Community Mobilization Training Manual

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Until people know why they should get involved in an activity that takes their time, money, and other things, they will not support it." Participant, Community Mobilization Seminar on School Construction, March 1994 What Is the Primary Education Reform Program? The Primary Education Reform Program was launched in 1993. This was when preparation of systems, materials and personnel began. One of the components of Reform is Community Mobilization in Education. It is however, a relatively new initiative. It did not feature very significantly in the original design of the Reform Programme, so no provision was made for planning, resources, or recruitment of personnel. Nonetheless, community mobilization is important to the success of the reform effort. Both the Education Policy Review Commission Report and the Government White Paper on the report emphasize the importance of parents' involvement in improving the quality of education for the CHILD. Both documents recognize that parents are not sufficiently empowered to support and monitor their children's performance at school. Regardless of the level of education, parents are still capable of acquiring knowledge and skills that will enable them to identify indicators of quality education for their children. If properly trained, the parents will be active in advocating for and supporting the improved quality of primary education. Therefore the basic role of a CORE PTC is to encourage and train community members to support the education of their children. What Is Community Mobilization? Community mobilization as a single concept means organizing people, helping them agree to do an activity together and completing the activity together satisfactorily. Therefore, Community Mobilization in Education means organizing parents and the community around the school, helping them agree to do an activity together, and completing it satisfactorily for educational purposes. A Volunteer Community Mobilizer is a member of the community who volunteers to conduct specific mobilization activities upon invitation of the community or parents. The purpose is to assist the group identify actions they can take to improve the quality of education for pupils. The Need for Community Mobilization There are four clear reasons why community mobilization activities are needed: Parents are their children's first and most influential teachers. What parents teach their children is more important for their academic success than how socially, economically, or politically well placed the family is. Parents provide inspiration and encouragement. Children attach a lot of importance to learning tasks if they know that those tasks are valued by the parents. This is achieved through parent-child interaction, household routines, and parents demonstrated attention to and concern for school matters and the children's progress. Parents need support and encouragement in fulfilling their responsibilities for their children's education and proper growth. Community mobilization activities are meant to address this need. Parents take mutually agreed action to support the improvement of pupil learning. Goals and Objectives of Community Mobilization in Education The community mobilization component of the reform in primary education has two goals: # to improve the quality of primary education by enlisting community and parent support. # to increase access and persistence of pupils to primary education, especially the education of girls, orphans, and the handicapped. More specific objectives include the following: to help parents understand their roles as their children's first and most important teachers; to enable parents and community leaders to identify what to expect from their schools; to help parents understand and respect the roles of the teachers and head teachers; to introduce parents to the ways they can constructively hold school managers and teachers responsible and accountable for the performance of their children; to motivate parents to participate constructively in improving instructional quality and teachers' performance in addition to the traditional role of participation in school construction and paying fees; to build a healthy relationship between parents and teachers in support of pupil learning; to involve parents and community leaders in recognizing the benefits of educating girls, orphans, and the handicapped; to help parents and community leaders to find ways of promoting positive behaviors towards the girl-child in a family; to encourage parents to be involved in improving school discipline; to help parents to develop skills of managing their family resources well in order to support the education of their children; and to help the parents decide how to provide for the welfare of their children at school.