CHAPTER 6

The Why and How of School and Community Partnership

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this Chapter, you should be able to

 explain what school and community partnership means;
 explain the legal and sociological bases of school and; community
partnership: and  cite examples of school-community partnerships.

Activity - Let's Do This

1. Based on your school experiences, list

down ways by which a community helps a
school and ways by which a school helps a
community. Come up with an exhaustive list.

2. Group yourselves by 6. Compare your

lists. Come up with a final list in which
communities help schools and in which schools
help communities.

Analysis Let's Analyze

Based on your group list, is there real

partnership between school and community? Or do you find one party (like
the school) more favored because it gets more help than the other? Defend
your answer.
Abstraction Let's Conceptualize

Opportunities for School-Community Partnership

Partnership implies two parties helping each other. Both parties’

benefit. This means that if a school - community partnership exists, both
parties benefit from the relationship. Thus, in the following paragraphs we
shall present what communities can do for schools and what schools can do
for communities.

What can the community do for schools?

Here are examples of what a community can do for schools:

1. Brigada Eskwela -This program engages all education stakeholders to

contribute their time, effort and resources in
ensuring that public school facilities are set in
time for the forthcoming school opening. It
takes place more or less two weeks before
classes begin in June. This is a school
maintenance program that has been
institutionalized since 2009 when DepEd
issued DepEd Order # 100.

2. Curriculum development - This can mean use of community resources for

learning. e.g., museum, elders of the community as key informants in
research or resource persons in the study of local history.
3. Work experience programs –

Business establishments and offices in the community can serve as

training ground for learners. A concrete example is the Work Immersion
required of Senior High School students. In this Work Immersion, students
are given the opportunity to work in relevant establishments or offices in
the community to help develop in them the competencies, work ethics,
and values relevant to pursuing further education and /or joining the world
of work.... Partner offices for immersion provide Senior High School
students with opportunities: "1) to become familiar with the work place; 2)
for employment simulation; and 3) to apply their competencies in areas of
specialization /applied subjects in authentic work environments (Enclosure
to DepEd Order No.
30. 3. 2017)

In this school-community partnership, the school can fulfill what

curriculum requires and may improve on their curriculum based on
community feedback, enables the students to undergo hands-on work
experience, while community establishments contribute to the formation of
graduates who are more ready for life and more equipped for the world of
work. Business establishments or any world of work in the community are
the ultimate beneficiaries of these graduates who have been more prepared
through work immersion.

Some schools call this service learning since it actively involves

students in a wide range of experiences which benefits students and the
community at the same time fulfilling the requirement of a curriculum.

4. Remediation and enrichment classes -Parents and retired teachers

may be involved in the School Reading remediation and Learning Enrichment
Programs.
 5. Youth Development Programs- The
young may involve themselves in youth
development programs and develop
their skills and talents, learn how to
deal positively with peers and adults
and serve as resources in their
communities.

6. Community Service - Examples of community service are students

participating In tutorial programs, community reforestation programs, clean
up drive for a river, assisting in medical mission; school head involved in
planning local celebrations, teachers managing programs, projects,
activities; school band playing in fiesta parade.
What can schools do for communities in return?

Schools may allow the community to use school resources. Here are concrete
examples enumerated by the DepEd Primer on School Community
Partnership:

• Classroom used by community organizations fer meetings

• School used as a polling place and venue for medical mission which it
may co-sponsor with the Rural Health Unit

• School used by the Rural Health Unit for mothers' class on child care

• School used as an evacuation center

• School facilities used for community assemblies

• School basketball court used for local celebrations and barangay sports
league

• Schools conduct livelihood skills-training programs for parents and out-

of-school youths by using school resources

• Livelihood skills-training for parents and out-of-school- youths by

teachers themselves
Here are concrete examples:

1. Dumingaga Central School, Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur

Strong school community partnership Feeding program was

maintained by community donors Mother Butler Mission Guild, barangay
councils, office of the mayor, parents who budgeted, cooked, purchased.
 Kiddie Cop" classes Cops lectures on good manners and right conduct,
drug addiction, child abuse, child welfare. Municipal Welfare and
Development Office Municipal Health Office conducted special classes on
health and nutrition, rights of the child.

2. Angels Magic Spot and Project REACH, etc. - Pembo Elementary School,
Makati

Pembo Angels Magic Spot (PAMS} were the volunteer environmental

steward-students of Pembo Elementary School while magic spots were the
small dumpsites or empty lots in the barangay which were converted by the
students into vegetable gardens from which members of the barangay could
harvest for home supply, the school for their feeding program or sold them
for cash for the purchase of seedlings and planting of more vegetables.

PAMS brought together students, teachers, school head, parents,

barangay officials and other members of the community clean up little nooks
for garbage and converted them into green areas with vegetables shared by
all. It also taught gardening skills and positive attitude toward work to
students and supplemented the feeding program for the underweight and
the malnourished in the school, Project BOWLS (Brain Operates Well on
Loaded Stomachs).

Another effective practice was Project Revitalized Enthusiasm, for

Assistance to Children of Humanity (REACH) where each teacher adopted
one student and acted as his/ her mentor for the entire school year. The
teacher gave free tutorial to the adopted student during his/her free time,
visit the student's family every now and in some instances gave the student
a daily allowance of ten pesos from the teacher's own pocket. This
contributed to improved performance of Pembo Elementary School, 23d in
rank in the Division Achievement Test zoomed up to rank 9 and six years
later rank 1. (near-zero dropout rate), ad Kid

Urbanidad Kids were ideal students who acted as role models for the
students and the PEMBO community They were the cleanest, most well-
mannered and most diligent in class.

BOWLS means Brain Operates well on Loaded Stomach. Every recess,

children who were selected by the school a BOWLS beneficiary due to
malnutrition were provided a fresh bowl of lugaw.
 Pera sa Panapon was a weekly trash market where students, their
parents and other members of the community were invited to bring their
recyclable garbage. The project helped the school purchase the necessary
supplies and was able to support two students to a 2010 math competition in
Singapore.

Sociological Basis of School-Community Partnership?

The functionalist theory states that institutions must perform their respective
functions for the stability of society. Other institutions must come in if one
institution fails to do its part for the sake of society.

The school cannot do it all. It takes a village to educate a child so goes

the African proverb. It has to work in partnership with other institutions in
the community such as the church, government organizations and non-
government organizations. With the breakdown of families, schools face
greater challenge in educating the young.

The rearing and education of the child is the primary obligation of

parents. The school, the Church and other social institutions come in to
assist parents and families to fulfill their irreplaceable obligation. The
breakdown of marriages, the demand for both mother and father to work to
meet the demands of a rising cost of living resulting to less or practically no
more time for parents to spend time with their children have, however,
attacked the stability of families and have adversely affected families in the
performance of their irreplaceable duty to educate children. Added to these
is the increasing number of families composed of single mothers struggling
to raise a family. W1th the burden of earning loaded solely on the shoulders
of one parent, single parents struggle to earn enough
to provide for their families. Consequently, this responsibility leads to their
having a limited amount of time to spend for and with growing and
developing children who, unfortunately become more likely single-parent
families themselves. The cycle goes on.

This is not to mention the negative effect of uncontrolled and

unregulated use of technology on the young. While the use of technology
has brought a lot of convenience its uncontrolled and unregulated use by the
tech-savvy kids exposes these kids to all sorts of information not necessarily
favorable for their development. So, families, schools and other social
institutions need to work together to save the youth.

Legal Bases for Parents and Community Involvement

It is no wonder why even our laws support

school community partnership. RA 9155,
Governance of Basic Education Act. Section E
(10) explicitly states that one of the
responsibilities of school heads establishing
school and community networks and
encouraging the active participation of
teachers’ organizations, non-academic
personnel of public schools, and parents-
teachers community associations.

Section 3 () of the same Act encourages "local

initiatives for the improvement of schools and
learning centers and to provide the means by which... improvements may be
achieved and sustained." Batas Pambansa Blg. 232,
otherwise known and the Education Act of 1982, Section 7 states that:

Every educational institution shall provide for the establishment of

appropriate bodies through which the members of the educational
community may discuss relevant issues and communicate information and
suggestions for assistance and support of the school and for the promotion
of their common interest. Representatives from each subgroup of the
educational community shall sit and participate in these bodies, the rules
and procedures of which must be approved by them and
duly published.

Another law, RA. 8525, Adopt -A-School Program

Act, also provides for school-community partnership. It
allows private entities to assist a public school, whether elementary.
secondary. or tertiary... in, but not limited to, the following areas, staff and
faculty development for training and further education; construction of
facilities; upgrading of existing facilities, provision of books, publications and
other instructional materials; and modernization of instructional
technologies."

Even the Philippine Education for All

(EFA) 2015 Plan, then a vision and a holistic program of

reforms that aimed to improve the quality of basic
education tor every Filipino by end 2015 likewise states:
Schools shall continue to harness local resources and
facilitate involvement of every sector of the community
in the school improvement process."

This EFA 2015 Plan was extended in Education for All

Beyond
2015-Agenda 2030. Agenda 2030 has 7 new educational targets from 2015
to 2030 that must involve education stakeholders which in
essence is school community partnership. UNESCO Assistant Director
General for Education, Dr. Qian Tang, himself, admits that Agenda 2030
cannot be realized without schools partnering with community. He said: Our
vision must be more aggressive, more committed not just involving
government, non-government agencies but all stakeholders."

RA 9155, states that partnership between school and community also

ensures... that: 1) educational programs, projects and services take into
account the interests of all members of the community (Sec 3. d); 2) the
schools and learning centers reflect the values of the community by allowing
teachers/learning of all learners and others staff to have the flexibility to
serve the needs of all learners (Sec 3, e). and 3) local initiatives for the
empowerment of schools and learning centers are encouraged and the
means by which these improvements may be achieved and sustained are
provided (Sec 3, f). So, schools and communities function better when they
work as a team.

Application Let's Apply

1. Illustrate with a cartoon or a diagram the partnership between

school and community

2. Develop a tool to evaluate the extent and quality of school and

community partnership.
 3. Pretend you are an instructor /Professor in this professional course,
The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and Organizational
Leadership. Your lesson has this learning outcome: To explain the
sociological and legal bases of school and community partnership.
How will you proceed? Deliver your lecture.

4. School and community partnership enhances sense of ownership

and sense of belonging. What do these mean? How will these inpact
on schools and communities?

TAKEAWAYS

 School and community partnership means school head, teachers,

learners, parents of learners and non-teaching personnel working
together with civic and religious leaders, alumni, other parents, non-
government organizations, government organizations for the good
children.

 The upbringing of children is the main and irreplaceable duty and

responsibility of the family. But with the weakening influence of the
family on the upbringing children and with children's unlimited
exposure to modern technology- like the internet, the challenge for
schools to teach the young has become even greater. So, schools
cannot do it all. They have to partner with community.

 In this partnership, children, the primary customers of schools, are

most benefited but school and community are likewise mutually
benefited.

 RA 9155, also known as the Governance of Basie Education Act, BP 232

which is the Education Act of 1982, RA. 8525, Adopt -A-School Program
Act and Agenda 2030 stipulate school and community partnership.

 There are many opportunities for school and community partnership.

The Brigada Eskuela which is now institutionalized in DepEd Schools is
a glaring proof of school and community partnership. Schools with all
its human and material resources can offer services also to the
community in many ways.

Let's Check for Understanding

1. Can schools take the place of families in the rearing of children? Why
or why not?

2. What sociological reality in the Philippines and in the world demand

that school’s partner with the community (Church, mass media,
business establishments. etc.) for the education of children?
 3. State the provisions of law that refer to school-community partnership.

4. Cite additional examples of school-community partnerships that

benefit the young.

Let's Reflect

In what way am I involved in school and community partnership? What good

have I done to school! and community? What else can I do?

Taking it to the Net

Research on successful school and partnerships in high performing countries

like Finland, Singapore and Canada.