Community – School Relations: A ‘Social Contract?’

In community – school relationship discourses, the impression has often times been given that the policy of education decentralisation is about what communities could do to support schools located within them. The fact of it being a two-way relationship is often not stressed much, thus diminishing the role the school plays or could play in the life of communities in which they are located.

Responding to a question about how schools and communities have engaged for their mutual benefit, a circuit supervisor (CS) pointed out that the community‟s involvement with schools depended on the extent to which teachers participated in community related activities. He further observed that when this occurred, there was greater appreciation of the school as a part of the community and a genuineness to support its development. In the circuit supervisor‟s view:

Head teachers have on many occasions used pupils to clean townships; clinics, weed compounds plant trees and provided the greatest support for communal labour. All this depend on the relationship between the head teacher and the leaders of the community (CS: 11/10/08).

A community member recounted instances in which a particular head teacher was the chief‟s secretary and another teacher was secretary to the town development committee.

This had created a cordial relationship which had led to teachers being welcomed and offered accommodation in the community. In his view:

When the teachers demonstrate that they are interested in the activities and welfare of community members by getting involved in community activities, such as festivals and communal labour and serving on development committees as secretaries or members, community members see them as part of them and this helps build a good relationship between the community and the teachers as well as the school (community member [CBS]: 10/12/08). It is suggestive of a reciprocal relationship between community and school which starts with the school (teachers) engaging first, to nurture a feeling of mutual trust. This resulted in the communities providing support in the form of accommodation and provision of incentives (mostly in-kind donations) to teachers from community members and parents. As one community member pointed out:

As you are aware we have a proverb that the left hand bathes the right hand and the right hand bathes the left hand [which literary translates: you help me; I

help you]. So once we see the teachers committed to our children, whatever we

have to do to support them we will also play our part [my emphasis] (community member [CBS]: 09/12/08).

In the MDE‟s view:

The perception of the community of the school depends on the way the community sees the head teacher. When the head teacher participates in community activities the rest of the teachers are pulled along (MDE: 11/10/08). Some teachers spoke about how service to the community had endeared them to parents and promoted positive relations as exemplified in this comment by a female teacher in the Kuku community.

For the last three years that I handled the church choir we have won three consecutive times the circuit singing competition. This is something both the church and the entire community are very proud of. For this reason many people in the community are very kind to me. A parent has even offered me her daughter to stay with. She says she wants her to be like me (teacher [Kuku]: 23/10/08).

However, there was also a view coming from some community members that participation depended on perceptions about whether teachers were doing a good job in providing quality education. In that respect some community respondents argued that they were not

willing to sacrifice their time for the school if the teachers were not teaching well enough for their children to pass the BECE.

In a situation where the teachers are not given attention to our children why should we also care about them? (community member [Kuku]: 18/11/08) Other community members in Kuku held similar views. According to one of them:

Teachers here do not support the community as they should. They always demand incentives for every service they provide whether it is extra classes for the children or serving on a community development committee, but when they need anything they expect us to provide for them free of charge (community member [Kuku]: 17/11/08).

Whereas some community members thought the school didn‟t care much about the community by the way they handled their children and their involvement in community life, some teachers pointed out that such an assertion is misplaced. Some teachers in Kuku were of the opinion that the school did more than was probably expected of them. One teacher remarked “there is no activity in this town that the school is not involved in one way or the other”. Another said:

But for the school, this community would be dead by now. It is the teachers and the pupils who are keeping this town going. Almost all the young men and women have left to work in the big towns. There isn‟t anything that goes on here that we are not involved in (teacher [Kuku]: 22/10/08).

However, other teachers in Kuku did not see community service as one of their responsibilities. As this teacher argued:

Our mandate is to teach. They always complain that we are not teaching the children. If we do community service is it not part of the teaching time we will be using? In any case many of us do not live in the community so I don‟t see it as an obligation. (teacher [Kuku] : 24/10/08).

On the contrary, the head teacher of the CBS School felt that community service should be viewed as part of the schools‟ social responsibility to the community. He alluded to the fact that the school‟s very existence depended on the community, and that teachers‟ should see their role as extending beyond the classroom.

…You see, look at this community, they are very poor but for them we would also not be here. Even though it is the image of the school that has made the

community popular the fact that the school is located here gives us an obligation towards them (head teacher [CBS]: 24/11/08).

This view was shared by other teachers in the same school. Some teachers in CBS admitted that their influence as teachers and control over their pupils were enhanced by their involvement in community activities, and that this helped to build a positive relationship with both children and parents. As this teacher in CBS explained:

Through home visits and interactions with parents, I get to know the children better and also their parents, and sometimes opportunities are created to counsel both the child and the parent (teacher [CBS]: 24/11/08).

These contrasting views seem to suggest that the role of teachers can be perceived differently. Whereas some saw it as inseparable from responsibility to the community, others viewed the two as distinct fields of activity that were mutually exclusive. Nevertheless, the examination of policy documents clearly shows that the school- community and teachers‟ role is carefully considered. The following is an extract from the policy, as published in the Head teachers’ Handbook.

Source: Ghana Education Service, Headteachers‟ Handbook (1994, p.226).

Source: Ghana Education Service, Head teachers Handbook (1994 p226)

Clearly, policy envisages spaces where schools and their local communities work together for the benefit of both the community and the school. However, none of the teachers‟ interviewed were aware of this policy. It demonstrates just how well-intended policies may sometimes not get beyond the pages of the document they are published in, so for those

The school is part of the general organisation of a town or village. Whatever goes on at school affects the community. For example, when children pass well in an examination, everyone shares in their achievement. On the other hand, when the examination results of the school are poor, some people express their anger, sometimes by means of verbal attacks on the teachers. It is therefore important that you cooperate with the community, as the school will benefit a great deal if it has a good relationship with the people of the community.

The school could benefit the community through a number of activities, including the following:

b) Once a term, select some institution or area in town that needs cleaning, and organise the pupils and teachers to undertake a clean-up at the place.

c) Identify places such as the community centre, the market and the chief’s palace, that could benefit from tree-planting. In some cases, it may be necessary to plant flowers to beautify the surroundings.

d) Make sure your school assists the community in carrying out development projects. e) The school should take active part in community programmes such as health week,

who were providing community service, their actions were not in response to knowledge about this policy. This is the gap the study identified – the gap between policy rhetoric and the reality of people‟s experiences as seen in the field.

The degree of participation appears to be shaped by a „social contract‟ based on the principle of mutual expectation of execution and accountability of respective roles between the community and schools. The reciprocity of this relationship thus forms the framework for engagement between school and community.