Involving communities : participation in the delivery of education programs

This monograph answers the question by examining the success of six development programs that have tried this strategy: the IMPACT project in the Philippines; the Harambee Secondary School Movement in Kenya; the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) in Bangladesh; the Community Support Project (CSP) in Balochistan, Pakistan; Escuela Nueva in Colombia; and Fe y Alegria (FYA) in Bolivia and Venezuela. The examination finds that educational models that incorporate community participation in decisions about scheduling conditions and facility locations are equally or even more effective than those that do not. They are particularly effective in increasing the educational participation of disadvantaged groups such as the poor, rural, and girls. Community participation is more likely to contribute to the delivery of education where demand for education exists but governments have failed to provide enough conventional schooling opportunities. Even so, community participation must be accompanied by technical expertise if it is to successfully contribute to educational delivery. The case studies also show that communities can be drawn into educational delivery in ways that help form the institutional infrastructure of civil society and promote the practice of democracy. At the same time, the community participation strategy may be more appropriate in some contexts than others and comes at a cost that must be weighed against that of other potential educational project components. The report discusses specific lessons taught by the case studies about the purposes of community participation, the role of initiators, the importance of context and focus, trade-offs in project costs, cultural adaptation, the need for systematic reflection on the process, the difference between a pilot and a full scale project, and the elusiveness of educational quality. Three models derived from the case studies for fostering community participation are presented: an accountability model; a partnership model, and a demand model. Includes bibliography.