MANAGING OUR SCHOOLS TODAY: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO PARTICIPATORY SCHOOL GOVERNANCE.

A simple manual for training and advocacy

By PAMOJA (Africa Reflect Network)

In collaboration with

ANCEFA
(Africa Network Campaign on Education for All).

This manual has been produced with kind support from CEF Commonwealth Education Fund.

Andiwo Obondoh Maria Nandago Elijah Otiende May 2005

TABLE OF CONTENT Acknowledgements -------------------------------------------------------------------pg. 3 Foreword --------------------------------------------------------------------------------pg. 3 Acronyms and Abbreviations -------------------------------------------------------pg. 4 SECTION ONE 1.0 About the Process and Content of the Manual ----------------------------- pg. 4 How the manual has been developed Purpose of the manual (why it has been produced) Adapting the manual to context Skills and capacities needed to use this manual Who is targeted by this manual and how it should be used How the manual is different from others SECTION TWO 2.0 Rationale for Participatory School Governance ----------------------------- pg. 9 Empowering actors to influence school policies Purpose and benefits of monitoring plans and budgets Building community capacity for local-level decision making SECTION THREE 3.0 Introduction to Reflect and Governance ---------------------------------------pg. 11 Purpose objectives and activities Understanding reflect and governance Why reflect tools for school governance SECTION FOUR 4.0 Specific Modules for Governance and Management of Schools Module I: Building Links between the School and Local Community --------pg. 15 Looking at school/community relations Defining and understanding the role of SMCs and PTAs Module II: Working Towards Change of School Environment ----------------pg. 21 Enhancing learning and teaching processes in schools Promoting learning beyond the classroom Exploring the internal/external school environment Expanding education opportunities to extend access Producing and managing teaching/learning resources Module III: Leadership and Management of Schools ---------------------------pg. 32 Leadership functions

Exploring the relationship between SMCs and school staff Involving children in setting school priorities/decisions Module IV: Planning and Budgeting for School Development ---------------------pg. 40 School planning and budgeting Budgeting and resource mobilization for schools Monitoring and tracking resource use in schools Supply of materials and school procurement policies Power relations and challenges in decision making Module V: Advocacy for Good Governance of Schools------------------------------pg. 55 Understanding advocacy; meaning and value addition Influencing school policies, plans and budgets Reforming our schools through advocacy work SETION FIVE 5.0 Appendices About ANCEFA and PAMOJA Glossary of commonly used terms Millennium development goals and Dakar framework Case study of Kenyas national planning and budgeting process i]. Acknowledgements PAMOJA and ANCEFA wishes to acknowledge and greatly appreciate the efforts of the writing team Andiwo Obondoh (team leader), Maria Nandago and Elijah Otiende. We also wish to thank the participants of the Mwanza workshop on Reflect and Governance in March, 2004 for the idea of developing this manual was mooted and crystallized during this forum. Individual contributions in form of critiques, comments and articles from our members and associates should be noted; most significantly from Kate Newman, Kiura and Jina. Last but by no means least is acknowledgement to CEF for extending financial support to this process. Ii]. Foreword In order for schools to become empowering institutions which contribute to transformative education there needs to be sustained involvement at the local level of people who understand the local realities and needs of parents, teachers and school children. In many contexts this local involvement does not happen in a sustained, empowering way, and those who do link to the school often become limited to a role of being a school fundraiser. The ideas contained in this manual aim to alter this dynamic. This will not only improve the quality of education at local level, but will enhance access to education and strengthen local systems of education governance, with more people getting involved in school governance and general management of education at local, district and national levels.

A second aim of this manual is to ensure that space is created for local people to discuss education issues, and that this is linked to district, national, regional and international campaigning themes and priorities. All too often campaigns decide their messages at national or international level, without providing space for the voices of the poor to be heard. The ideas contained in this manual go some way to reducing the separation of grassroots and policy work, providing mechanisms for debate and suggestions of linking local analysis to groups well positioned to amplify those voices. This will not only strengthen the legitimacy of campaign work spearheaded by members of ANCEFA, PAMOJA and the GCE, as well as increase the number of people campaigning for education. It will further provide the campaign with new momentum, new strategies and new information about the current situation on the ground, interests of the local population, reflecting where they would really like to see change. ii]. Acronyms and Abbreviations ANCEFA Africa Network Campaign on Education for All SMC School Management Committee SDP School Development Plan EFA Education for All CSOs Civil Society Organizations UPE Universal Primary Education MDGs Millennium Development Goals PTAs Parent Teachers Association CBOs Community Based Organizations TOT Training of Trainers TOF Training of Facilitators SBF School Based Facilitators UNDHR - Universal Declaration of Human Rights CRC - Convention on the Rights of the Child FBOs Faith Based Organizations NGOs Non-Governmental Organizations CIRAC - International Reflect Circle

SECTION ONE 1.0 ABOUT THE PROCESS AND CONTENT OF THE MANUAL: This is a joint initiative between ANCEFA and PAMOJA. Attempts have been made to have the manual simple and practical as possible with relevant illustrations where applicable. The genesis of the manual traces its way to the Pamoja Reflect and School governance workshop held in Mwanza Tanzania in March, 2004. The need for a manual of this kind was generated during this workshop, where participants from across Africa expressed the necessity to have a guide focusing primarily on good governance of our schools today. 1.1 How it has been developed: The process of coming up with the guide has been fairly participatory, interactive and broad based. The discussions on the idea, concept note and process began earlier on in the year during the Reflect and governance workshop in Mwanza. The debates extended further a field between ANCEFA and PAMOJA on one hand and on the other hand between individual members of the writing team Andiwo Obondoh, Maria Nandago, and Elijah Otiende. Part of this debate was meant to develop a concept paper on participatory school governance and expenditure tracking in education and there after build consensus on the outline and possible content. Materials were collated and consultations with PAMOJA chapters and ANCEFA member coalitions ensued, out of which a draft manual emerged, which was again circulated for further discourse. All the modules have been piloted in different community settings in Kenya, Ghana and Malawi. It is important to underscore the fact that a video footage has been provided to step down the manual and make it available in many forms to school governance actors. 1.2 Purpose of the Manual: This manual is meant to act as a training guide for middle level CSO actors, community based organizations, and school management committees, parents and teachers associations, and abroad range of players on participatory and or consultative management techniques on school governance. This is meant to encourage accountability and participation in management of schools and educational programmes. The material will no doubt serve several purposes but key among them should include: Give school managers, teachers, community members, parents and pupils some insights into participatory and effective management of schools. Provide one stop reference material/source for management committees, stakeholders and reform lobbyists in education. Expound the role of reflect in school governance and bring forth examples of good or bad practice across Africa. Provide material for use in training both management committees and watchdogs for acquisition of managerial, monitoring and analytical skills.

Enhance capacity for local mobilization;- sensitize communities and help in mobilizing demand for quality as well as organize village education committees, community lobbies or action groups. The local education groups and lobbies, in addition to monitoring school budgets, participating in governance, should further focus on sensitizing parents on the importance of sending children to school. Other challenging roles for which this manual seeks to build capacity would be; Expose gaps and inadequacies in school management Demand new resources from government and local councils Mobilize parents to help secure new resources and hold school authorities to account. Engage in specific campaigns by using cultural spaces to raise issues around education and school management. Enhance community action on monitoring service provision and tracking of school budgets. Translating and interpreting major policy documents. Linking school to community level, district and national issues. 1.3 Adapting the Manual to your context This guide is made simple and flexible for ease of adaptation to different contexts (both geographical and thematic). One thing should remain clear from the onset; even though this manual has been produced specifically to support community level action on school governance, it can be modified for application in training managers and monitoring teams for any social sector institution. However, planners, policy implementers and trainers using this manual will have to take note of some basic pre-requisites such as: Ability to build support with grassroots Ability to listen to and work with local communities Ability to have good orientation about and understanding of the school environment Ability to analyze education plans and policies Ability to monitor and track resource use in schools This manual can be used in three main ways; experienced trainers can use it as a guide for training of trainers to build capacity of school managers, SMCs and budget trackers. Secondly it can be used by SMCs and line managers to guide day-to-day operations in our schools and finally as an advocacy instrument to help mobilize community participation in school governance. Tips, case studies, exercises, activities and illustrations are given to make the manual as practical and user friendly as possible. Keeping the guide relevant and applicable will however, remain a challenge to each actor opting to use this manual. 1.4 Skills and Capacity needed to use the Manual The modules in this manual are designed for use with groups, primarily at grassroots (local and district) level but many could also be adapted to facilitate discussions with

people working in different contexts on educational issues, including national and regional platforms. The modules require a good facilitator someone who is comfortable working with a group and creating space for, rather than dominating, discussion. The best facilitators are people who listen to others and bring in quieter voices, who are enthusiastic but are used to keeping their views to themselves. They should have the respect of participants, but also be open, friendly and approachable, able to be challenged, and confident enough to react to changes in group dynamics and processes. The facilitators will also need to be able to access additional information whether this is official documents (plans, policies or budgets) or newspaper articles, school curricula, advocacy and other NGO materials. The ideas developed in these sheets are based on more general experience of working with participatory approaches, and can be complemented by use of other relevant materials such as Communication and Power. A bibliography is included for reference in the back of this pack. It could also be useful for groups involved in this work to link with Reflect groups (or other similar groups) to extend their voices and increase the impact of their action. 1.5 Who is targeted by this Manual? The manual targets middle level CSO actors [teacher unions, FBOs, CBOs-women group/youth groups], education officials [school inspectors], and school management committees, parents and teachers associations, and abroad range of other actors. The manual is meant for all categories of schools providing basic education. The training manual first and foremost targets trainers who have great influence on work done with school governance. These include trainers, mainly with the NGOs, Ministry of education Officials, and individuals managing training institutions. The knowledge base of school management will be passed on from trainers to trainers, to school administrators and to parents and teachers. The methods used to transmit the information will also be passed on. 1.6 How to use this Manual as a resource, training and advocacy pack? The manual is recommended to be used by those who have been trained. There will be two levels of training, TOT and TOF. TOT will be meant to develop facilitation skills of a cadre of trainers. It is meant to invite TOT to take a new look at the whole of their training approach to ensure that it reflects the principles in which they believe. The focus of TOT training will be facilitation skills. The experience is that TOTs who plan training courses are often pre-occupied with what trainees need to know[content] rather than the training methods or processes. The emphasis for the TOT training will be to enlarge the sphere of knowledge and use of active, participatory and experiential facilitation approach. The training will focus to changing TOT from owners of knowledge on school governance to Facilitators. TOTs will then train and work closely with School Based Facilitators [SBF]. TOF training will focus on training SBF. Their

training will focus both on content and process as these people will be involved directly in implementation. The ideas included in this document are intended to help those working at grassroots level, particularly in and around schools, engage policy makers, managers and public officials on issues of education. These include issues relating to school governance, school development planning, income and expenditure, community-school relations, education quality and access. The manual has a broad background and some introduction. The rest of the manual is divided into distinct but related modules; each module has a brief outline of purpose, objectives, activities and facilitators notes. The sections on facilitators notes are broad enough to provide platform for discussions, deepen analysis and plan for joint action. However, it is important to note that, most of the ideas are presented in a generic form and will need further adaptation for specific contexts we hope that this will be done at the local or national level. In any community there are a diverse group of people who relate to the local school. Some people have a formal relationship with the school. For example they may be employed in the school, be part of a legally constituted school management committee, or work for the local education authority. Others have a more informal arrangement. They may belong to a parent teacher association, or be part of a local community group, or they could be individual parents, pupils or community members. Each group of people will react differently to the discussion topics, and attempts have been made to focus the sheets on the different perspectives. However, the facilitator should be aware that they will need to further adapt and innovate based on these initial suggestions as contained in the notes. 1.7 How is this manual different from other resource packs? The series of modules presented in this manual are not intended to cover all aspects relating to school governance and education quality, but should be used to facilitate discussions and encourage community participation in education. They are however, based on participatory principles/tools/techniques and grounded on the reflect methodology. The manual encourages facilitators to guide people in their interactions to reflect on, and analyze their knowledge and reality so that they will be able to come up with actions which relate to their specific contexts. Ideas for learning and action by the groups involved are given as well as suggestions as to how to link the local initiatives to national level work. It is important to remember that in all good participatory processes the participants are expected to lead the process and define the outcomes. Each module contains some learning and action elements and the extent to which this is part of the process will depend on the nature of the group involved. Actions decided by each group will vary hugely: dependent on the local context, the status of the group, and

the level of power they have within school environment and lastly their knowledge levels on the area of governance.

SECTION TWO

2.0 RATIONALE FOR PARTICIPATORY SCHOOL GOVERNANCE 2.1. Empowering actors to influence school policies, plans and budgets The scarcity and unavailability of management information in terms of processes, structures, institutional mechanisms, functions and opportunities for participation to education stakeholders undermines their capacity to engage effectively in planning, budgeting and management of schools. On the other hand, the absence of critical information and the exceptional centralization of decision making in education, greatly limit the degree to which, parents, local communities, children, teachers, civic leaders, district education authorities and civil society groups can influence management and decision making processes and make legitimate demands to improve quality of education. Against this background, strengthening policy influencing techniques in order for stakeholders (mainly teachers, parents, children, education officials, community leaders and CSOs) to play an effective role in jointly deciding priorities, designing interventions and monitoring the implementation of school plans & budgets is therefore key to improving quality of education and attainment of EFA goals. To achieve this, community based organizations, parents and education officials need to acquire new skills, gain access to new information and to build new alliances. In particular for civil society; budget audits, independent analysis of school expenditure, working with SMCs, PTAs and other elected bodies, are examples of the policy influencing tools that education actors need to develop and bring to bear on school plans and policies. In order to address these problems we must find it extremely necessary to invent and innovate ways and means of empowering actors in the education sector to plan, budget, track and monitor expenditure patterns in education, particularly schools. 2.2 Purpose and Benefits of monitoring School Plans & Budgets 1. Tracking initiatives aim at ensuring that the government, local authorities, civil society and local communities, prioritize the educational needs and rights of poor people by strengthening the capacity and voice of PTAs and emerging civil society networks. 2. At the district and or community levels, the ability of pro-poor organizations to articulate local needs and demands effectively and to translate these concerns into coherent and practical policy recommendations will be greatly increased. 3. At the grassroots level, public debate and citizen action will be catalyzed and poor people will be empowered to articulate their own demands towards schools, local councils and district education officials, elected representatives, provincial and national authorities. 4. Capacity building is further expected to increase the advocacy capacity, analytical skills and watchdog roles of civil society groups working in education sector, particularly CBOs, SMCs and PTAs.

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5. Participatory strategies, if & when developed, should give sufficient room for continued assessment and feedback as to how far education policies are being implemented, and how far schools are meeting concerns of parents and local communities. 6. If the implementation of education plans and school budgets is adequately monitored, then this will give a mutual advantage to education authorities and civil society groups to assess performance of policies and programmes of the central government, district boards, local authorities and schools. 7. This will further increase access to information and therefore enhance the capabilities of SMCs, PTAs, CSOs, citizens and education officials in monitoring delivery of educational services at the district and school levels. 2.3 Building Community Capacity for local-level decision making In order to build a constituency for policy reform, and to create sustained pressure for change, civil society groups and education officials need to foster a vigorous public debate on education problems, and to create empowering opportunities for ordinary people to act in concert with others in order to bring about change in our schools. Both participatory methods in social audits and campaigning techniques should be used to increase involvement of communities in monitoring access, quality and equity of education through participatory indicators. Using this mother manual on school governance, groups can further produce more simplified guides to how the school plans and budgets are supposed to work. It is also possible to determine equity across different groups within the school, sectors within the community and regions by analyzing; Who makes decisions about school budgets? Is there transparency and accountability in management of the school? Where is the money coming from and where does it go? Is the money available reaching the intended beneficiaries children? What spaces are available for participation of parents, teachers, children and CBOs in school management? How effective are they using this space? It is envisaged that this process will give support to SMCs and PTAs by; Improving the quality of schools through promoting their accountability to children and local parents. Setting up and strengthening such committees and associations. Encouraging team building, problem identification and solving. Promoting training, budget analysis, monitoring and quality assurance.

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SECTION THREE INTRODUCTION TO REFLECT AND SCHOOL GOVERNANCE Purpose: This section is intended to discuss the concept and principles of governance and further enhance participatory governance and effective management of schools through use of Reflect methodology. It is important to note that reflect and governance form the basis of this manual and they will continuously be referred to. The section basically introduces both the School Based Trainers and School Based Facilitators (SBF) to reflect on how it can be used to promote school governance. Objective: [1] To increase education stakeholders knowledge and capacity to apply Reflect techniques in school governance. Activities and Approaches 1. Brainstorm on the definitions of Reflect and school governance. 2. Take notes on a flip chart as participants discuss 3. Summarize by giving a definition of Reflect and Governance 4. Discuss with participants the relevance of Reflect to school governance 5. Introduce Reflect tools and their importance 6. Present a case study to strengthen the understanding or ask any of the participants individually or in groups to do so.

FACILITATORS NOTES What is Reflect? It is a structured participatory learning process that facilitates peoples critical analysis of their environment to identify their problems, discuss and come up with practical solutions for sustainable development. Reflect was developed through the innovative pilot programmes in Uganda, Bangladesh and El Salvador between 1993 and 1995. It started as a fusion of the political philosophy of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire with the practical methodologies developed for Participatory Rural Appraisal [PRA]. Other significant influences were the ideological approach to literacy and gender analysis. Reflect has been adopted by different organizations in different contexts. Its use over the years has ranged from peace and reconciliation in Burundi, management of water projects by women in Kenya, land rights work in South Africa and community mobilization around forestry in Nepal among others. The main focus is to empower the socially and economically disadvantaged categories of people to critically reflect on their environment and subsequently take positive actions that can improve their livelihoods. The use of

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Reflect can stimulate School Management Committee members, as individuals and as a group to respond to the present public demand for good school governance. What is Governance? The concept of "governance" is not new. Simply put "governance" means: the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented). Governance can be used in several contexts such as school governance, corporate governance and local governance. School governance involves making decisions on: Goals, aims and objectives Management strategies - how things should be done (the dos and donts) Formulation of policies, plans and budgets Accountability and reporting mechanisms Information sharing systems Power relations in the running of the school. Allocation, utilization and generation of resources. Determination and enforcement of rules, procedures and guidelines. Stakeholder participation and community-school relations Curriculum content and delivery approaches Learning and teaching resources

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Good School Governance has 8 major characteristics. Participation: Participation by parents, teachers, community members [both men and women] and pupils is a key cornerstone of good school governance. Participation could be either direct or through representatives Rule of law: Good school governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially. It also requires promotion or protection of human rights. Transparency: Transparency means that decisions taken and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations off the school. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement e.g. parents, teachers, pupils and sponsors. It also means that enough information is provided and that it is provided in easily understandable forms and media. Responsiveness: Good school governance requires that school organs and processes try to serve all stakeholders, especially parents, teachers and pupils within a reasonable timeframe. Consensus oriented: Good school governance requires mediation of the different interests in school to reach a broad consensus on what is in the best interest of the whole school community and how this can be achieved. Equity and inclusiveness: Ensuring that all members of the school community feel that they have a stake in it and do not feel excluded from the mainstream. This requires all groups, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have opportunities to improve or maintain their well being. Effectiveness and efficiency: Producing results that meet the needs of the school community while making the best use of resources at their disposal. The concept of efficiency in the context of good school governance also covers the sustainable use of resources and the protection of the environment. Accountability: In general an organization or an institution is accountable to those who will be affected by its decisions or actions. Accountability cannot be enforced without transparency and the rule of law.

Why Reflect for School Governance? Reflect as an approach is known to create space where people feel comfortable to meet and discuss issues relevant to their development. Thus Reflect encourages meaningful participation of people in decision through communication and analysis. The use of Reflect for school governance will therefore enable: Parents to analyze their school environment to identify school problems discuss and come up with practical solutions. Reflect approach enable parents to come up with positive actions that will lead to change within their school. Reflect encourages collective and individual reflection and action, through it SMCs can be mobilized to address some of the practical needs of a school. This is the only way to enable parents to influence the direction their school needs to take. The

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use of Reflect therefore encourages ownership of the activities and events in the school. Parents to plan, control and monitor use of school resources available. The involvement of parents and community leaders, either directly or through SMCs, PTAs & CBOs, in these key management processes is the only way through which local communities will be empowered to demand for accountability and transparency. Parents to deal with power relations. By doing a detailed local analysis and organizing parents to address the local governance issues, Reflect build the confidence, skills of parents and community to effectively challenge the local power structure and demand for change both within the school and education structures. For any sustainable change to be achieved within the education sector at the local and national level, a strong base of governance must be built from school level. This base is something that Reflect process can build. The starting point must be the local school governors own analysis, on the basis of their immediate environment and experience Parents to communicate and improves their relationship within the school and beyond. The acquisition of literacy skills [reading/numeracy/writing, speaking and listening] by parents through Reflect is vital for accessing information, communication and documenting their experiences and perspectives. It is through communication that the voices of parents can be understood by government agencies or other public authorities. Parents to have and or ensure some democratic space: The use of a wide range of participatory tools within Reflect process helps create an open or democratic environment in which everyones voice is given equal weight. Visualization approaches are of particular importance for understanding governance issues. Some of the tools that can be used to analyze school governance issues includes: Maps, Diagrams, Matrices, calendars and other graphic. Other participatory methods that can be used include theatre, role play, songs and dance. For Reflect tools and their application in school governance see Appendices

Why Use Reflect Tools for School Governance? All participatory tools can be used for the good or bad of the community. Many development practitioners have used participatory tools to distort or manipulate local communities and their groups. However, Reflect tools are used for reflection and action for purposes of creating change. Thus the tools play a role in:

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Power and voice: through use of Reflect tools parents capacity to communicate with each other and the school authority is strengthened. Although part of the process may be about learning the dynamic of governance, the focus is on using these tools in a meaningful way. Democratic space: through Reflect parents voice in managing and governing schools is given more weight. The use of various tools actively constructs their participation and thus enables them to challenge the dominant powers and relationships. Orientation to action: Help break silence among parents as they discuss governance issues. Documentation: by encouraging people to put down for posterity and reference their various perspectives, experiences and initiatives. Communication: through use of Reflect, parents and local citizens be able to communicate effectively with school authorities and amongst themselves. Reflect can also be used for effective information sharing within the school, within the community and between the two. Change of group dynamics: Reflect helps in analysis of the characteristics of different groups, understanding their nature and most cases organizing such groups for action.

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SECTION FOUR SPECIFIC MODULES FOR GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS MODULE I: BUILDING LINKS BETWEEN THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY Purpose: to understand the relationships which exist between the school and the host community with a view to creating harmony and co-existence. Objectives: i). Outline roles of different actors in school management and discuss how they can engage actively in school affairs. ii). Define and understand different functions of SMCs and PTAs. Topics: Why take active role in school management? How can we use reflect to strengthen school-community relations? (Use of resource maps and chapatti diagrams) Roles and responsibilities of school governors Looking at school/community relations Defining and understanding the role of SMCs and PTAs

Activities and Approaches 1. Discuss with participants their understanding of community involvement and its effects on school governance in education 2. Using a flow diagram discuss the roles of community to school and school to community and summarize the discussion by bring out the synergy. 3. Discuss in syndicate groups roles and responsibilities of school governors. 4. Critically look at and discuss the relationship between the local community and the school and the benefits they get from one another. 5. Use case studies to help participants understand roles of different actors in FACILITATORS NOTES NM. 1.1 Looking at School/Community Relations This module looks at ways that the school can become a resource for the whole community by extending learning and sharing among community members. Often in most cases, the school is the only social service institution available in some local communities. The village may not have access to any other meeting place, any points to

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distribute information or share experiences. In addition, schools are often treated as places of official business, with community members feeling that they have no control about what goes on within the school walls. As a result most community members loose interest in the affairs of the school, thereby distancing themselves from the school itself. By building stronger links between the school and the community the benefits of having a school will be shared, while at the same time community members will feel more ownership of the school itself. The first stage however, is for the group to make the decision that Some Questions/Issues might this is a desirable concept that they support the include: integration of the school into the community. There What do we have to loose by may be people in the group with differing opinions extending the role of the about this especially if the group has members from school beyond its walls? the local education authority who are worried about What type of activities should the school support? the school loosing its focus on its primary purpose. It What are the resource would be good to set up a debate looking at the pros implications for getting and cons of extending the role of the school in to the involved in these initiatives? community. What benefits might accrue It would be good to come up with a list of possible activities the school could be involved in, and suggestions for how parents/community members could be involved with the school (beyond the fundraising position often allocated to them).
as a result of this enhanced role to both parties? What is the role of teachers, head-teacher, parents, children and other stakeholders?

Some of the extended roles might include any of the following: A resource centre for locally produced materials + information from the local government/other relevant information Center for adult education classes and community development processes Space for community meetings or forums Platform for Parent-teacher meetings (to discuss childrens progress) Opportunities for parents to lead specific classes. A joint community-school meeting could be held, to discuss these issues outlined above. This could then inspire a discussion on how they would like to see the school used to serve the local community, thinking how they could feel ownership of the school while extending their own learning processes. Another example might be to do a systems diagram, looking at how the school relates to the wider community. This could start by identifying all the different institutions linked to the school and asking how they relate, outlining roles of each one of them in the relationship and then examining who is missing from the picture, and trying to understand why this might be.

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What is a systems diagram? A systems diagram is a way of understanding how a group of organizations or individuals link together and can also be used to look at the power relations between those organisations. It is an extension of the chapatti diagram as it has more room for movement, allowing a wider range of relationships and interconnections.
Questions which might help in this diagram include: Who has links to the school? Why are the links there? What kind of links are they? Who has more control in the relationship? What are some of the power relations? Should these be changed, if so how? Who is closest to the school why? Which direction does communication and information flow?

A second stage would be to look at how more links could be built within the school community. These might focus on particular groups of the population, or areas of the community. Or they might be general activities which would encourage open participation. Community Involvement and Partnership in Education Parents involvement and partnership includes accepting obligations, responsibilities and participating in education and activities within the school.

These may include [a] parent supporting their childrens schooling by attending school functions and responding to school obligations.[b] Helping their children improve school work by encouragement, arranging appropriate study time and space and monitoring homework[c] playing roles in governance and making decisions on planning and development of the school and education. Research has shown that there is a correlation between effective, committed community participation and the success of development initiatives. According to philosophies of Paulo Freire and Illich, community involvement in education encourages:

better identification of school needs and more appropriate activities more resources to schools and better use of local resources more effective implementation of school plans more sustainable school programmes, plus greater equity and democracy greater ownership and responsiveness towards school increasing recognition of the value of education for all. increased community involvement in education ca lead to greater relevance of the school in terms of culture, curriculum and school reduction in the work burden of teachers and head teachers very well informed voices to address specific education issues encourage enrollment of hard to reach population 19

Responsibilities of the Community to the School and School to Community: Examples of issues that may emerge out of the discussions may include

1. Responsibilities of the community to the school: o They own the school o They manage the school o Provide resources o Pay teachers where it is called for o Attending school meetings o Ensure children attend school, and are retained in school to completion o Participate in monitoring and evaluation o Ensure security and safety of children and school resources o Provide other auxiliary services the school might need 2. Responsibility of the school to the community: o Provide a safe, stimulating and supportive environment for learning and development of children and youth. o Involving the community in all school programmes o Regular and unsolicited feedback to the community on school activities o Utilization of community resources efficiently o Setting, meeting, maintaining and improving acceptable academic standards for learners at the same time ensuring the learners access to the institution, retention, transition and completion o Being accountable to the community for its actions and operations Roles and Responsibilities of School Governors managers and management committees: It is not easy to arrive at all roles and responsibilities of school governors, however, during the group discussion the following and many others might appear: acquiring land and securing land tittles for the school provision of physical facilities such as classrooms/toilets/furniture/play ground equipment/ teaching and learning material organizing and collection of funds (fundraising) collection and accounting for school funds (e.g. fees, grants or donations) dealing with matters pertaining to staff and pupil discipline employing and paying teachers and support staff organizing meetings for parents and themselves sponsoring teachers for training solving problems faced by teachers, support staff and children 20

transacting any other business as empowered by the parents Mobilizing parents to enroll children to the school/ECD centre. They also make policies and regulations regarding roles of office bearers of different organs and committees [chairperson, secretary, treasurer] as well as their codes of conduct. NM. 1.2 Defining and Understanding the Role of SMCs and PTAs
This section will enable actors to understand and analyze the particular role/s of school management committees and parents teachers associations, among other organs responsible for running of schools. It should strengthen their ability to use the legal, political and social space, which already exists, and encourage them to think through how to extend it if need be. And to think about how they might link to other groups, to influence them and hold them to account. In some contexts, SMCs and PTAs are simply not functioning. They may only have two or three members, irregular meetings and lack information as to what they should be discussing and why. However, in the majority SMCs and PTAs The roles and responsibilities of School Management of contexts SMCs do have specific and Committees (SMCs) and Parent Teacher Associations mandated roles. The first step to (PTAs) differ greatly across national boarders. Some strengthening school governance has to do countries have the legal provision for both institutions others only have one, while others none at all. with exploring this role, and understanding what it means in the local (school & In general terms SMCs have a role in school governance, community) context. in policy making, planning and budgetary allocations. The roles of different groups vary considerably in relation to where the group is situated on the formal-informal spectrum. However, the activities suggested here are appropriate for any group and should encourage them to reflect on their role, position and history.
They involve a range of people including local community members, education officers, head teachers, parents and local government representatives among others. Most members are formally elected. On the other hand PTAs tend to help with resource mobilization, running social events for parents and pupils, running clubs for extra-curricula activities, e.g. sports or music extravaganzas, organize meetings to inform parents about education issues. In some cases, they are a loose association of people interested in the school who are not usually formally elected representatives.

In fact, another step could be to examine the Other groups who might be interested in discussing these history of the group to look at how it was issues include: village development committees, local formed, and how it has changed over time and education committees and community based organizations. what activities it has been involved in. A river could be used to explore this historical profile using the analogies of a river to analyze whether the water in the river (i.e. the people in the group), or the banks (i.e. external influences) have controlled the rivers flow, what positive moments, and obstacles the group has encountered, whether the group has been unified, or if the flow has divided in two, has it flowed quickly and broadly or has it been more of a trickle etc. This would enable group members to have a good understanding of where they are now, and how they got there. It will also help them to identify future opportunities or threats based on past experiences. Looking at the evolution of the concept of SMCs/PTAs more generally could also extend the discussion. This would enable participants to consider how their particular experience fits in with the wider policy development in education sector. Some Questions to help discussion might include:

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When did the SMC/PTA begin? How did we begin did we decide to form ourselves, or did someone else ask us to fill in some space/gap or take up some role? Has it always had the same membership? What have we done as a group and what problems have we faced? How do we make decisions/plan and how much control do we have? Who else do we talk to beyond the group? A second technique, which could be useful to understand the roles and functions of SMCs and PTAs, is a systems diagram. This would be used to map out the education system, and understand the particular place that the SMC/PTA occupies within that system. This should include a wide range of people/institutions, including the statutory bodies, NGOs, teachers, community members and school pupils. The simple mapping will be a good starting point, which could be followed by more discussion and analysis, looking at where information flows well in the system, what types of power relations exist, where there are opportunities for influence by SMCs/PTAs, without forgetting where there are constraints. Some Questions to help prompt discussion might include the school; following: It might also be interesting to What other groups of people influence our school use these exercises to look at the history and role of the management and decision making? Who has most school itself. For example, power? when did the community first What decisions are made in education which of these get a school; why was this; how integrated is the school can/do we make? with the wider community? Who do we get information from? Who do we give information to? Where does the school get money from? Who is involved in making school policy? Who decides what we do as an SMC/PTA? Do we have a legal mandate, role and or responsibility? What is the relationship like between the SMC and the wider community? How do we ensure that legal space is filled, is the role realistic? Are we happy with the legal role, does it need to be changed?
History and role of the

In order to properly understand the role of the group the policy instruments and or legal documentation that defines their roles and responsibility will need to be accessed (if the group is informally formed this type of information might not exist); however it might still be interesting to look at the legal framework which governs other organizations, both to understand more about how organizations are run and to identify opportunities for advocacy/accountability demands. This could be presented in a simplified format, or using oral media (e.g. tape) if literacy is a problem for the group. It will also be important to know who is currently on the SMC and in the PTA, the leadership structure and how they are currently elected etc. This will be particularly important if the ideas on this manual are used with a group which is not currently formed, as a way of bringing them together. It might be interesting for the group to look at examples of where and how SMC/PTAs have functioned well giving living examples of empowered SMCs/PTAs. This would be

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particularly useful if the example were local where the group members could look at how other groups have dealt with some of the issues they are facing. Possible outcomes and actions may include the following:
Increased confidence within the group of their right to exist and thus increased ability to fulfill their role. Identification of the need to extend the current space influencing policy around SMCs/PTAs. Allocation of roles and responsibilities within the SMC/PTAs (this links very well with the internal relationships of SMC/PTAs). Strengthening both literacy and oral communication skills. National organizations working with SMC/PTAs will need to support the groups in accessing the legal/constitutional information, and sharing it in an appropriate format. They will also be crucial in identifying best practice examples of functioning SMC/PTAs which could be used for discussion and analysis within focus groups. They could also support meetings between SMC/PTAs for exchange of ideas and learning. On the other hand, there is space and need to use local discussions to influence national policy. If various SMC/PTAs decide that the current legal space for their functioning is restrictive, district CBO/NGOs and national CSO coalitions will be able to support opportunities for advocacy and influencing, perhaps even taking up this agenda as part of their education campaigning. Another strategy is to enable SMC/PTAs to link up with other groups to strengthen their voice, since the discussions in the SMC/PTAs themselves will provide campaigning groups with real evidence/examples of the way SMCs function at the grassroots, and why this needs to be changed or not.

MODULE II: WORKING TOWARDS CHANGE OF SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF LEARNING Purpose: promote good teaching/learning environment as a core component of school management. Objectives: i). Enhance learning and teaching processes in our schools to improve participation and quality of education. ii). Building the confidence of the local community about their school by encouraging debate and interaction beyond the classroom. iii). Influence and or change policies around participation in education; access, retention, completion and transition. Topics: Enhancing learning and teaching processes in schools Promoting learning beyond the classroom Exploring the internal/external school environment Expanding education opportunities to extend access Producing and managing teaching/learning resources

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Activities and Approaches; 1. Discuss ways and means of promoting learning and teaching in our schools In syndicate groups of may be five each, how best the school environment can be improved. 2. Map out strategies for increasing participation in education and further for encouraging production of local materials. 3. Facilitator should use any of the following tools [pot, diagram, Income and Expenditure tree, and Flow diagram, village project map] to assess the environment and monitor curriculum delivery, participation and learning achievement.

FACILITATORS NOTES NM. 2.1 Enhancing Learning and Teaching Processes in Schools This module initiates discussion on different types of learning, looking at what can be done at the local level to transform educational processes in schools. Education can either be oppressive or liberating. It can reinforce wider societal patterns of oppression, or it can empower people, giving them the skills and the confidence to challenge the systems and structures that keep them in poverty. Unfortunately, in many contexts around the world schooling is something that is done to people they are taught to learn the three Rs and not to question authority, to accept expert knowledge and not to value their own. By simply changing the dynamics in the classroom education can become a completely different process. Changing the learning processes in schools is not an easy process, and there will be limits as to what a local group can actually do (when teachers are usually trained centrally, often have to follow a national curriculum and are given little confidence building and value orientation themselves). However, there are certain elements which can be changed locally supplementary information may be needed to understand exactly what can be changed, but even without this the group (along with the teachers) could explore different ways of teaching. The first stage could be to understand the power dynamics in the classroom. A role play is a simple way of doing this. Perhaps this could begin with the teacher playing themselves and the SMC members or participating groups taking the role of the children. Then, the teacher(s) could become the children and a group member could imitate the teacher. This could be gradually changed, with different members of the SMC/group taking on the role of the teacher and adding new dimensions. These might include: The sympathetic teacher, who questions and listens The dictatorial teacher who instructs and ignores The shy teacher who doesnt manage to speak in front of their class The strict teacher who draws a firm line between what is, and what is not acceptable in the classroom

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The humble teacher who learns from their pupils The creative teacher who is full of energy and dynamism The bored teacher who has no enthusiasm in their voice, and shows no interest in what anyone says or does More roles and characters to be determined by the group. The pupils should then reflect on and discuss how they felt being taught by the different types of teacher and what impact this had on their interest in the subject or interest to learn. A second exercise could be a time line. Looking at how teaching and learning has changed overtime. This might include the old times before there was a school in the village looking at how parents/community members passed on their knowledge to the children, and comparing this dynamic to what happens inside the classroom. It would be good to complement this with discussion on how types of learning impact on how the knowledge is received. A third activity may include working with the school children, supporting them to do report cards of their teachers. As highlighted above it is important that this process does not become a negative experience for the teachers as this might undermine their confidence and ability to teach. However, pupils can give positive scores for types of teaching they enjoy, and reinforcing the positive rather than highlighting the negative. It will be important to know what actually can be changed at the school level for example can teachers alter the curriculum or do they have to follow strict guidelines. This will enable the group to target their discussion and action looking at whether they are trying to create more space in the system or work with what is there already.
Building Confidence: A knock on effect could be to give community members more confidence in their own knowledge even if this has not been learnt in a formal setting. It could demystify school showing it as a place which contributes to community development. It might even be that parents or community members help out in some of the teaching, in collaboration with the teachers.

It would also be good to access examples of different learning materials/techniques Also if children are learning to question and for teaching and learning. There are a having their confidence built though wide variety of learning aids developed in education it can be hoped that they will positively influence their parents building different places which could be adapted their confidence to speak out in certain for use anywhere, and it would be helpful to share these with the group so that they contexts also. do not reinvent the wheel. Also it would be useful to have positive examples from other local schools which embrace empowering education whether these are government schools, or community/NGO initiatives. The types of discussion are likely to be very different if an SMC or a community group discusses these issues. As commented above teachers can be more experimental in their teaching if they are supported, and their confidence is built. A community group which has had little or no experience of education might find it more difficult to discuss these issues and might hold the school in a position of esteem/glory which is not felt in the same way by SMC members. External support can help both groups broaden their

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understanding of education and one possible action could be to invite external speakers to a session run by the group to look at the different possibilities within education. The group might also identify different resource people who could be brought into schools to provide different types of learning for example local artists, sportsmen/women, leaders, singers and social activists who could contribute their knowledge to developing childrens skills and creativity. The group itself might also write/compile learning materials (and the focus on the form of these materials will depend on who is in the group) which ones could be used in schools. Or work directly with teachers to enable them to develop and strengthen their teaching methodologies, skills and approaches. The experience at local level could be very powerful if replicated. For example, the group could be linked to other groups discussing similar issues and share the materials they developed, or provide training. However, the discussions might also feed into national level campaigning and advocacy to influence the way teaching training is delivered, and curricula is designed. Examples from the local level which demonstrate increased learning and understanding through change in teaching style could support lobbying to influence national level policy on teaching.

NM. 2.2 Promoting Learning Beyond the Classroom This Section provides broad suggestions on ways and means through which, learning beyond the classroom (in the outside world) can complement learning in schools. All too often the classroom is seen as the only place where learning can happen, and little or no value is placed on exploring the local area, or using different types of information. This means that learning often becomes detached from reality, an abstract process which is confined to the classroom with little or no impact on life outside. However, that life Some questions to help discussion might outside can provide valuable lessons which include: if brought into a learning process can make What is there in the local area that can the lessons more relevant and interesting be visited by children? thus increasing the level of learning which What art forms do we use locally which children can learn from? takes place. The process of linking learning to the outside world can be done simply. However, the level of influence the group has on the school will depend on the formality of the group and while an SMC may be able to change policy to introduce different types of learning, a more loosely formed group may only be able to suggest ideas.
Could the children perform plays, songs and dances to the wider community/another village/group? What crops do we grow locally? What exists in nature locally? What history of the village is important for children to know? How do we link to the neighboring village? What skills is it important for our children to learn? Who else can we involve in the education of our children?

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However, both types of groups will be able to hold similar discussion identifying appropriate opportunities for this type of work. A good starting point might be a mobility map. This will enable the group to look at what opportunities there are in the local area, and think through appropriate transport systems if the visits involve traveling outside the village. Things that might be labeled on the map include: local government offices, health centre, particular farms/crops, village elders, play areas, traditional medicine etc. It might also identify particular events, for example local markets, fetes or notice boards, information points (for example a house which has radio access). Once the different types of education have been identified it will be important to link this to the types of skills to be developed through this educational experience. It will be important to provide evidence that the trips are educational, in order to convince the teachers (and children) that it is linked to school education, and that it will strengthen their abilities in specific areas of the curriculum. This will involve identifying specific skills and mapping the visits etc. to what is known about the curriculum or lesson plans. Thus for example, a visit to a local market may be linked to building numeracy skills, or understanding local economics and pricing. Comparing Different Schools; Whereas a visit to the local government offices will provide civic education Facilitators or teachers should prepare (understanding what the local government issues for children to discuss the does) and strengthen language, literacy and advantages or disadvantages of visiting a school much better than oral skills. There may be space on national curriculum for education beyond the classroom and this sort of information will be important in helping the group form an argument as to why this sort of education is necessary. By expanding education beyond the classroom a more natural learning often occurs, and the links are understood not only between what is learnt inside and life experience, but also learning takes place more holistically without the false boundaries applied to simplify and focus class based teaching. The children might come to realize that learning is not a passive process and it does not only take one form, but that there are many different ways to learn, and to become involved in the process. They might start to value what they know already more understanding that it is not significantly different, just acquired through different processes. This will build their confidence, and contribute to them becoming more empowered citizens. Finally by formally visiting places which theoretically families or individuals could visit on their own, these places are validated, distances are broken down, and the children will understand that they have a right to be there (this is particularly important for places such as the local government offices). Such activities may also bring the school closer to the community. Parents can become involved in any trips acting as extra support and developing learning themselves. And seeing the
their own and the types of questions that children should ask/reflect on before, during and after the visit.

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children out in the community, and taking that learning back into the classroom strengthens the links in this area. Children will gain a better understanding of their local environment and start to value it much more. One other exciting visit might be to another local school. This School could be between two very similar schools, or two very different ones. Either way the visit will be valuable. Not only because children will begin to understand that there is a wider world out there which is similar to their own, but also because they can start to question why the schools are similar, or why they are different. Children could share stories/experiences and start to learn more themselves from their peers. This could help build a movement from the school pupils themselves which could link to national campaigning, either on educational processes (influencing policy around curriculum or pedagogy) or on facilitating exchange visits and the value of visiting each others schools. NM. 2.3. Exploring the Internal and External School Environment

This section seeks to suggest ways of looking at the school infrastructure and the natural environment and further ask questions about the safety and security of the school. The environment in which one learns impacts greatly on how you learn. Moreover, it influences the expectations both pupils and teachers (and the community) have of the education process with a badly kept, dirty unfriendly school lowering standards expected by all those involved. However, there are simple ways to make a school a more welcoming place. The first step would be to understand the feelings of those who spend time in the school. Talking to children and school employees separately will enable people to speak more freely and questions might include those in the box to the right. It could also be interesting to hear the views of parents or other community members, and even to look at how the school has changed overtime. The activities contained on the role of children sheet may also help here and suggest different ways of initiating discussion. These questions fall into three main categories:

Some Questions to ask; What do you like about the school (and the compound)? What dont you like about the school? Where do you spend most of your time when you are in school why? What do you feel about that place? What would make it nicer? What is missing from the school, what could be improved? Is there anywhere you dont like going in the school? What is it like learning at this school? Is there anything about the structure which could make learning easier? What would help you learn in the school? How many classrooms are there? Are there school toilets? What about a kitchen? Is there a play area? A staff room? A rubbish site? Etc. What is the atmosphere like at school is it a happy place? How do teachers and pupils get on? Is there any bullying why, where? How many children are there in the school? In each class? Does the school have enough space and how could the space be used most effectively? Is there much illness in the school what happens if a child is ill?

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Physical school structure and space Atmosphere in/around the school Environmental/hygiene/safety in the school All these categories are equally important, and interrelated. This background information could be complemented by the SMC/group themselves walking around the school either accompanied by children/teachers who could give additional explanations of what happens where or alone. They could do this when the school is empty, and when full to understand the different atmosphere throughout the day. It might also be important to know if the school is used for any other purpose, beyond the teaching of children. For example are community meetings held in the school? It would also be useful for the group to take photos of the different parts of the school. This might include taking photos of parts of the infrastructure, or the children in classrooms, playing etc. This could help with discussions in the group and/or be used as an advocacy tool (see below). Moreover, children could be encouraged to take photos of the bits of school they like, or dislike. It will also be important to look at issues of safety and hygiene. Children spend a considerable amount of time in school and it needs to be a safe place for them to be. In addition a school should often be a place of example to the wider community and as such needs to ensure that it is not a place where disease is easily spread (this is similar to the comments made in other places about schools being a place of dynamism and creativity with effect on the wider community). It will be important to access any legislation which describes minimum standards for schools. This could come in many different forms and it might be necessary for the implementing organisation to examine a broad variety of legislation including any statements there are on education for all and whether each village is entitled to a school, what this means etc. This might include both national and district level policy. It would also be interesting to look at other local schools to see if they are in a similar condition, and to look at why their situation is the same, or different. This will be a powerful way of ensuring that the group links with the school/wider community, and this could extend to looking at what role the wider community could play in making the school a nicer place to be. For example, people might join in initiatives to clear up the local area, to create small
Gender violence: Violence against girls in school is an issue in many areas around the world, and a subject which is very difficult to raise.

It will be important to give children the opportunity to discuss this and this requires building trust and confidence. However, it is also important to try to understand issues from the teachers point of view and not just blacklist them.

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farms/gardens, support the development of toilets etc. However, it is important that the management of the physical infrastructure does not become a community responsibility, without the support of the local government/educational authorities. Here there might be a role for the photos to expose the reality of the local school and gain official interest. This might be by taking the photos to the local government offices, or by developing media links either at local or national level, and encouraging them to publish certain images. The physical environment is not the only consideration here, and it might also be that the SMC/group wishes to suggest changes to the social environment, to make learning more conducive. This could include policies on bullying (whether by teachers or other pupils), supporting more creativity/play by, for example, encouraging more classes to take place outside the classroom, or suggesting school meals. There are various campaigns run at national level exposing gender violence in schools and if this is an issue in the local area it should be possible to link up to these campaigns both to inform them of what is really happening at local level, but also to engage their support to deal with the issue. There may be experts in working with girls who have Some Questions to prompt discussion might include: suffered violence in schools, and it is important to recognize that discussing issues How many families live in the local like this often benefit from having an area? What are the differences between these external person who can be more neutral families e.g. are some richer than and less emotionally involved. The work at others, do they all come from the same local level could also influence new policy caste, are they all the same ethnicity and campaigning positions identifying etc.? which are the most important aspects of the Are there differences according to where you live in the village? school environment whether this is How do children get to school? infrastructure or otherwise. Examples of What is the school environment like for how a local community has changed their the different children e.g. are there school from a negative place, to one which toilets, are the teachers all male etc.? is seen as an enjoyable place to learn could How many children are in school how be a very powerful story especially if many are in each class? national level campaigns invite How many children are out of school? For how many years do children go to community/SMC members to talk about school? how they achieved transforming their local What other jobs do the children do? school. N.M. 2.4 Expanding Educational Opportunities to Extend Access This section suggests ways of looking who is out of school and why, and what sort of strategies can be developed to extend access to all children.
What do local people think about the local school? Is school education seen as important? What are some of the reasons keeping children out of school? How does (could) the school cope with children with disabilities? What policies are there for OVCs & children affected by HIV & AIDS.

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There are many out of school children, and research shows that the reasons for this are diverse, and thus a wide range of strategies is needed to extend education to those who are not currently accessing this human right. However, these strategies need to consider the local context and current realities, and therefore are best developed through discussion by local people. A first stage is to look at which children are not in school. There are various ways of doing this but ideas could include the following combination: 1. Community map identifying the different households, from where children are attending school, where children who are not in school are discussion could focus on looking at whether there are specific types or groups of children who are not attending school (for example, it might be that girls are commonly excluded from school, or one area of the village does not send their children to school etc.). It could also be interesting to look at peoples mobility for example how do children get to Influencing and Changing policies around school, what sorts of transport Access; are available, and what services are available locally? Depending on what sort of group is discussing 2. Daily routine chart looking at this issue the outcome and actions are likely to be very different. how children (and if relevant and helpful, parents and teachers) A formal body, such as an SMC can directly spend their day. This would help change school policy to ensure that the strategies clarify how schooling figures in for extending access are included in school a childs daily routine and guidelines etc. However, an informal grouping or PTA has much less power, and is more likely whether the hours of schooling to focus on ensuring that school policies, and they are appropriate in the given stand currently, are met. context. 3. Matrix this could extend the Therefore it will be important to reflect on what is discussion on the types of people possible, with respect to the groups current position and plan actions accordingly. This is not who are not attending school to say that those who are not in a formal position plotting on one side the different of power should not attempt to change policy groups of children, and on the merely that it is important to recognize that the other hand possible obstacles to way of doing this will differ according to your participation and school status and mandate. attendance. This could form the So for example, if one reason for lack of beginning of looking for attendance was that the school time-table clashed strategies to overcome some of with other responsibilities an SMC would have these obstacles targeted at each the ability to change the school time-table. specific obstacle. Whereas a less formally constituted body might It would be helpful for the group to know any policies/legislation targeted specifically at excluded children. This could be policies of the school itself, of the district education authority, or of
start by trying to talk to the SMC, or the district education authority about the issue, but if this did not lead anywhere they would try a range of campaigning activities from trying to highlight the local situation in the media, linking with coalitions, petitioning local councilors etc.

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national government. These could be discussed and related to the local context to see how appropriate the policies are, and whether they can be used to extend access locally. Or, if there are gaps in the policy which should be changed these could be identified. Another interesting area would be to look at statistics available for numbers of excluded children at local, district and national levels. The group could reflect on how their local context compares to the wider picture is a positive story with more children accessing education locally than across the country as a whole, or is the area below average in terms of levels of exclusion. Either way, the group could start to look at reasons why this is so placing their reality in the wider context. It would also be good to get examples of how extending access has worked in other contexts this information could be sourced through NGOs or education coalitions who have piloted innovative schemes in other areas. One important step would be to extend the discussion beyond the immediate group inviting parents and children to share their ideas about why the(ir) children are not in school, and what might help them attend school. It will also be important to consider issues around the quality of education as it is possible that the low quality of education is a contributing factor to parents not sending their children to school. This could be complemented by inviting local education officers, NGO workers etc. to offer their opinions on the current context and advocate for support from them to implement some of the strategies identified. Questions relating directly to HIV/AIDS policies are discussed on another sheet. But it is important to note that children with HIV + parents, or children who have lost their parents to AIDS are likely to be among the most excluded category and that a trust building element will often need to be included in order to enable a discussion which includes the pandemic. It is hoped that an immediate outcome from any of these discussions will be an increase in the number of people going to school locally, and that this will be further extended through linking to policy influencing efforts nationally. The majority of education campaigning focuses on extending access, and thus education coalitions will find local level analysis very useful to extend their evidence/legitimacy for this campaigning. The analysis could influence decisions on policy priority made within coalitions, and support their demands for additional resources needed for education. It would also be very powerful to involve children, and their voices in delivering messages about their local area and how they feel about their opportunity/lack of opportunity to attend school.

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N.M. 2.5 Producing and Managing Teaching/Learning Resources This part of the module explores ways of documenting local knowledge so that it can be used within the school system as well as the wider community. Education is often seen as top-down, with expert knowledge brought into the school from outside the community. However, there is a wealth of knowledge at the local level which can not only add value to the learning process, but is often more appropriate and relevant to the pupils. In many countries around the world the majority of textbooks used in schools are printed centrally in capital cities with no space for locally relevant information, and often completely inappropriate for rural life. This exacerbated by the materials being printed in English or French (or a national language) rather than in local languages. Moreover, by valuing community based knowledge the distance between the school and the community is narrowed thereby enabling community ownership of the school and strengthening the schools Producing Materials Locally: role in local development processes. It In most cases, materials might not even be produced will further be important to know what nationally at all but may be Western imports, or space there is within the curricula to national textbooks which are 10-30 years out of date. introduce new and different types of This signals the importance of producing materials knowledge/resource materials and to locally which serve the purpose of: work with teachers on the best way to Valuing local knowledge do this. It will also be useful to Making learning more relevant and appropriate understand how local knowledge Increasing the materials available in local might support the curricula as it stands languages currently. For example, could Challenging the idea that everything learnt in school must be external or expert knowledge numeracy lessons be informed by the local ways of measuring, or calculating crop yields. Or could the very process of documenting local knowledge be used within a science lesson or literacy etc. While this section highlights the importance of using local knowledge and locally developed materials within schools this should be balanced with an emphasis on the importance of external knowledge also.

Local vs External Knowledge; We should not over-romanticize what is known at community level. If education is to be transformative there is a role for new information to extend understanding of the local situation within wider context, and to build skills and confidence to engage with (and challenge) institutions outside the community which have a direct impact on the quality of life within the local area.

The very process of documenting local knowledge is an empowering one for everyone involved. Not only is their knowledge validated but new skills might be developed in different types of documentation from recording, to writing, to photography or even the use of technologies such as video or computers. There will also be the effect of having more 33

materials available locally for other people to use which might inform other development initiatives, links with local government, or a local library/resource centre to extend learning into the community and build a literate environment. The local group might decide to share the new materials they have developed with others outside the community whether these are other local groups, or through links with district, provincial and national bodies. This work can be linked in two areas. Both as a way of popularizing these locally produced materials though linking up with publishers and distributors and also through campaigning for the use of alternative materials within the national curriculum. The campaign may focus on increasing government expenditure on producing education materials and targeting this at particular materials such as those produced locally. Or it might be targeted at creating more space in the curriculum for use of local materials and validating these materials.

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MODULE III: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT OF OUR SCHOOLS Purpose: The purpose of this module is to foster good management practices for effective utilization of resources and improved performance of schools. Objectives: 1. Introduce and lay foundation for understanding the basic concepts of management 2. To analyze leadership styles and how they impact on school performance 3. To discuss the roles of different stakeholders and their contribution to the accomplishment of the school goals. Topics Resource mobilization and management in schools School leadership and leadership functions Indicators of a well managed school and Impact of good school management. Exploring the relationship between SMCs and school staff. Involving children in setting school priorities/decisions Possible Activities 1. Brainstorm with participants on the understanding of leadership & management and the categories of leadership within the school. 2. Use a role play to analyze the roles of different categories of leadership and relate the findings to the defined leadership roles with an aim of identifying gaps. 3. Use a chapatti diagram to analyze the power relations between the different school leaders. 4. Refer to the gaps identified to discuss qualities and skills required of good school leadership. 5. Divide participants into three groups to discuss : What school leaders need to do to succeed in school management? The indicators of a well managed school. Impact of good school on school performance Additional Activities 1. Expound on the definition of management and introduce the theories using a case study of known leaders from schools in the vicinity and discuss management characteristics. 2. Relate the theories and definition to school management by use of questions and answer methods. 3. Using question and answer method establish from participants types of resources found and managed in schools. With examples from their own schools let participants discuss the management of those resources.

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FACILITATORS NOTES N.M. 3.1 Leadership Functions in Schools Leadership is the art/process of influencing people so that they can strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of group goals. The essence of leadership is supporters, a leader should have people behind him/her who genuinely believe and adhere to his/her leadership. A leaders role therefore includes; achieving tasks, developing individuals and building the team. Leadership comes through from power and/or authority. The process of leadership is the use of non-coercing influence to direct and coordinate the activities of the members of an organized group towards the accomplishment of group objectives. Roles and functions of a school Leader/Manager Planning Head teachers should make the best possible forecast of events that could affect the school, and draw up an operating plan to guide future decisions. Organizing Establishing structure/roles and assigning duties (knowing who shall do what) Head teachers are expected to appropriate combination of machines, material and human capital necessary to accomplish the tasks. Proper organization helps to avoid duplication, conflict of interest and ensure accountability. Directing providing leadership, direction and guidance to school members. Managers should have authority to direct subordinate activities. Managers should also set a good example and have a direct, two way communication with subordinates. Communicating managers spend 80% of their time corresponding and ensuring understanding, acceptance and right action is taken. This involves coordination by inter-linking activities to achieve common goals/objectives. Controlling regulating or monitoring people and work to ensure conformance to standards, targets, and requirements. Monitoring and evaluation - finally managers must continually monitor and evaluate both the institutional structure and their subordinates in order to conduct appraisals and adjust accordingly. Different types of leadership a) Relationship based leadership Extent to which leaders are able to maintain personal relationship between themselves and members of their school b) Task oriented leadership Able to organize and define roles of members of their school c) Directive leadership A leader who lets his/her subordinates know what is expected of them and tells them how to do it. d) Supportive leadership characterized by a friendly and approachable leader who shows concern for the status, well being and needs of subordinates. e) Participatory Leadership characterized by a leader who sets challenging goals, expect subordinates to perform at their highest level.

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Qualities of a good school Leader/manager; Focus on results and deliver tangible outcomes Lead by example and be a good role model Communicate effectively, precisely and clearly Delegate to and empower the people he/she is working with Pay attention to individuals as well as knowledge of staff and staff development Build team spirit and encourage team work and share work across the board Be fair, consistent and impartial in handling issues Act decisively and expeditiously when under pressure Have a vision and foresight, besides being on top of issues Motivate, inspire and boost the morale of followers/staff Must ensure that the right to give orders is accompanied with some responsibility. Set good examples to encourage discipline to help the school run smoothly. Harmonize, coordinate and focus the efforts of all the players towards one direction school goals. Skills required by School leaders/ Managers The head teachers own personality and self management will influence the style and success of school management. In order to perform work efficiently and effectively, the head teacher will apply different management styles depending on specific tasks and circumstances that occur in the day to day running of the school. Sometimes two, three or more styles can be applied simultaneously. a) Interpersonal skills - refers to people and team building skills and knowledge. b) Technical/professional skills - refers to the knowledge and skills required to understand the technical content of the job. The manager needs to be on top of the job and operate above your team players by knowing a little more than they do. c) Functional skills - refers to the knowledge and skill for planning organization, directing, controlling, coordinating and time management. d) Rational Skills emphasis on knowledge and skills associated with problem solving and decision-making. To succeed in management the school manager should: Know the objectives; select effective subordinates; delegate by letting subordinates decide issues within respective spheres o operation and check to ensure that the results are being obtained satisfactorily. Select your group members carefully, motivate them; develop communications; strive to obtain effective inter-personal relationship and minimize conflict among group members. Strengthen human relations skills; learn to speak and listen effectively; set high standards or proposed levels of achievement; see situations from the other persons point of view; become effective in decision making; adopt a questioning attitude to discover new ideas; be a leader by being involved in action; view management as the opportunity to influence other people

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favorably and evaluate what is achieved, and if necessary, take remedial action. Spend time on matters that are really important; plan and follow through programmes; express personal feelings and understand the feelings of others; look for the best in others not the worst; make sure each group member is assigned the work best suited for that person; encourage members to assume responsibility; evaluate the group members consistently; keep expenditure at a minimum compatible with the services required; increase personal overall knowledge. From the foregoing, it is important to conclude that a school requires both a manager and a leader in one. Indicators of a Well Managed School Trainer to find out from community or group what constitutes a well managed schoolcheck list. Some of these may include; A bias towards actions and results Simple, firm, lean and productive staff Productivity and improvement through people (treat people as adults) Continued and regular contact with stakeholders Operational autonomy to encourage entrepreneurship (encourage innovation) Stress on key educational values with focus on school goals/objectives Emphasize on doing what you know best Simultaneous loose-tight controls Impact of Good School Management/Leadership Facilitator to use group discussion to arrive at the impact of good management or leadership. The following are some of the points that may be included: Improvement of children performance in national examination Effective and efficient resource use Community ownership and involvement leading to improved local support Improved staff morale Improved school discipline Increased support from philanthropists Increased participation indicators[enrolment, retention, completion and transition]

N.M. 3.2 Exploring the relationship between the SMC and school staff This area gives some suggestions as to how to analyze the way the SMC works with the school. This will include looking at the power dynamics and communication between the different bodies. Open and transparent relationships with good communication, equal standing and mutual trust are the key to a successful working partnership. In many contexts power relations dominate and prevent more positive ways of working together from being nurtured.

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If the SMC is to play a supportive role in school governance these relationships need to be analyzed and in some cases restructured. The first step in this circumstance may be to use a Chapati Diagram to explore the current relationships between those involved directly in the school. Questions to support this type of discussion include the following: What do we mean by people involved directly in the school? What do the concepts of participation and consultation mean to us? What do we know about the relationship between the different staff in the school? What do we understand by power relations what makes someone powerful or powerless? How can we strengthen the working relationship between SMCs and teachers on one hand and between SMCs and parents on the other? Where and how does communication flow between the different people involved? A second technique which could build on this initial analysis could be to look specifically at information and develop an Information Flow diagram. Such a diagram could not only look at how the information flows presently, but also examine what types of information people can actually access and understand what information might be useful to them, in the context of engaging in school governance. Possible questions to prompt discussion include: What information do you use in your discussions in the SMC? What format is it in? What format do you find most accessible? What gaps are there in the information you access? Do you document your discussions what, how, who do you share this with? A third technique, which could be used to illustrate these relationships, is a tableau. The participants could spend sometime discussing what they feel the power relations are at present and then put themselves into positions to demonstrate these power relations. Questions might include how the individual felt in the tableau when they were in some position of authority or of less power; i.e. how does it feel to be powerful or to lack power? It would also be good to look at the characteristics which made one person powerful, and another powerless and how these are represented and interpreted. The discussion could be extended through thinking about how they would like the power relations to look, and the sculpture could be reformed to show this. The move from the current to the ideal image might be helpful in planning possible actions to alter power relations. It would be useful for the group to know what the specific roles of the teachers/head-teacher are vis--vis the SMC. This will include what sorts of information should be flowing, who is responsible for what, and how. It would also be good to see some examples of SMCs which have a positive working relationship with the school staff, children and parents. Acting on the reflections that come out of the exercises outlined above will provide a basis for thinking through how to improve working relationship. This might include developing systems for communication and decision-making, based on the local context and what would be appropriate in practice. It is nearly impossible to hold anyone to

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account if decision-making processes have not been agreed. The processes themselves will differ in each context, and which aspects of them are important will be dependent on the local way of doing things. However, it is important to have processes which are agreed to, and abided by. And if these are not followed this gives people the space and legitimacy to demand access to information, and involvement in decision-taking. Thus the action is a continuous event of ensuring that processes are adhered to, and reflection on these issues should form part of any SMC meeting. This will result in stronger links between the school and the community, enhancing transparency and accountability and ensuring that the school is responsive to local needs, influenced by the SMC and not dominated by the view of the head-teacher. The processes used to manage to the relationship between the people employed in the school and people managing the school could be collected to form policy guidelines for best practice work.

N.M. 3.4 Involving Children in Setting School Priorities and Making Policy Decisions Notes in this section examine ways of linking with children, drawing on their knowledge and experience to enhance the quality of school governance and education they receive. Children are the recipients of school education, and yet they are generally excluded from decision-making in schools. Schools are a microcosm of society and they can provide an empowering and liberating experience or serve to oppress and dis-empower further. If children are encouraged to share their views on their education this has a dual effect. Their educational experience will be enhanced, through those positive aspects being expanded, and negative elements minimized, but also childrens voice will be strengthened. But, additionally, they will have participated in a democratic space, been involved in decision-making, and had their voices heard. If children have been experiencing very traditional education, where they receive information, and do not actively participate in learning, it will be particularly important to de-link these activities with their school experience. For example, holding the sessions outside could dramatically alter the group dynamic. Moreover, if the facilitator is a community member or someone external to the village/local area this will further challenge their perception of school behavior. Ideally, the facilitator should be from the group which wants to include children in their discussion process. One of the first activities could be asking children to model their ideal school. This could use locally available material sticks, stones, mud, wood, cardboard, beans etc. Children should be encouraged to discuss among themselves the following questions: What would I like my school to look like (physically classroom, toilets etc.)? What would I want to have in my school (books, teachers, friends etc.)? What are my favorite lessons? What should the classroom look like? How big are they? How many pupils are there? What would happen in my ideal school?

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How is this school different from my current school? What do I think about my school do I like it/dislike it why? What is my favorite part of my school where and why? Where do I avoid going in school what makes me unhappy/frightened? Where do I play with my friends? How do you feel when you are in the classroom? What is special about my school? Is my school clean/dirty? Are the teachers nice to me in school? These issues would enable parents, SMC and teachers to really understand how the children are feeling about the school what they like and what they would like to see changed. They should then create a model to show this ideal school, working for example in groups of five. It might be a realistic model, or an impressionist one and it will be important to value whatever the children come up with reinforcing their right to participate. The children could then present their model to each other and perhaps create a new model which is a culmination of the group work. Depending on the skills and interest of the children they could write some accompanying notes to go with their model or they could be invited to present their model to the SMC (or PTA, community groups). Another activity could be to ask children to draw some rivers detailing their school experience. Asking them to think back from when they first started school and think about the following questions: How did I feel when I started school? Has that feeling changed over time? How? What key events have happened since I started school? (personal or for the whole community) How did they affect me? What is my favorite thing about school? What dont I like/didnt I like about school? Has the school itself changed since I started? How? Has the school/class size grown over time? How do school activities link to my life outside school? Where do I think my river will flow to..? And where is it flowing from..? There is value in doing this exercise individually (either using locally found materials, or on pen and paper) and then asking the children to share their rivers. This will enable them to look at whether there were common events that affected the whole school, and what type of events these were. From a discussion of these, and other issues which arise from their rivers the children should be able to come up with a list of reflections on the current state of their school and recommendations of what they would like to see happen. As these activities are based on children reflecting on their experiences, circumstances and visioning about their ideal school, there may be little supplementary information that is needed. However, it could be useful (and interesting) to provide the children with photos of other schools to prompt their imagination (while ensuring that their hopes 41

arent raised i.e. that it might take a while to bring such a school about). It could also be useful to let them know about the history of the school (and share with them the graphics produced by the SMC/group in their discussions). In addition, if there is a legislation or policy guideline governing minimum requirements for a school (e.g. management structure, a certain number of classrooms, toilet provision, geographical outlay it could be useful to share this with the children. There are many opportunities for skill development during these exercises, and it will depend on who is implementing the activity and how these opportunities are taken advantage of (see box below). Types of actions which might be taken may include: The children might look at what they could do to transform their current school into their ideal school. This might include lobbying/involving others one aspect on this could be to share their vision (or their current understanding) of the school with other relevant groups (both internal to the community the SMC, village development committee, teachers etc. and external the local government, district education authority etc.). Or they could look at what they could do to improve the school environment (e.g. tidying up the surrounding area, planting trees, trimming school fence, or making benches to furnish classrooms). The children and adults might decide to work together on an ongoing basis to improve the school. This type of work is likely to have a direct impact on the quality of education as well as childrens understanding of education. Suddenly, instead of passively receiving information they will become active participants in defining key elements on their education. This will dramatically alter the power dynamics in schools and will contribute to child-centered education becoming a reality.
Learning Functional Life Skills; These activities could be tied to general skill development. For very young children basic literacy learning could be introduced by for example, replacing symbols on the river with words. For older children, who have some literacy skills these could be strengthened through reading relevant bits of legislation, plan or policy. Oral and visual skills will also be strengthened through the development of these exercises, as will creativity and innovation. Moreover, if the children are asked to present their discussions to different groups, oral skills will be further enhanced, through the experience of speaking out in contexts where usually children are silent.

The majority of the members of national education coalitions are representatives or staff working for NGOs, or teacher unions and often acting on behalf of poor and oppressed people whose educational rights are currently unmet. It would be very powerful for these coalitions to really hear childrens voices, and to act as an enabler so that children could speak to those in power. These discussions are directly relevant to national level campaigns which often comment on the current educational context and would welcome the opportunity to support their arguments with the voices of those directly benefiting from education.

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Involving Children in Decision-Making; There will always be people who believe that children do not know what is best for them, with respect to their education and that they will just want to play around. It is likely that children who have experienced very limiting education will not give much value to classroom based learning. This can often be compared to an abuse of rights when there are over 60 children in a class and no space for learning. However, this is not the same as saying that children do not want to learn and it will be important for the facilitator to expand their understanding of learning and ensure they are making choices based on this understanding.

Moreover, these activities provide a model for different ways of learning for treating children with respect, and understanding their role in defining and developing educational processes. This work provides a model for enhancing childrens rights in education and could be used as case studies to for lobbying and advocacy. This advocacy would focus on broadening understanding of learning processes, to include similar types of pedagogy, and inclusion in decision making as part of school curricula and teacher training.

However, it is important to look at children participation as across cutting issue in the entire realm of governance and management.

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MODULE IV: PLANNING AND BUDGETING FOR SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT Purpose: The main purpose of this module is to enhance the capabilities and competencies of the education actors in participatory planning, implementation and monitoring of school programmes. Objectives 1. To improve education actors understanding of the participatory planning process and their skills in preparing realistic School Development Plans. 2. To increase education actors capacity for effective mobilization and use of school resources. 3. To promote the culture of participatory monitoring and tracking resource utilization with a view to enhance accountability and transparency in schools. Topics School planning and budgeting Budgeting and resource mobilization for schools Monitoring and tracking resource use in schools Supply of materials and school procurement policies Power relations and challenges in decision making

Activities and Approaches

1. Facilitator can use any of these tools [Problem Tree, Preference Ranking, Income + expenditure Tree, resource map and Gantt chart] for problem identification, analysis and prioritization of school needs. 2. In so doing, Facilitator will lead participants into developing a school plan which should contain needs, objectives, strategies, activities and budgets to be undertaken within a given period of time. 3. Facilitator to use any of the following tools [Income expenditure Trees,

FACILITATORS NOTES N.M 4.1 School planning and budgeting: Planning is the process of determining goals, objectives, targets, schedules and setting standard before hand. The outputs of this thought process are captured in a document called a plan. It is planning which gives us direction and purpose. If you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there. If you do not know where you are going, you can never get lost. This phrase explains the very essence of planning.

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A school development plan is a set of actions designed by the school to achieve desired targets within a given period of time using available resources. A school development plan must be unique to an individual school because of the different circumstances in which schools operate. Preparing School Development Plans Overall Principles guiding School Development Planning include; Thorough knowledge of a school i.e. population by gender, child teacher ratio, enrollment, retention and drop-out rates. Impact of social, cultural, political and economic environment Location of the school or its environment Desired changes i.e. needs and goals of school in relation to national goals School priorities versus community aspirations Available resources i.e. manpower, money & material Strategies for managing desired changes Building in monitoring and evaluation mechanism Reasons for Planning Planning is expected to provide a frame of reference, a set of specific expectations against which actual results can be compared. Helps the school to focus on raising the achievement of boys and girls and directing all their energies to common goals. Helps the school managers to have a comprehensive and well coordinated approach to managing the school curriculum, staff and resources. Provides an opportunity for all the education stakeholders (teachers, parents, government, civil society, sponsors and community) to participate in school development as a team. Provides a network for all the education stakeholders e.g. linking staff and curriculum development. Planning considers feedback and changed conditions in order to correct actions and positions taken earlier on. Process of Preparing School Development Plans The process of developing plans should be participatory and consultative involving all stakeholders including pupils. Using participatory tools the process should take the following form: Step one - Needs identification The head teacher as secretary to SMC should convene consultative meetings with all the education stakeholders in the area to help identify the felt needs. Teachers, inspectorate, parents, school sponsors, civil society, political leaders, provincial administration, support staff and pupils among others should all be involved in this process. These meetings should be aimed at examining the school in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and the outlining possible ways of addressing these issues. This assessment should cover all the areas including, curriculum, people (staff and pupils), facilities and resources (financial and physical)

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Step two - Prioritizing or ranking the needs identified The head teacher should guide the SMC and other keen stakeholders in ranking these needs in order of priority. This should be based on goals and objectives as well as urgency and cost effectiveness. Priorities therefore, must be realistic in terms of the schools ability to implement them. Thus, a need can only be justified if the school is willing, ready and able to meet its requirements. For example you can review staff to pupil ratio, level of staff motivation, training needs, adequacy of support staff etc. Step three - Preparing school development plans Once the needs have been identified and prioritized the head teacher should take it upon him/her to sit together with a technical sub committee selected by the SMC to draw an up to scale plan. The plan should include activities to be carried out, who will be doing them, time scale with clear indication of each step, cost implications and how they are going to be met, indicators of success, as well as expected out puts or targets. The steps to be followed one after the other must also be spelt out explicitly. The criteria for each target against which the success of the implementation of a particular change will be measured. Upon completion of the action plan the head teacher should forward it to the relevant authorities (stakeholders) for approval so that they can own it and help in its execution. Review of the previous plan/budget will go along way in helping to seal loop holes and obtaining facts on all the items. The plan should further indicate all the estimated costs of items based on well researched market prices plus an outline of possible sources of income and likely amounts of money from each. Step four Organizing the Budget Forum After finalizing the preparations of a properly costed school plan (SDP) it is important to subject it to some stakeholder discussions in an open or public forum to facilitate reviews, discussions and feedback on both the plan and budget. This will accord SMC, teachers, pupils, parents and the wider school community an opportunity to interact and interrogate the SDP, under its cost implication and define roles of each actor in the implementation process. Budget forums when made all inclusive promote ownership of both the planning/budgeting process as well as the outcome (the SDP). This forum should bring together all stakeholders in the school such as; the head teacher, teachers, support staff, SMC/PTA members, parents, local leaders, education officials and children. Step five - Implementation of Plans The head teacher, his/her staff and the relevant sub committees of SMC are expected to implement and monitor the plan to keep it on track. They are also suppose to evaluate and report progress and review the plan and refine priorities as time elapses. Step Six - Monitoring and evaluating the process of executing these plans

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Monitoring and evaluation is a continuous process that is inbuilt in the implementation process in order to identify constraints and devise strategies to overcome them. There are also checks to establish whether the objectives and targets are being met. Evaluation goes hand in hand with monitoring as progress on each priority is analyzed based on available information. Evaluation helps to determine draw backs, extent to which the goals are being realized, the impact of the plan on the overall educational system and best practices for successful school management. Some of these checks include: Assigning responsibility for collecting evidence about each target Observing tasks in progress and reporting on the same Noting changes in practice as a result of the plan Regular briefs and updates on whether the plan is on track Assessing implications for future initiatives and development plans Monitoring and evaluation will help in forecasting on future plans and assist in avoiding repeat of previous mistakes. It will also, include the changing needs and circumstances and intervention strategies acquired or learned from the implementation schedule. However, M&E system should be continuous and ongoing. Structure of a School Development Plan The structure of a school development plan may vary from country to country, region to region and district to district; however, the following components are necessary to be included: a. Background: The situation of the school, explaining location, brief history, school sponsors, successes and challenges over the years and opportunities for growth. b. Justification: explaining the spirit of school development plan and the process of producing the plan. This section should also have the schools vision, mission and motto. c. Objectives: Specific objectives to be achieved within the period of SDP. As a cardinal point, the objectives should be SMART. d. Tasks: These include activities to be undertaken within the SDP period. The roles of all stakeholders in accomplishing the tasks should also be explained e. Resource implication: Resources necessary for carrying out set activities must be outlined and strategies for mobilizing the same defined. These should include teachers, support staff, facilities, teaching/learning materials and funds required. f. Budget: the budget section of the SDP should provide costs for the resources outlined in the plan. The budget must however remain very realistic but flexible enough to accommodate any possible changes along the way. g. Monitoring and evaluation: an inbuilt M&E mechanism should factored in as part of the SDP. The framework should have strategies for both ongoing monitoring and end of

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plan evaluation. It is important that the M&E system should not just lay emphasis on achievements being made, but also assess efficacy of strategies set to achieve the objectives, the process and space for participation with very clear performance indicators.

N.M. 4.2 Budgeting and Resource Mobilization for Schools Resource mobilization is the process of bringing the inputs together. It means the acquisition and/or the utilization of the resources. These resources can be utilized to improve the learning and teaching environment. The resources can also be used to strengthen the school/community links. Resources are an investment for generating more resources e.g. when school halls are hired out for community functions. Local resource mobilization is important because of following reasons: Makes us less dependant on external assistance Makes our programmes sustainable Helps us to know the resources available for us in the community Helps us identify projects that can be undertaken in the school/ centre Helps us to draw entire school performance improvement programmes There are different ways of mobilising resources for schools. Some of these ways/means can be through and from: Governments (at local and national levels) Individual philanthropists; these could be individuals within the local community or based outside their areas but willing to transfer money back home to support various initiatives including supporting schools. Corporate organisations e.g. Safaricom (Kenya), MTN (Uganda) etc. These organisations have programmes aimed at promoting their corporate social responsibility. Philanthropic organisations e.g. NGOs, foundations and CBOs A good budget must clearly represent activities; identify resources, revenue and materials. It must also show estimated costs of all items indicated with their time lines. The role of all the parties involved in implementing the budget must be explicit, that is who will be undertaking what responsibility (e.g. providing funds, labour and land). Finally, a budget must be approved by relevant stakeholders in this case staff, school committee, PTA and local administration. The budget forum can go along way in providing space for stakeholders to make input and approve the budget. What Constitutes a School Budget? A budget refers to a quantitative expression of proposed plan of action by the schools management for a future period and is an aid to the coordination and implementation of the plan. Budgets covering financial aspects quantify managements expectations regarding future income, cash flows and financial position. A school budget therefore is a carefully thought out plan for financing the desired programmes and activities of the school. The budget reflects an estimate of the expected revenue and the expected expenditure for the activity or programme for a specified period. Usually school budgets

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run for one calendar year. Initially, it originates as an estimate for a desired purpose/need that becomes a budget after approval by the parent. The budget is based on programmes and activities outlined in the School Development Plan (SDP). The head teacher being the person charged with the responsibility of running a school determines, mobilizes and acquires financial and material resources for the purpose of achieving desired goals. It embraces the impact of both operating and financial decisions. The head teachers involvement in the budgeting process ensures a full understanding of the financial situation of the school and proper utilization of the available resources to achieve the mission and educational goals of the school. This will help in prioritizing activities that require immediate attention by the schools management. A good school budget should contain school needs, objectives, activities and related programme costs and source/s of income as outlined in the SPD. However, in budgeting for schools there are some key principles which needs to be observed; some of these principles are Participation Transparency Accountability Predictability Flexibility Accessible budget information Accuracy Contestability Timeframe (periodicity]

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As Secretary to SMC the head teacher will have specific budget responsibilities in the school including; Issue instructions to departments regarding requirements and date of submission Receive and check budget estimates Suggesting possible revisions Discussing difficulties arising from budget estimates Ensuring that budgets are read in good time Preparing the final committees approved master man. Coordination of all budget work Implementation of School Development Plans and Budgets This is the most critical stage in the plan and budget process as it requires good managerial skills. A good budget may fail in the hands of a poor manager while a poor budget may succeed in the hands of a good manager. Plan and Budget implementation includes undertaking budget activities as outlined once it has been approved and signed off. It involves the process of receiving funds and spending the same on specified vote heads. Execution of the school development plan lies with the Head teacher, staff and officials of the school management committee. Implementing plans is critical and the head teacher needs to track all activities and time lines. This can be done through keeping diaries, year planners, ensuring that delegated duties are kept on schedule and not abdicated, keeping time and meeting deadlines. A simple way of ensuring priorities for each day is to work from a daily plan. This will prevent the idea of tackling things as they come to mind or appear on your desk. This will also, enable the head teacher to monitor how the work is progressing. There is also need to have some degree of flexibility based on new information and emerging issues that were unprecedented.
Allocating and Spending School funds; Criteria for resource distribution should take into consideration the following: Authorization of all expenditures Allocation should be according to planned activities Provision of resources in good time Proper accountability of all expenditures Availability of the capacity to use funds suitably Capacity to use the resources is available

Effectiveness & efficiency in implementation and resource utilization requires that the head teacher in collaboration with officials of SMC monitor, supervise and control school resources. Each accounting record serves a useful purpose and must be adhered to. The financial accounting system should provide a complete history of all the transactions to the school management committee and should provide the information necessary for the management and smooth running of the school.

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Key financial documents; Effective accounting procedure requires head teacher in collaboration with SMC members to keep the following books of accounts and documents well updated. Some of important accounting documents include: Receipt book Payment voucher file Cash book The financial ledger Cheque book/bank pass book Fees register Commitment register/vote book Counterfoil receipt book register Inward cheque/money order/payment advice register

N.M 4.3 Monitoring and Tracking Resource Use in Schools Tracking [social and technical] is one of the most important ways of providing feed back and new information on managing school resources. The purpose of tracking is to determine; Financial standing of the school, credibility of accounting records, a way of detecting or preventing errors for future, feed back to stakeholders/parents, ensuring transparency and accountability. Tracking expenditure patterns is the role of all stakeholders including SMCs, PTAs, CBOs and other CSOs. In tracking expenditure actors are expected to achieve or address the following issues; Assess progress Get feedback-giving evidence of success or failures Enhance transparency and sustainability Rationalize inputs Assist in decision-making process Review projects or activities Update and review plans giving new way forward Determine the indicators in terms of numbers, percentages, quantities, duration and ratios Assign new responsibilities Collect, analyze and interprete income and expenditure data Write of progress reports Recommend action Disseminate information/findings While monitoring and tracking resource use, it is important to pay attention to some pertinent issues including resource inflow [income/expenditure], usage of resources, and effectiveness of policies. Other core areas for review can extend to; performance, quality and outcomes of services (impact), space available for participation by parents and

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children, effectiveness of participation by teachers, children and parents, process, structure and content of plans and budgets and finally management practices and decision making procedures. Application of Reflect in planning, budgeting and tracking School management committee and parents can use participatory tools for budget formulation, analysis and feedback. Some of the tools they can use include: Expenditure Trees, Calendars, Pie chart, Venn diagrams Timeline These participatory tools can be supported by such documents as: Monthly statements Bank statement- bank reconciliation Cash analysis: a statement that shows the income and expenditure of the school. Process Budgeting Reflect Approach. Participatory identification and classification of the needs / issues. Tools: Problem, tree - Needs Hierarchy - Venn diagram - Flow diagram - Matrix / pair wise ranking for classification. Sharing policy guidelines through Reflect circles as well as facilitators forum in popular version and visuals. Community forum through Reflect facilitators, to trace the needs identified. Tools: Community needs checklist. Should be translated into simple language. Development action point through community forum/s based on approved funds. - Community can demand if funds not released. Participatory monitoring at school level through Reflect circles and at district level through facilitators forum/ Education Forum Tools: pot, diagram, Income and Expenditure tree Flow diagram, village project map

Approval

Implementation

Monitoring

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N.M. 4.4 Supply of Materials and School Procurement Policies This section gives ideas about how to look at materials used in the schools, where they come from, and who benefits from the use of these materials. Schools use a variety of materials from infrastructure development, to school meals, learning/teaching materials and transport. How these materials are sourced, and where they come from can contribute to, or undermine the local economy. In order for a school to have a positive influence on local development the relationship with the local economy needs to be explored, and opportunities for mutual reinforcement created. One way could be to do some social audit, looking at what the school currently does/provides and where this comes from. This might involve talking to different members of staff (both teachers and support staff e.g. cooks, cleaners etc.) and looking though any school records with regard to purchases made or purchasing policy. It could also be useful to reflect on the school The school and the local economy: construction itself how was it built and by whom? So these discussions could also involve This audit will provide background information on which to base further discussion. It would then be useful to do a ranking matrix to look at the different materials used in the school, where they come from and how this influences the local economy. After which each item could be scored, for example on a scale: very bad, bad, neutral, good and excellent.
analyzing that local market looking at how it could be expanded to benefit wider sections of the population e.g. school meals grown and cooked locally, security guards paid from the local community and construction work properly valued and paid for (rather than people contributing free labour and local materials as often happens). Or school farms used to feed the children etc. Local cleaning material used and therefore we dont need to use imported soap.

In addition to accessing the information as to what is currently bought by the schools, how much it costs and where it comes from, it will also be interesting to look at any government procurement policies. For example are schools expected to accept meals from the nearest city, or use text-books printed abroad etc. This will require some research by the implementing organization to ensure that a variety of issues are examined. This exercise also links well to exercises on understanding and tracking the school budget. For the individuals involved in the exercise there will be interesting learning on understanding costing and budgeting. This might need to be strengthened through development of confidence and skills in mathematics. There might also be the opportunity to deepen understanding of groups and actors planning, budgeting, resource allocation and implementation processes. The group might decide to link up with other local initiatives to strengthen their ability to access relevant materials for example income generation schemes, local development projects, capacity building projects (for example on running a small business or budgeting etc). And this would also strengthen

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the relationship between the school and the wider community, ensuring that the school contributes to development of the area and strengthening the local economy. National level coalitions could look at the different alternatives emerging from the local work and use this to lobby governments to change their procurement policies for example subsidizing local food in schools, rather than shipping large quantities from capital cities (which happens in many contexts at present).

N.M 4.5 Power relations and Challenges in making Decisions around Plans and Budgets For SMCs to avoid living beyond their means all financial transactions should be approved by more than one person, the person with the Authority to Incur Expenditure [AIE] in most schools the Head teacher, Chair &Treasurer of SMC in consultation with other members. AIE holder should make staff and other SMC members aware of financial constraints and always remind them of policy guidelines regulating use of school resources especially funds. The SMC, above any other stakeholder or organ must monitor and supervise the school plan and budget. Bad practice in resource management can occur when: Poor planning Poor needs assessment Purchases are done on impulse Poor control of expenditure Corruption and Misappropriation of school funds Over ambitious Unhealthy competition Lack of prioritization Lack of knowledge of resources available Lack of audit The school should be designed to become a more democratic space where everyone has an equal right to participate. This implies organizing or outlining roles and responsibilities among group members around the SDP. It should be understood that whenever any two or more people are brought together there is a power relationship. This affects a groups ability to work inclusively, and to value all voices equally. If the group is trying to enhance local school governance it is important that they provide a model of good governance that can be replicated. In addition, it is important that the traditionally quieter voices are heard as they are likely to bring in new and different perspectives. However, this does not mean that everyone should play the same role within a group it can be helpful to assign specific roles and responsibilities, as this can make it easier for group members to hold each other to account. It can be very helpful to reflect on and expose current power relations as a basis for constructing a more positive dynamic. This could be done through monitoring who is

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speaking, how long their interventions are for and how relevant their interventions are. (Use of 3 stones, red cards etc). It would also be useful to do an explicit analysis of power relations in the group. This will be significant for both SMCs and community groups, where positions of power outside the group will impact on how people relate to each other within the group. First step would be to decide what gives people power and to identify certain categories which are important in the specific context. This might include: educational background, literacy level, how an individual came to be part of the group (e.g. elected, part of their job etc.), gender and caste among other qualities.

Why have roles and which roles to have? All individuals have their strengths and weaknesses. Having a specific role enables an individual to play to their strength and contributes to a group becoming more than just the sum of its parts. However, it is important to value all roles equally in order to ensure that no one is marginalized. Which roles are important will depend on the local context. And it might be good to ask the following questions, in order to decide which roles to instate: What is the aim of our group? What roles are important to help us achieve this aim? What are the local issues around education? or what are the most important issues at present? What skills do we have between us? What are we good at doing? What external support should we look for to help us achieve our aim?

Group members should represent each individual with a circle, and the size and colour of the circle should relate to the amount of power that individual has (in this specific context) and the reason for this power (this could be a mixture of different colours). The circles should then be placed in relation to each other with distance used to illustrate the amount of connection there is between any individuals. It might be useful to also include the school itself in this analysis and the distance (physical or emotional) of individuals from the specific school could also be analyzed.
Listening; It might also be important to do a series of listening exercises, to understand how to listen actively, and what it feels like to be listened to or ignored!

A second point of action in analysis could be to identify different roles in the group for example the traditional roles of chair, secretary, treasurer, or thinking through specific mandates girls education, teacher quality, increasing school accessibility (getting excluded children into school) etc. The power associated with each of these roles could be overlaid on the original diagram. If the roles have already been decided they might reinforce, or reduce an individuals power. If no roles have been decided on it might be useful to look at how specific designations could contribute to altering the current power balance.

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If the group in question is a legally constituted body like the SMC or in some contexts the PTA, or even village development committees) then it will be important to look at the legal requirements for the different roles. This does not imply that legal requirements should be blindly accepted, and it might be that the group decides to challenge these, but it is important to discuss this, and react as appropriate. If the group is less formal then it may be harder to hold people to account, depending on the nature of the group. However, legal guidelines can also be useful Communication and decision-making; information for a community-based group when deciding the sorts of roles and responsibilities It is important to have some sort of agreement about what to communicate/share they will have as a group. It would also be good to look at any information available on training for the specific responsibilities (for example accounting for a treasurer, or policies on excluded children etc. The aim of these discussions is to create a democratic space and a positive group dynamic in order to achieve participatory decision making within the SMC and other management organs. This is a crucial element for enhancing local school governance and will create a governance model which could influence other organizations in the community and beyond.
with other members of the group and how. This is particularly the case if the group has a mixture or different levels literacy, and/or language. This might include, for example, presenting financial information at each meeting, in different formats. It will also be necessary to agree on a decision-making procedure. For example can decisions be made when group members are absent? How much agreement is needed for a decision to be passed is it 50% or 75%. Are decisions time-bound?

It will be important for the group to determine the culture in future meetings and decide on locally appropriate processes which do not necessarily follow the standard model. This new model will be based on reflection from the first exercise on achieving equity in who speaks. Every type of organization has a lot to learn from a well functioning group, based on the principles of equality. This local group might influence the way coalitions are organized, share information and take decision. It might also enable the group itself to identify likely allies and avoid those people who are working in contradiction to these democratic principles. Alternatively, the group might serve as a best practice example to influence other local groups and SMCs, and policy around the types of structures which are desirable.

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MODULE V: ADVOCACY FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE IN SCHOOLS Purpose: This module will focus on deepening understanding of school policies and practices as well as sharpen skills on social mobilization, policy influencing and campaigning for change. Objectives: 1. Identify governance issues and develop strategies for campaigns towards improved school standards and performance. 2. Increase capacity and space for informed participation in school governance and management. Topics: 1. Understanding advocacy; meaning and value addition 2. Influencing school policies, plans and budgets 3. Reforming our schools through advocacy work Activities and Approaches 1. Using question/answer, role plays, demonstrations the facilitator should work with participants to help them understand the concept of advocacy including principles and techniques. 2. Facilitator should be able to use all or any of the following three main tools: [a] Chapati/ Venn diagramme: to understand power relations and to carry out analysis of stakeholder environment [capacity, skill, power, interest and positions] [b] Pair wise ranking: To help participants identify and rank advocacy issues in order of their priority. This will enable participants know what advocacy strategies are suitable for address issues and help them be clear on roles of each actor. [c] Historical Timelines: This will help participants understand development in education key issues/moments and trends as they affect their schools. 3. Discuss with participants actions they will take to influence policy and cause change within the school, community and education sector.

FACILITATORS NOTES N.M. 5.1 Understanding Advocacy: Meaning and Value added to Management This section on advocacy for good governance should be looked at in two levels. At level one it should help managers and management committees to push for change in the way things are done from inside or within the school (managing internal change process). At another level, CSO formations such as CBOs, PTAs and NGOs operating within the

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school community should use results of these discussions to kick-start education reform initiatives, bring in community voices, influence change and inform decision making processes (from outside the school). What is advocacy? Is a deliberate process of influencing those who make policy decisions (key words influencing, deliberate, policy makers, policy decisions). Advocacy is used to influence the choices and actions of those who make laws and regulations and those who distribute resources and make other decisions that affect the well being of other people. It involves around delivering messages that are intended to influence thoughts, perspectives and actions of leaders, politicians, policy makers, planners and others in authority. Advocacy is essentially about policy change in three areas; Creating policies where non exist Refining harmful or ineffective policies Ensuring good policies are followed, implemented and enforced. Against this backdrop, we can sum up advocacy to imply planned, targeted, focused, long term, organized, systematic, purposeful, and intentional process of influencing matters of public interest and changing power relations to improve the lives of the disenfranchised or excluded or aimed at influencing some change, policy or process. It is a process of social transformation aimed at shaping the direction or course of public participation; public policies and programs to benefit the marginalized, uphold human rights and safeguard the environment. Advocacy processes must remain pro-poor and reflect core values as equity, justice, mutual respect and accountability. Why Engage in Advocacy, any way? Advocacy work will; Assist parents and local communities to have a deeper understanding of what policy formulation, decision making and lobbying for change entail. Help parents and local leaders develop capacities and competencies as lobbyists, planners, monitors, change agents and active members of the school community. Equip parents, teachers, SMCs, PTAs and CBOs with skills and capabilities in mobilizing voluntary energy to catalyze system and policy change, participate in formulation and monitor implementation of SDPs. Advocacy is all about changing attitudes, cultures, trends, traditions or bringing in new ways, new thinking and new styles of life of managing our schools. Advocacy therefore has much to do with influencing (through campaigning and lobbying) head teachers, school management committees, parents, policy makers, communities, planners and politicians to respond to demands, needs and aspirations of ordinary people the poor.

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Note: Advocacy will largely depend on political environment, policy regime, sociocultural context, capacity, expertise/skills and interests of actors, civic space and opportunities available.

N.M 5.2 Influencing School Policies, Plans and Budgets Policy is all about values, beliefs, perspectives, objectives, targets and underlying assumptions, which inform the framework for school development. Besides these issues, in policy analysis one has to look for experiences from which a policy draws, context and situations surrounding the policy, institutions and structures, the problem to which the policy attempts to respond, proposed solutions and general weaknesses and strengths of the policy framework. Policy is a set of mandatory directions and or guidelines, which serve to regulate decisions mainly administrative and or managerial within a school set up. It can also be seen as a plan or course of action or set of regulations adopted/ designed by the school to influence and determine decisions or procedures. Policy agenda on the other hand revolves around priority issues the school wants to work on. Influencing policies both for schools and related institutions involve a series of issues including but not limited to: Participating in preparing school development plans; helping in the interpretation of school policies to parents, children and local communities and initiating a framework for a new education or school policy. Monitoring implementation of education and school policies through review of content, process, participation and structure of school policies and plans. Developing shadow policies or coming up with alternative policy proposals for discussion by SMCs as well as local and national education authorities. Transforming policy priorities and actions of schools and education authorities by engaging in policy dialogue with SMCs, education officials, civic leaders among others. Building local campaign groups, village education committees and CBO networks to hold those in power accountable around education issues and school policies. Influencing those in management or authority about problems which affect the people, especially, the socially excluded e.g. marginalized children and further enhancing citizens capacities, skills and perceptions to influence direction or course of policy processes and education practice in schools. Practical Stages in doing Advocacy Work: Step one: Building identity and agreeing on objectives, core mandate, constituency, values and guiding principles. It is about formation of committees, groups, networks and alliances.

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Step two: Mobilization & mapping of resources, actors, institutions, allies, targets and stakeholders. Step three: Analysis of stakeholder environment and risk assessment including gathering programme, policy and socio-political information. Step four: Developing a shared vision or common understanding in order to build strategic relationships and organize sensitization initiatives to change attitudes, create expectations and form perspectives. Step five: Elaboration of the policy problem through identification of policy themes, analysis of the policy environment, understanding the problem, taking positions or options. How does the school policy affect children, teachers, parents and the local community for example? Step six: Identification of goals and objects around which the activities will revolve, including self reflection/analysis of strengths and weaknesses conducting some kind of SWOT analysis. Step seven: Finalizing a campaign strategy, rollout plan and methodology design and firming up a monitoring and evaluation framework. Advocacy techniques and tools where reflect count There are no standard strategies for advocacy work. They are mostly influenced by the socio-political context, target institutions, objects, policy problems and actors. But, whatever the context, one needs to weigh risks, possibilities and opportunities that each approach offers and cultivate powerful allies both inside and outside the system (read school). The ultimate goal should be to open up political space for debate and negotiations. The main strategies of doing advocacy work include but not limited to campaigns and lobbying, examples of which include; Campaigning Social mobilization, awareness & sensitization Behind-the-scenes machinations Mass action e.g. demonstrations, boycotts, vigils and picketing Public rallies, forums and processions Picketing, boycotts & strikes Community level events e.g. cultural and welfare fetes Research and information dissemination or sharing Media campaigns, public forums, civic education Lobbying Policy dialogue, innovations and examples of good practice. Boardroom negotiations & tradeoffs Partnerships, cooperation & collaboration Policy analysis, reviews and briefs Role models & good practice Case studies, education, training and allies Leveraging change through resources by supporting processes Information packaging and policy drafting 60

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N.M 5.3 Reforming our schools through advocacy work; what practitioners say! Legitimacy The extent to which the leadership or the group bases their decisions on opinions of the majority of the people but at the same time respect minority views. Decisions must be based on the rights of all and follow a process of free and informed participation where every actor has equal chance and space. Transparency and fairness in election of group leaders and school representatives is key to passing the legitimacy test which ensures that leaders have the mandate of and are answerable to the people. The question of who you represent and your relationship with parents is key to making legitimate demands to school authorities. Within the school environment and host community it is important to raise issues or questions about who speaks for whom on school problems or education concerns and with what authority? Some questions on legitimacy On whose behalf do you advocate or speak? How are groups/communities involved in the process of deciding what issues to address what not to address? How democratic is your school or committee in the process of making decisions? How do leaders get their mandate from the people and how do they give feedback to them? Are all the voices heard equally or listened to? How are school committee members elected? How legitimate are your demands to the school? Credibility Credibility is all about trust and belief as well as the extent to which you are known and respected by government representatives, school management committees, teachers, local leaders and other actors within the community. Having reliable information, packaged to ensure effective communication is yet another key element of ensuring credibility. Credibility means other actors trust and value what you have to say or acting on or doing. A good advocate or campaigner for school reforms should have unquestionable integrity before the school public parents, children, teachers, colleagues, management committees and public officials. Some Key questions on credibility How responsible are your actions? What expertise, resources, contacts or profile do you have? How efficient and transparent are your systems? Are you just professing lofty community development goals, but in reality you are nothing more than a scam? Can you speak legitimately about those affected? How do you link up to your constituency?

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Transparency & Accountability Accountability should be seen at two levels; within the campaign group and from the school to the community. For example, how do you hold the different entities within your committee, group or network responsible, so that the best interests of communities can be served by both the campaigners and the school? Accountability is being honest about achievements, challenges and failures, and having the urge to do the best with available resources. Accountability leads to improved decision making, fair use of power/authority and efficient use of resources. Clarity of roles and responsibilities of school committees, availability of management information and finally reward for good practice all promote to accountability. Transparency is about sharing information widely about education policies and what is going on at the school including use of funds and being fully open without holding back important information. People must be made aware of decisions made and how they were made along side consistent feedback to both the school and the local community. Holding individuals and/or organizations responsible for their performance, statements and actions is very basic in ensuring accountability. Some Key questions on accountability What mechanisms do you have to hold schools or related public institutions accountable for their actions? How transparent and accountable are your structures? The leadership of the school, group, committee or network is accountable to whom? What feedback mechanisms do you have to/from your school? What is the level of internal accountability to school/group members and related constituencies? What watchdog/vigilance capacities have you developed? Are you managing your resources well and how transparent are your SMCs, groups and schools? How accessible is management and or policy information with the school or education office? What systems are in place to ensure transparency and accountability? Power and Authority Civil society formations or social agencies working in the area of advocacy must form systems and mechanisms to evaluate and monitor plans, programs, actions and policy decisions of governmental agencies, local authorities, service boards and schools with a view to assessing their social and value-added impact on the lives of the ordinary citizenry. Good information and analysis gives networks technical influence, while stronger constituencies lead to political influence, both of which lead to social and public influence within school communities and broader constituencies.

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Some key questions on power and authority What resources do you have? What numbers can you draw in? What is your active membership? What alliances/linkages do you have with other coalitions, organizations and networks? Who are your allies, how prominent/influential are they? How credible, legitimate and accountable are you? What is the extent of your grassroots outreach? What media strategy have you evolved? Communication & information flow In order to achieve this, we will have to give priorities to investments in public education and other advocacy strategies which build capacities of the people to take charge of their lives, communities, resources and policy formation processes. Such strategies will have to factor in, the need to campaign for policies which build relevant livelihood skills and which develop the consciousness of active citizenship, important for people-centered development vision and equity-led growth model. These must be seen as and remain instruments for ensuring a constant process of self-assessment, bridge building and social transformation in light of the evolving values and reorientation needs of the school and local groups around it. Key questions on communication/information What communication and feedback system exist? How do you make sure that your campaigns are informed by the pressing needs of your members, allies and partners? How do you gather and process management information in schools? How do you gather, manage and process information What information and communication system exists between your leadership and your constituency (school community)? How do you generate issues from members? How are policy decisions communicated to stakeholders? Coalition and solidarity building CBOs and campaign groups must reach out to form alliances and achieve some leverage in joining the ever shifting coalitions which are consistently redefining social issues, expanding constituencies, promoting constructive engagement, enhancing mutual learning and finally engaging in political action for social change. This forms the bedrock for policy advocacy, and further calls for the articulation of varied and flexible mechanisms through which citizens define and process broad range of interests, meet individual and group needs, make popular participation feasible. Towards this end, they usually facilitate/encourage the development of a dense mosaic of independent, politically conscious, but voluntary and people-driven organizations, which strengthen

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the direct participation of citizens in both local and national decision making processes. Such initiatives provide essential training grounds in democratic citizenship.

Key questions on solidarity building How do you reach out to all actors? What strategies are available for making popular participation feasible? How do you promote constructive engagement? What actions do you take for social change? What strategies do you employ for solidarity building? Do you belong to any networks and what are the objectives of the networks you belong? Community Participation Means being meaningfully involved in school affairs by contributing ideas, raising concerns and making suggestions to improve quality of management and curriculum delivery. Valuing, listening to and taking seriously contributions from parents and community members, alongside providing information and regular consultations are key do influencing policy decisions or making choices on what schools have to do. Participation allows people to contribute their ideas, build on their skills, talents and take collective responsibility and ownership of policies, plans and programmes. It further provides a forum for sharing views, experiences and for checking unfair decisions. Some key questions on participation Are there enough opportunities for community/parent participation in your school? Are some people discriminated against or excluded from participation? What are some of the best ways of encouraging participation in school management? How can effective participation of all stakeholders be encouraged in the school? What does the law or policy say about your participation in school management? How democratic is the composition of school committees in your area? Do members of these committees represent community interest?

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SECTION FIVE APPENDICES Appendix I: About PAMOJA & ANCEFA i) About PAMOJA - Africa Reflect Network Pamoja is an independent network of adult education practitioners who are committed to participatory, community-based and interactive approaches to learning and development in about 25 countries of Africa. Vision: A continent (Africa) with sustainable education system that enables people to exercise their rights and to live a dignified life. Mission: To facilitate planning and sharing among the different reflect practioners in Africa in order to build a mass of people who are empowered to develop their communities. Pamoja exists to facilitate learning, sharing and the continued evolution of the reflect experience. Core Objectives To facilitate the formation and strengthening of the National Reflect Forums (N.F.P) within Africa so as to promote inter-agency collaboration and solidarity. To promote capacity building of Reflect practitioners across Africa through crosscountry training for key resource persons /exchange visits, peer evaluation and secondments etc. Ensuring efficient flow of information and practical learning around Reflect across Africa e.g. through Internet. Promote cross country collaboration and innovation around key thematic (areas) issues in Africa. To influence the policies and practices of Governments through sharing of experiences and learnings from communities across Africa. To link up with other Reflect Practitioners in other regions and contribute to the International Reflect Circle (CIRAC) ensuring that the African voice is heard in international forums. ii]. About ANCEFA Africa Network Campaign on Education for All ANCEFA is a regional campaign network of civil society coalitions in Africa, with presence in close to thirty countries of Africa. ANCEFA rose out of the need for civil society in Africa to speak with one voice and to set their own agenda on issues relating to

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education. ANCEFA works through sub-regional networks with focal points in each of the sub regions: - Eastern, Southern, Central, and Western. Vision: ANCEFA vision is a continent where all citizens, be they children, youth and adults have unhindered access to and participate effectively in quality education. Mission: ANCEFA exists to build capacities of EFA coalitions in Africa and facilitate constructive policy dialogue and engagement between coalitions and ministries of education across the confinement. ANCEFA has existed since Dakar 2000. Core Objectives: 1. Work towards ensuring that African governments elaborate and implement concrete, time bound and costed EFA action plans with support and participation of civil society. 2. Campaign for concrete strategies and actions from Africa regional bodies (AU, ECOWAS, SADC, CEMAC and NEPAD) to address education, HIV/AIDs, conflict and poverty in Africa. Lobby NEPAD, AU, and sub-regional bodies to create CSO voice and space and put quality education for all in their agenda as well as in the G8 summit agenda. 3. Help to build and strengthen national coalitions to create strong political pressure on governments to formulate credible EFA action plans and mobilize resources for there effective implementation. 4. Facilitate communication, consultation and experience sharing between national EFA coalitions, sub-regional/regional networks and all GCE affiliated organisations in Africa and mobilise support towards achieving EFA goals by 2015. 5. Set up an African education watch in order to promote CSO monitoring mechanism and harness relevant CSO contributions to the UNESCO Global monitoring report. This review will help in assessing progress on EFA planning, implementation, financing and monitoring with focus on civil society participation in the entire EFA process. Appendix 2: GLOSSARY OF COMMON CONCEPTS AND TERMS Reflect: Reflect is an approach to learning and social change. Key to the Reflect approach is creating space where people feel comfortable to meet and discuss issues relevant to them and their lives. This approach aims to improve the meaningful participation of people in decisions that affect their lives through strengthening their ability to communicate. Reflect as a methodology enables people to critically analyze the issues around them and be able to move on with them. Participation: The concept of participation implies any kind of contribution, input and sharing in management and development processes of the school. It also connotes involvement, engagement and or membership of policy and decision making organs

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within the school. Effective participation can only be realized if structures, capacities and the question of space are adequately outlined and addressed. Governance: Governance has a lot to do with power, legitimacy and authority to exercise control and or oversight over facilities and resource outlays within the school environment. The most important aspect of school governance is all about stakeholder involvement, voice and say in planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring of school activities and programmes. Management: Management is often viewed as the art of harnessing resources to achieve stated goals/objectives. Management essentially involves working with, and through other people within an organization (say school) to accomplish set goals. Management is about running, guiding and directing schools towards their vision. It has to do with administration and organizing resources (people/staff, facilities and funds) around school objectives. School: According to Kenyan Education Act (1968) Cap 211, a school is an institution, center or place where not less than ten pupils receive regular instruction. Within the context of a school therefore, the main objective include: Promoting quality education for the people (children, youth and adults) in line with national plans for political, economic and social development. Head teacher: Is the manager of the school. The head teacher for example is responsible for school development planning, management of curriculum, people and resources. Stewarding the school, teaching, secretary to School Committees/Boards and working with local educational officials are also part of his responsibility. Resources: The School resources refer to both learning and physical facilities/materials and how they are financed. The provision of these essential facilities should adhere to established policies and regulations such as building regulations and by-laws, minimum health standards and levels of expenditure among other things. Learning materials e.g. stationeries and extra curriculum materials Physical facilities e.g. furniture, classrooms, administration block Health and sanitation facilities e.g. pit latrines/toilets, gender provisions Education: Any kind of organized teaching and learning processes and activities going on within the school. Expenditure: Using school resources, mainly funds towards school goals entail expenditure; i.e. cost outlays, cash inflows/outflows, disbursements and payments all constitute expenditure. Tracking: Tracking connotes monitoring and follow ups of school budgets and management processes and functions through participatory techniques. Acquiring new skills, gaining access to new information and building new alliances are some of the

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strategies useful in ensuring effective tracking. It involves budget audits and independent analysis of school expenditure. Policy: Policy is all about values, beliefs, perspectives, objectives, targets and underlying assumptions, which inform the framework for development facilitation. Policy is a set of mandatory directions and or guidelines, which serve to regulate decisions mainly administrative and or managerial. It can also be seen as a plan or course of action or set of regulations adopted by government, business or any other institutions (school) designed to influence and determine decisions or procedures. Advocacy: Advocacy implies planned, targeted, focused, long term, organized, systematic, purposeful, and intentional process of influencing matters of public interest and changing power relations to improve the lives of the disenfranchised/excluded or aimed at influencing some change, policy or process. Is a deliberate process of influencing those who make policy and is used to influence the choices and actions of those who make laws and regulations and those who distribute resources and make other decisions that affect the well being of many people. Capacity: Capacity has to do with endowment, ability and competence of school managers, teachers, parents and pupils to make efficient use of school facilities so as to deliver on set goals and objectives. Empowerment: Means increased self confidence and self respect leading to; the ability to act effectively in school planning and management committees. As a political concept, empowerment invokes consciousness and power to make decisions and exercise control over resource outlays. Gender: Refers to social differences and relations between men and women which are used to analyze their roles, responsibilities, constraints and needs within the school context. Plan: A plan spells out the key policy statements that, reflects the highest level of commitment and the development agenda of the school. Budget: A budget is a financial plan/statement which identifies sources of revenue and allocates expenditures to the various sectors within the school. Plans and budgets help to ensure that resources available from the community, parents and government are equitability allocated. Leadership: Leadership is the art/process of influencing people so that they can strive willingly and enthusiastically towards the achievement of group goals. Leadership role include; setting & achieving tasks, developing individuals and building teams. The process of leadership is the use of non-coercing influence to direct and coordinate the activities of the members of an organized group (say school) towards the accomplishment of group objectives.

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Appendix 3: EFA Framework & Millennium Development Goals Putting EFA and MDG goals to Context In 1948, the UNDHR acknowledged the right to education and recognized that elementary education should be free and compulsory. Education was accepted as a basic human right for all. Following the UNDHR a number of important international conventions and agreements affirmed this right and in particular that of girls and women. The most significant are; the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child that affirmed the right of all children to access education and the Jomtien in 1990 was followed up with the World Education Forum in Dakar in April 2000 out of which the six EFA goals and the EFA Framework for Action emerged. In the same year the international community affirmed a commitment to a set of MDGs, two of which have a direct bearing on basic education. Dakar Framework for Action World Education Forum, 2000. Goal 1: Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Goal 2: Ensuring that by 2015 all children particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality. Goal 3: Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes. Goal 4: Achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults. Goal 5: Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender equality by 2015; with a focus on ensuring girls full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality. Goal 6: Improving every aspects of quality of education and ensuring their excellence so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all in numeracy, literacy and essential life skills. The Millennium Development Goals Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Target 1; Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day. Target 2; Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

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Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education by 2015 Target 3; Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women Target 4; Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005 & at all levels of education no later than 2015. Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Target 5; Reduce by two-thirds, 1990 and 2015, the under five mortality rate Goal 5: Improve maternal health Target 6; by 2015 (by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio) Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases Target 7; Have halted by 2015, and begun to reverse, the spread of HIVAIDS. Target 8; Have halted by 2015, and begun to reverse, the incidence of malaria and major diseases. Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Target 9; Integrate the principle of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources. Target 10; Halve by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water Target 11; By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers. Goal 8: Develop a global partnerships for development Target 12; develop further an open, rule based, predictable, non discriminatory trading and financial system. Target 13; deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term.

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Appendix 4; Planning and Budgeting Process A case study of Kenyas Annual Planning and Budgetary Process The following seven steps are followed in the national budget preparation up to the time it is presented to Parliament for approval Step 1: National and District Development Planning
Step 2: Total Public Resource Envelop Forecasting

This stage involves projecting the anticipated national revenue and expenditure levels Step 3: Sectors Allocated Resources and Bidding Starts For budgeting purposes the Government is divided into eight sectors with core ministries bidding for resources from them as shown in the table below: Step 4: Ministerial Ceiling Worked Out After each sector is allocated resources, the next stage is to determine how much each ministry will get from the different sectors. Some ministries bid for resources from various sectors while others only bid from one sector. Step 5: Ministerial Itemized Budget Proposals Prepared Step 6: Ministerial Proposals Submitted and Approval by Treasury Step 7: Finalization of the Budget Proposals by the Treasury Stage 8: Budget Presentation and Approval by Parliament After the Minister is satisfied with the budget proposals submitted to him by the Budget Steering Committee, he presents the same to parliament on or before 21st June of the year as stipulated by the constitution.

Appendix 5: Reflect Tools and Techniques

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Appendix 6: Bibliography of materials and resources for reference and consultation 1. David Archer and Kate Newman: Communication and Power; - Reflect Practical Resource Materials CIRAC, 2003 (www.reflect-action.org) 2. David Archer: Global Survey of Reflect; CIRAC Paper two August 2001. 3. David Archer and Sara Cottingham: Reflect Mother Manual (Regenerated Freirean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques) ActionAid, 1996. 4. Kate Newman: Reflect, Rights and Governance; insights from Nigeria and South Africa Pamoja and ActionAid, April 2004. 5. David Archer and Sara Cottingham: Action Research on Reflect; experiences from Uganda, Bangledesh and El Salvador serial no. 17, ODA, 1996. 6. alice Welbourn: Stepping Stones a training package on HIV/AIDS, communication and relationship skills, 1995. 7. John Graham: Understanding Advocacy (ROOTS resources resourcing organizations with opportunities for transformation and sharing Tearfund, 2002. 8. Save the Children: Working for Change in Education; a hand book for planning advocacy, 2000. 9. Mary Stringer and Nicholas Faraclas: Working Together for Literacy; a guide book for local language literacy programmes, second edition.

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