract:

One of the basic theories of the sociology is structural functionalism. Founders of this theory are T.Parsons and R.Merton, and this theory explains the structure of the society. Society, in sociologists functionalists view, regulates and defines the status of the individual, takes forward and controls it. Youth learns and demonstrates attitude, roles, norms and values of the definite society. Functionalists consider that there must be quite harmonious relationships between the youth and the society, in which the main role belongs to the society.
The governance of the education systems – one of the most pressing problems all around the world. The history of the National Education system’s development shows that the organization, methods and forms of the education system depend on political, economical and cultural traditions of the society, as well as specific polity and national law of the state. In spite of a number of different national education systems, depending on the distribution of decision-making powers there have historically developed two models of the education governance: centralized and decentralized.

The decentralized education governance model intends to devolve and to delegate the responsibility of the decision-making process to the LEAs, and they have rights to delegate decision-making powers to educational institutions. This model is different because it is more adjusted to changes in the social environment, reacts more flexible on changes in the education programs, and corresponds to the differentiated approach. Decentralized governance activates functioning of the LEA, as well as involves society in the LEA’s decision-making processes.
The aim of the research is to analyze how local society sees its role and importance in the accessibility of the general education in the municipality and in the improvement of the quality of the education in the environment of the policy reforms?
The results of the research show that society, involved in the development of general education, that includes pupils, their parents and teachers positively estimate the opportunity to take part in and to influence the decision-making processes. The results of the research also show that 80% of the respondents support the increase of their influence in the development of LEA’s policy and are ready to act. But at the moment respondents estimate their influence in the development of the LEA’s policy in average with 3, 4 (in the rating scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means that they don’t have any influence in the development of LEA’s policy, and 10 means that they have a strong influence on that).

Conclusions:
1. The development of general education in the municipality is one of the main specific areas that refer to the most part of the local society (community). The most part of pupils and their parents don’t see their opportunities to take part in the development of the LEA’s policy.
2. There must be formed nongovernmental organizations or institutions that unify the point of view by definite part of the local society and express it to the LEA, thus it is possible to increase local society’s involvement in the planning of the education development.

Keywords:

Education, sociology, public administration, decentralization.