Abstract:
The main purpose of this study was to assess opportunities of the school-community
partnership, and challenges that hinder its effectiveness in government secondary schools
of South West Shoa Zone., and descriptive survey design was employed to conduct the
study. Besides, the target populations of the study were 28 secondary schools teachers,
principals, supervisors, PTA and officials. Thus, 8 secondary schools by the simple
random and 164 teachers were selected systematic sampling techniques. Then, 8 PTA
chairpersons, 8 principals, 8 supervisors and 16 officials were selected by availability
sampling technique. Data was collected from both primary and secondary data sources.
Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect data. The data collected
through questionnaire was analyzed by using quantitative method (descriptive statistics_
frequency and percentage) and inferential statistical tool (t-test) whereas qualitative data
that was obtained through interview, open-ended questions, and document analysis was
analyzed qualitatively. Based on the major findings, conclusions had also been drawn.
Accordingly, the government secondary schools of South West Shoa could not efficiently
utilize the available opportunities of school-community partnership. The failure of
employing the opportunities has negative implication for the effectiveness of schoolcommunity
partnership. In addition, activities of school-community partnership had not
been implemented in line with the policy expectation. This also implies that weak
community participation in the implementation of the partnership activities have negative
impact on the outcomes of partnership. The partnership had also been encountered the
prevailing challenges, which in turn negatively affect its effectiveness. Besides, the
strategies of school-community partnership implementation were inconsistent with the
policy expectation, and this failure hampers its effectiveness. It has also been suggested
that the school leadership should investigate the opportunities of school-community
partnership intensively and employ consistently to achieve sustainable partnership,
conduct need analysis to identify priorities and relevance of the partnership, provide
trainings for the practitioners of the partnership to enhance their capacity, and
government (supervisors, WEO and Regional Education Bureau)should conduct regular
review of the allocation of the school-community partnership, provide trainings for the
practitioners, and maintain close follow-up.
