CHALLENGES INHERENT IN THE PROCESSES OF UPGRADING AND PROMOTION OF TEACHERS: THE CASE OF BONO REGION

CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDYSchool is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environment for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. (http//www.definition.net). Teaching and learning are the major objectives of any educational institution and all stakeholders of education must be concerned with achieving … See more

CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDYSchool is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environment for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. (http//www.definition.net). Teaching and learning are the major objectives of any educational institution and all stakeholders of education must be concerned with achieving this at the end. This has called for policy makers of education, implementers of education, parents, and all supporters of education to cooperate in order to ensure that this aim is achieved (Opoku-Amankwa & Mahama, 2015). Creating a conducive environment for effective teaching and learning for the young child must be concerned by all stakeholders of education. Basic school is a place where people come together to promote learning. In basic schools, teachers are viewed as leaders with the head as a lead teacher and parents are viewed as child's first and most important teachers. (The world Wikipedia www.definition.net.). Educating the child is therefore involves both formal and informal settings, thus, the informal environment such as the community, society and the family. The structured setting such as the school needs to cooperate with the informal setting for the holistic mold of the child for the society. The basic education in Ghana today is compulsory free, for all school going children (Adamu-Issa, Elden, Forson & Shrofer,2007). This free compulsory and universal basic education (FCUBE) was formed in the year 1995 by the then government of Ghana with many intentions behind it. Appropriate Acts and Laws were also enacted by parliament to support the successful implementation of this programed. According to Head Teachers’ Handbook (2010), objectives behind the establishment of free compulsory universal basic education are,· To improve quality of teaching and learning: to promote efficiency, effective quality teaching and learning in basic schools.· To improve efficiency in management: to ensure efficiency, probity and accountability inThe management of schools.· Lastly, to increase access and participation: thus, ensuring that all school going age children are in school and complete basic education.The free compulsory and universal basic (FCUBE) concept in Ghana has since been diversified into many reforms all with the aim of improving the basic education delivery in the country (Head Teachers Handbook, 2010). The basic education is the minimum period of schooling needed by young children to ensure that they acquire the basic literacy, numeracy and problem solving skills as well as skills for creativity and healthy living. In ensuring that all objectives of the above are realized, all stakeholders of education need to come together to perform their various roles in order to ensure that, the shared purpose and objectives of educating the young child are achieved (Opoku-Asare, 2007).The role of the head teacher in this case cannot be under estimated as he/she is the front liner in the implementation process of any education curriculum. According to the Adentwi (2010), the head teacher who can also be called the headmaster, headmistress or principal is a staff member of the school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. He has the role of using the classroom instruction and presentations to help students to learn and apply concepts such as Mathematics, English and Science. The head teacher guides teachers to prepare their lesson plans, grade papers, manage the classroom, meet with parents and visitors and even work closely with all the school staff in order to achieve the school goals. The head teacher is noted to be accountable for the safety and security in the school level. His or her role further includes, planning for and administering the day to day management of the school (https//www.academic.edu). The head teacher is also a liaison officer at the school level. And as such he needs excellent communication skills that will enable him to link outsiders and the school together (SMC/PTA Resource Handbook, 2010).According to Baafi-Frimpong (2019), the school is a miniature society and life in the school must therefore reflect the life of the people among whom school is situated. This means that, a school and the community have something in common, in terms of norms, values, customs, or common identity. According to the world Wikipedia (https//en.wikipedia.org), a community is defined as social unit with a commonality such as norms, religion, values, customs and common identity. A community and school cannot therefore be separated as the school is part of the community. Baafi-Frimpong (2019) also stated further in his explanation of school community that, the school-community does not only refer to the geographical area but the attendance area as well. These include school Town, district, region or village where the school draws its student population from. As the community and school cannot be separated, management of schools needs to involve community members for holistic and cordial management of schools. The community is a place where the individuals work. Head teachers and many other educational workers do not work in a vacuum, but in a vital medium called community. There must therefore be a cordial relationship between the schools in which the head teachers work and the communities in which those schools are located. In ensuring proper realization of school goals and objectives, head teachers should always make sure they maintain and keep proper roles that motivate and promote school-community relationship. School headship is professionalism and therefore needs to be guided by professional code of conduct and ethics (Adentwi, 2010). There must be a bench mark guiding the head teacher roles and duties in order to ensure friendly environment for effective teaching and learning and Adentwi (2010) stated that parents and community members need to claim a large share in decision making in education because they always foot the large cost of their wards’ education and even sometimes provide educational resources to wards and for the clients who are delivering the services. With regard to this, teachers need to work to please the communities in which the schools are located. Though it has been noted by Adentwi (2010) that, professionals who allow themselves to be controlled by clients may fail to provide optimum services, but head teachers should be aware that they do not work for themselves, but the community and the society as a whole, and as such need to effectively and efficiently cooperate with the community and its environs in order to achieve the ultimate goals and objectives set.The school is noted as an agent for socialization, and as such, a school-community relationship is a two-way symbiotic arrangement through which the school and community co-operate with each other for the realization of a shared goals. Bekwai (2013) states further that, the school is a mini society that needs a good relationship with the community, if it is to function effectively. It is very clear that, when parents and school work together it promotes the health, wellbeing and learning of all students. When schools actively involve parents and community members in leadership decisions in schools, the main educational objective such as effective teaching and learning will be amicably achieved. The head is responsible for management of both material resources and personnel at the school level (Sam, 2010). The head forms a communication link between the school and visitors. The head teacher should therefore possess communication skills in order to link visitors of the school-community without problems. A communication skill is therefore very important in the role of the head teacher. The head must always be clear of his roles at the school level so as to prevent school-community crises which come as a result of unclear duties and roles of some head teachers. Head teachers need to communicate well with both visitors and community members in order to prevent crises at the school level. In maintaining good relationship, the need to respond to some stakeholders in the community is very essential to the head teacher. The heads need to be clear of all the factors that make them successful leaders and good administrators. The understanding of all those talents will help them to be successful in their management position at the school level.The question that always comes to mind, when it comes to school community is that, what role is the school head teacher to exhibit in the promotion of school -community relationship? This question sounds very simple, but some serious digest needs to be dealt into in the enquiry of the roles of the head teacher. The school head is supervisor; he is also seen as the first line of manager in the school setting (Sam, 2010). The head is the first point of contact in mobilization of human and material resources as well as improving human relations and morale of subordinates in the school setting in order to achieve an optimum output. Though the critical role of the school head is to help teachers fine tune their professional skills, they also need to ensure a win –win situation by applying the skills of a human relations in the performance of their duties. Regular contacts and communication between all community organization which are directly and indirectly concern about the total development of the child should be more concern to the head teacher.In order to avoid crises in terms of school management, head teachers should always have in mind the critical role some community link committees and associations play in the community. Some committees such as District education oversight committee (DEOC), School Management committee (SMC) and Parents’ Teachers’ Association (PTA) always have a lot of concerns for education. In planning, organizing and directing education, head teachers should always factor in the voices of these community associations in order to avoid problems and crises. According to Baafi-Frimpong (2019), school management committee is a school-community base institution aimed at strengthening community participation and mobilization for education delivery. He further stated that the main role of the SMC is to help the head teacher of a school to organize and manage the school activities in an effective and efficient manner. In other words, the SMC must assist the head teacher to govern the school better. According to the School Management Committee Resource Handbook (2010), Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) is formed based on the understanding that the home, community and the school are directly responsible for the total development of the child. The parents Teachers Association (PTA) District Education Oversight Committee (DEOC) and Schools Management Committee (SMC) were formed with the premises that cross section of parents in the community should have a say in the management of our schools at the level of School Management Committee (SMCs). Schools heads must consider voices of the community at the level of SMCs boards and PTAs for the effective management of the schools. There are several actions that can be taken by the head in the promotion of good relationship between the schools and the school link community associations. According to the SMCs Resource Hand Book (2010), a regular meeting between the schools is an appropriate for school- community relationship development. Also, the head teacher should respect the views of the SMCs and the vice versa.Tolerance between the two and respecting decisions taken at meetings are all keys to improving school-community relationship. Also, according to the Headteacher’s Handbook (2010), good management techniques help the head teacher to mobilize whole community to take active part in developing their respective schools. More hands should be called upon by the head teacher to help succeed at all cost. The head in his leadership role, should work with and through people such as parents, members of the SMCs and PTAs, chiefs and many others in the order to arrive at the expected goals of the school. According to Baafi- Frimpong (2019), there are three kinds of school community relationship that can be practiced. These are; closed system relationship where boundaries of the school are closed to community and leaders. The people do not have any say in school management. In terms of decision making in the school, they peoples are always neglected. They are also separated from the school in terms of school management. The second relationship is the interpretation system, where the community holds the view that, the school is the place where punishments are given when pupils offend at home. To them, the school is not a place where knowledge and skills are acquired, but place for punishment. The last school- community relationship is the cooperation system, where school boundaries are opened to the community. The school involves the community for all school affairs and allows itself to be influenced by the community for all relevant decisions taken in the school. Although all these practices yield some results as far as school community relationship is concerned, some yield bad results and should be discourage, whiles others yield good results and should be encouraged (Sam, 2010).1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMThe main shared goal of a school and its surrounding communities and environments is to make sure that effective teaching and learning take place. Both the school head and its communities therefore should make sure that such environment is created in order to achieve their shared purpose and goals. There should be mutual understanding and cooperation between the communities and the school to ensure a smooth running of the school. According to Baafi-Frimpong (2019), there are three kinds of community relationship that exist and can be practiced by head teachers. However, the head teacher in his headship role must adopt the appropriate ones that will avoid crises and conflict in the learning environment. According to the Head Teachers Handbook (2010), both the head teacher and the communities have some unique roles to play in ensuring good relationship. The following are therefore some of the appropriate actions to good relationship with parents, teachers, and the communities as a whole as stated by the School Management Committee Resource Handbook (2010}.§ There should be transparency in the administration of school, especially in financial matters.§ There should be constant consultation between SMC and the head teacher.§ There should be tolerance between the two§ The two partners should attend meetings regularly and promptly Head teachers ought to know that they work through people and in order to accomplish their goals and school purpose, they must consider the human factors very important in their work. Administration is a shared responsibility and therefore the school system as an organization should allow its structures to interplay of ideas to minimize the rigidity fastened by the leadership hierarchy. The informal leaders in the community should be seen as very important as the formal supervisors. According to Adentwi (2010), as a leader, humility should be a hallmark for your success which all school heads must learn to do in order to avoid school-community conflict. Heads who tend not to consider all the appropriate groups involve in school management will automatically govern school to fail. Because school is a social institution, it must socialize appropriately with all its necessary bodies around it in order to achieve its objectives and goals.Many studies have been conducted on school-community relationship, trying to bring out some actions which promote or discourage school-community relationship. Some of these studies concluded that, practices, values, aspirations, and norms of a community are very important and must be well noted in the formation of educational policies and practices by leaders in education. However, most of these studies failed to bring out some of the practices of the immediate leaders like the school head that promote or discourage the school-community relationship. For instance, Suaka and Kuranchie (2018) investigated the professional needs and concerns that head teachers in a district of education in Ghana had with respect of their work with teachers and other stakeholders. An analysis of their study reveal that they did not specifically go into their roles and challenges in relating with SMCs. PTAs and community members. Also, Micah, Yaro and Pev (2017) analyzed the role of the principal and parental participation in education process in the secondary school level. In that research, it was discovered that, parents’ involvement in education process is vital. However, Principals were lacking the motivation and management skills to engage parents in the education process. Here, there was an omission of finding out the role of the head teacher in the engagement of community members such as parents and other social groups in school management in order to promote school–community relationship. In this current study, the researcher is intended to fish out the role of the school head in the promotion of school-community relationship. Another research by Sadruddin, Qutoshi and Jan-E Alam Khaki {2017} about the role of the head teacher in school improvement in community base school in Karach district in Pakistan. The study also intended to find out general improvement related to the role of the head teacher. There was an omission to find out the actions of the head teacher which was related to the promotion of school-community relationship. Also, similar research conducted in Ghana by Biliman Izal Waek, in 2017 was about finding out the impact of parental and community involvement in schools on teacher attendance Junior High Schools in the northern Region of Ghana, but fails to talk of the role the head teacher plays in the school-community relationship. Ojo and Olaniyan (2008) investigated leadership roles in school administration and challenges, DiPaola and Hoy (2008) assessed school leaders’ role in improving instructional supervision and Too, Kimutai and Zachariah (2012) examined the headteachers’ supervision of teachers’ impact on students’ academic performance. All these studies did not include head teachers’ relationship with the communities in which they are located, elders and members of the communities as well as SMCs and PTAs. Meanwhile the vital role played by communities in which schools are located has occasioned the need to institute or form school management committees (SMCs), parent-teacher associations (PTAs), old boys’ associations and others which need to harmoniously and co-operatively work with schools for the betterment of both parties. More especially, the head teachers who serve as an intermediary between the schools and these bodies ought to act very to elicit the requisite support for the schools. As it is usually said, the school is for the society or community, where it is located, so, it should not operate in isolation from the community. The school’s activities are supposed to meet the aspiration of the community and it is through an effective collaboration that can be possible. This current research, therefore, was executed to fill these gaps left out by those researches that have been conducted earlier in other part of Ghana and the world. This current study focuses on the specific roles of the head teachers that have effects on the promotion of school-community relationship in the basic schools in the study area so as to come out with suggestions that can be implemented to improve the relationship.

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