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Assessing School Initiatives in Involving Parents in School Activities in Temeke Municipality Primary Schools
Anna Joachim Minja
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Abstract
The study assessed school initiatives in involving parents in school activities in Temeke Municipality. The objective of the study were, to examine the extent of parental involvement in school activities; to assess initiatives used by schools on involving parents on school activities; to find out challenges schools face in involving parents; and to explore views on better strategies that could be used by schools’ management in involving parents in the school activities. The study employed a qualitative research approach whereby, a descriptive research design was applied to collect data, using a study sample of 24 participants, from four primary schools. Semi-structured interview guides and documentary review were employed to collect relevant data. Data collected were subjected to content analysis and presented descriptively in form figures and tables. Findings revealed that community involvement in school activities is a valuable option in improving quality delivery of education services in schools. The study found out those schools involved parents in school activities through different initiatives, including involvement in school progressive activities, school meetings, consultation sessions, welfare and charity exercises; school governance and students’ academic support. However, the level of participation was revealed to be at an average level while attendance in school meetings and financial support were worse. Hindrances that were found to affect effective involvement of parents in school initiatives included parents’ financial problem, lack of time to attend school meetings and political influence, other hindrances included Misconception on contributions, ignorance and loss of trust among parents towards school personnel. The study therefore recommends, among other things, reasons and benefits of community participation have to be clearly addressed in order to encourage the community participate in school developments.