INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL-BASED MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS
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Background to the Study
School effectiveness and improvement are major concerns to all education authorities, policy makers, administrators and teachers seeking to reform the present education systems. A major plank in the global reform process in education is the concept of decentralization where education authorities devolve some responsibilities to authorities closer to schools. School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) system reflects this decentralization process whereby community members are given responsibilities in school governance. The National Council on Education (NCE) in 2006 approved the establishment of School-Based Management Committees in primary and junior secondary schools in the country, as part of government‘s effort to ensure inclusive participation in the school system. The SBMCs are expected to provide platforms for committees and schools to work together to enrich school governance and promote improved management by education authorities, towards the achievement of better learning outcomes for children (SBMC Guide Book, 2011). SBMCs are been implemented in countries like United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, El-Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Kenya, Krygyz Republic, Nepal and Paraguay (Caldwell & Hayward, 1998). The educational systems of these countries were re-structured so as to establish ―self-managing‖ ―self-governing‖ or self-determining schools. In 1988, the United Kingdom passed the legislation for the local management schools (Fildler and Early, 1994) and at roughly the same time school-based management or school site management was introduced in many American school systems (Cooper, 1990). Meanwhile, in Hongkong, in the 1970s and 1980s, student‘s performance was rugged to be far from adequate. 2 Wong (1995) argued that this was partly due to the tightening of administrative and financial controls over the schools caused by the proliferation of Education Department‘s Policies over the years.The Education Department published school management initiatives in 1991 and suggested that all schools should implement school-based management by 2000: Thus, schools would change from the external control needed to that of decentralized authority. The need to inspire quality consciousness in school operators and managers for the attainment of total quality assurances in schools, and a turn-around in education effectiveness gave birth to close concept of community participation in school management. Policy makers believe that to improve education quality, it is, vital to advance from classroom teaching level to school organization level and reform the structural system and management style of school (Abu-Duhou, 1999). This is the basis for School-Based Management Committee. In Nigeria, the School-Based Management Committee was set up to increase citizen participation in School Management. This is part of the efforts of school reform in Nigeria. According to Dakar Framework of Action (2000), the experience of the past decade has underscored the need for better governance of education system in terms of efficiency, accountability, transparency and flexibility, so that they can respond more effectively to the diverse and consciously changing needs of learners. Reform of educational management is urgently needed to move from highly centralized, standardized and common-driven forms of management to more decentralized and participatory decision-making, implementation and monitoring at lower levels of accountability. Although, observation has shown albeit erroneously, that some school managers particularly head teachers see the role of SBMC as a relegation of schools autonomy, whereas SMBC is to promote the autonomy of schools. SBMC has been, defined in different ways by 3 different writers and authors, for example Cheng (1996) sees School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) as tasks that are set according to the characteristics and needs of the school itself and therefore school members have a much greater autonomy and responsibility for the use of resources to solve problem and carry out effective education activities, for the long- term development of the school. Caldwell and Spinks (1988) see school-based management as a school system of education to which there has been decentralized significant amount of authority and responsibility to make decision related to the allocation of resources within centrally determined framework of goals, policies, standard and accountabilities. The definitions show that in schools that practice SBMC policy, transfer of authority takes place and gives schools some degree of decision making. The goals of School-Based Management Committee programmes vary according to each country but they typically include: (i) Increasing the participation of parents and committees in schools. (ii) Empowering principals and teachers. (iii) Building local level capacity and perhaps the most importantly. (iv) Improving quality and efficiency of schooling, thus raising students‘ achievement levels. The school belongs to the community, which forms the grassroots stakeholders in management. Decentralization will make it possible for the community to participate in the decision making of the school. Murphy and Beck (1995) noted that a central feature of SBM is the SBM committee. While, the committees vary in composition and responsibilities as most writers agreed that it is within the committee that school stakeholders such as head teachers, parents, community members and students do participate in decision making. 4 The members of the SBMC are at the same time members of the community. All of them interact on daily basis; therefore, indicating that both the community and the school cannot live in isolation.From this one can also deduce that they influence one another. It therefore becomes easy for the SBMC to be like the ―man in the middle‖ between the school and the community. A School-Based Management Committee in Nigeria is a form of community involvement in school governance, based on regulation with elected but voluntary memberships. Certainly, the intention behind school committee is to implement democratic participation in decision making. It is argued that people know better and are able to be more responsive to their own needs. Locating authority locally seems more efficient, compared with decisions from central government which often miss their targets and take a longer time to implement, people who are within local school or live locally. The argument goes, will efficiently gather information relevant for their own purposes; ranging from pedagogical to school infrastructural issues. This kind of information is more reliable and will lead to effective decision making by school stakeholders in terms of public service delivery. Undoubtedly, the School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) is relevant at this time of Nigerian educational development. The functions go beyond resource management and its utilization as some observers view it. This is a narrow concept of School-Based Management Committee (SBMC). The communities are to ensure quality both in educational inputs and outcomes and also quality in learning environment for schools. This can only be effective if we have learners who are of good quality. In some parts of the world where the School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) is effectively used, it is used to promote self-budgeting reforms, school-based curriculum development, school-based staff development and school-based students‘ counseling.
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