OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN SCHOOL-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP IN GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF SOUTH WEST SHOA ZONE OF OROMIA REGIONAL STATE

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.