A parent in the Old Taxi Park takes her children back to school for the second term which started on May 26, 2025. PHOTO/GEOFREY MUTUMBA
School-community cooperation is something more basic than the parent-teacher or student-community relationship. The objectives and purposes of the school, its method and technique of teaching, the shape of its curriculum, are all ultimately desired from the community in which it functions. If there is no living and dynamic relationship between the two, education would be anaemic, unreal, unable to make any binding impact on the mind and character of learners.
As social purposes change, as the techniques of production develop, as knowledge advances, as the meaning of culture deepens, the life of community is powerfully influenced by all the above factors. Therefore, if the school is unable to keep pace with these changes and adjust its programmes to suit them, the school becomes an outdated, backward-looking agency; an institution only interested in teaching certain prescribed courses and textbooks which may no longer matter in any significant sense for the contemporary world.
How can a school function as an agency of community service?
Education is a life long process that begins at the cradle and ends at the grave. There are a number of educational agencies such as the home, the school, the neighbourhood, the community and the state, which affect the educational process. The school is charged with the responsibility of providing the scheme of education, for proper discharge of this special responsibility assigned to the school. It’s obligatory for all agencies affecting child growth and development to join hands, have a common outlook and design a comprehensive programme for the physical, mental, moral, emotional, social and spiritual growth of the children. We are living in a dynamic society. This dynamic culture must be reflected in the school programmes. This will only be possible if there is effective coordination among various factors affecting the children.
School-home partnership (Why teacher-parents cooperation)
It’s important to say unless the parents of students who are attending various types of educational institutions, and the millions of teachers who are staffing the different types of educational institutions are brought together and enter into an intimate dialogue, no educational endeavours can succeed.
Importance of Teacher-Parents cooperation
For complete education of the child. It’s a common saying that a child gets a quarter of their education from teachers, another quarter by their own efforts and the rest from his or her parents. Therefore, if the teacher alone makes his contribution and the parents do not play their part, the education will be incomplete. The relationship of the teacher and the parent with the child and their views about the child are obviously different. For the teacher, a child is one of the large number of students in their class. To the parents however, the child is part of their own self and their future hope. The estimates of the child’s ability, faults, and behaviour by the teachers and parents often differ widely.
It’s only when the two come together and there is a perfect understanding between the parents and the teachers that the education development of the child can be understood in the correct perspective. Parents-teacher cooperation is thus based on a bilateral understanding of a triangular relationship. The parties concerned are the parents, the teacher and the child. The understanding is to centre around the growing personality of the child. A wise parent and a wise teacher should try to understand each other's efforts so that the child’s education may form an organic whole. The teacher, on their side, should understand how immensely their own immediate aims furthers the wholehearted sympathy of the parents.
The parents, on their side, should try to understand the limitations of the school. Chronologically and psychologically, home starts the child off into life and its experiences. It is the original and basic source of informal and incidental learning, which subsequently limits and slant the individuals’ content, quality, and rate of progress on different chosen fronts. The results of several studies indicate that the progress of a child in school is more closely correlated with the factors in the home environment than with his intelligence. Parents, in fact, are not only the first companions but also the first teachers of their children. The success of any education programme stipulates health home influence in the early life of the child. For improvement of education
Parental cooperation in educational efforts is a valuable force in education. It's hardly possible to overestimate the value of a strong sympathetic link between the home and the school. Promotion of talents and quality is one of the main goals of any system of education. In order to fully develop the gifts or talents a child has, it’s necessary not only to have a closer understanding of the child himself but also of his home. Without such understanding, a great deal of effort in schools may be just wasted. If the educational authorities are vigilant and have good contacts with the homes, they would easily understand the various handicaps of a child who is lagging behind in the class and apply corrective measures well in time.
For making homes helpful in education
Parents can make their homes good nurseries instead of burial grounds for the noble sentiments inspired within the precincts of the classroom and the spirit of humanity and brotherhood cultivated in the school playgrounds. Parents ought to take a constructive interest in the education of their children. Indifference of parents towards the education of their children is a danger signal because when children see the indifferent attitudes of their parents towards their education, towards their institutions, and towards their teachers, they cease to give importance to anything concerning education. Consequently, they become undisciplined. It’s essential that parents and guardians take proper involvement in their children’s education.
For the achievements of goals of education
For successful education, parents must take positive steps to learn about the school and what the school is trying to do for their children and in return, the school must take into account how the child lives at school. At all stages, parents and teachers should help to make children confident and secure. The head teachers/principals and staff can get the cooperation of parents by keeping them informed regarding the aims of the school, the curriculum, methods of discipline, quality of teaching, administrative devices, and nature of the school plans and the needs of the school for improvement and development. For the preparation of institutional plans, parents' help and cooperation can be sought. The school can meet high standards usually associated with good homes. A happy stage in the education of a child can be reached when the teacher becomes the only true parent of the child and the parent becomes the only true teacher of the child.
Mohammed Kamulegeya addresses people. PHOTO/OWEN WAGABAZA
The writer, Muhammed Kamulegeya, is Team Leader at Kitebi Secondary School.
