Citzen particiaption presentation

Presented by
Mary Ann Awasiri
Lucy Nkongho
Akumengwa Neba
Barriers to Citizen Participation in Education

Outline
 Introduction
 Barriers to citizen in education
• Political frame related barriers
• Structural frame related barriers
• Human resource frame related barriers
• Symbolic frame related barriers
• Others barriers
 Conclusion
 Reference

Introduction 1
 What is education?
Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition
of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits.
Education is also seen as a process by which a society deliberately
transmits its cultural heritage, its accumulated knowledge, values and skills
from one generation to another. (Gwanfogbe, 2009)
 Who is a citizen?
A member of a particular country and who has rights because of
being born there or because of being given rights, or a person who lives in
a particular town or city. (Wikipedia)

Introduction 2
 What is participation?
It refers to a process whereby local people cooperate or collaborate with
externally introduced development programs or projects (schools in our
case).
In this way participation becomes the means whereby such initiatives can
be more effectively implemented. (UNDP Guidebook on Participation,
2001, Interpreting Participation, 4th paragraph).
 What is citizen participation?
 The intervention of private citizens with determined social interests in
public activities.
It involves direct ways in which citizen’s influence and exercise control in
governance.
Briefly, it can be described as the initiation, implementation, sustaining and

Introduction 3
 A process which provides private individuals an opportunity to
influence public decisions and has long been a component of the
democratic decision-making process.
(Cogan & Sharpe, 1986)
 Citizen participation is a community-based process, where citizens
organize themselves and their goals at the grassroots level and
work together through non-governmental community organizations
to influence the decision-making process. Citizens get most
involved in this process when the issue at stake relates directly to
them.

Introduction 4
 Law No. 98/004 of 14 April 1998, Part 4 article 32 & law No. 005 of
16 April 2001 that provides guidelines for education and on
orientation of higher education allows for participation of the
educational community in the management of education.
 The government instituted in 2001/2002 Schools Advisory Councils
charged with overseeing the functioning of the school.
State Universities, on their part, have board of directors carrying out
the same functions.

Political frame related barriers to citizen
participation in education 1
 Power relation
Citizen participation is about power and its exercise by different social
actors in the spaces created for the interaction between citizens and school
authorities.
However, the control of the structure and processes for participation,
defining spaces, actors, agendas, procedures is usually in the hands
schools and can become a barrier for effective involvement of citizens
 Understanding the policy and policy-making process
Before communities/citizens make attempts to participate and impact public
policy, it is important that they have an understanding of the policy-making
process itself and policies that govern education.
Unfortunately, the policy-making process as well as educational policies
tends to be very complex making it difficult for many citizens to participate
in the educational issues.

 Inadequate resources
These resources include adequate finances, capacity building
programs, education, leaders, and volunteers to support
educational causes and initiatives.
Having inadequate resources negatively impacts the
community’s ability to effectively influence and develop the
educational system.
For example, corporations and professional organizations often
have access to large amounts of financial and human resources.

 Reliance on volunteers and volunteer pressure
Inadequate financial resources necessary to address problems and
concerns within a school leads to schools relying on volunteers to
carry out school-based activities.
Over dependence and pressure on volunteers from the schools can
result in the availability of only a small number of volunteers willing to
carry out all the necessary activities demanded by the schools.
The social exchange theory explains that citizens participate in
education in order to reap from their inputs.
This cost-benefit idea may cause the citizens to over step their
bound.

Political frame related Barriers to citizen
Participation in education 4
 Poor relationship between rural communities and
government authorities
An awareness of the democratic theory by citizens can act as a barrier to
their participation.
Strained relationship between communities and government due to
community’s perception that the government does not understand rural
issues and impose policies and programs that are of her interest which
negatively affect rural citizens
This serves as a barrier to working together with schools to improve and
sustain the educational communities since they believe the government
considers only its own interests.
Potential participants, especially those economically and socially weakest,
may lack a sense of self-confidence and political efficacy the feeling that

 Urban bias and irrelevance of curriculum to some
community
 Among some government policy makers, an “urban bias” may exist
whereby the government pays more attention to larger, industrial
centers.
 Policies and programs created with urban centers in mind
sometimes are applied to rural communities.
 Unfortunately, these types of policies and programs have a
tendency to ignore rural issues and cannot be considered equal in
both urban and rural areas.
 Government provided ICT labs in some urban schools not taking
into consideration the fact that some rural areas do not have

 Fear of political and social instability .
In simple terms, for example, "how many of the ruling elite would
be comfortable with a critically conscious peasantry, and how
many teachers with a body of students who are developing critical
consciousness?" (Dent Ocaya-Ladiki, 1985).
The result may be suspicion and fear among the elite and
repression of the population.
Such approaches can also mislead marginal populations, who
have little margin for risk, into taking risks and then failing, with
possible disastrous effects.

 Individualism and personal interest
Greater power may be placed in the hands of the 'wrong' people
factionalists, demagogues, racists, reactionaries who don’t care a lot
about the institutions in terms of support to reduce stress but rather
are concern with their personal interest.
The result may be an unequal distribution of participation itself and of
its benefits either of the direct benefits meant to be derived from the
new service or of the more generalized benefits of involvement in the
development process.

 Lack of accountability of elected officials to citizens
While a number of participatory methods focus on enhancing direct
participation of citizens in the governance process in school, others are
focusing on maintaining accountability of elected officials.
In a democratic citizen participation, accountability is to be maintained by
elected representatives and there should be formal redress procedures.
(Blair 1998)
 Lack of political will
The absence of a strong and determined will by educational authorities in
providing and enforcing opportunities for participation at the by citizens, as
well as the lack of political will by government officials in enforcing
legislation that has been created for this purpose (Velasquez, 1991, Herzer
et al., 1991; Rosenfeld; 1994; Bohme, 1997).

Structural frame related barriers to citizen
 Differing ideas about the nature and purpose of involvement.
Law Number 004/98 of 14 April 1998 Part IV Section 33,”the members of
the educational community shall be involved through their representatives,
in the consultative and management bodies set up at the level of
education, as well as at each level of the decentralized territorial
authorities, or of the national educational set up”
Some schools may prefer thin involvement while others may want thick
involvement of citizen.
 Level of citizen organization
Citizens are most likely to participate and counter existing power relations
where there is some history of effective grassroots organisation or social
movement.(Robinson, 1998).

 Communication problems
Both schools and communities can be frustrated by the lack of
opportunity to communicate with one another.
This limitation may be partially the result of an absence of “listening
mechanisms” within the school structure itself.
This “silo effect” can be frustrating for community organizations
whose concerns may be of interest to the schools.

 Deliberate obstruction by the school system
Considering the systems theory, a barrier to citizen participation can
result as most ideas and information are from top to bottom (the
supra system which in our context is the Ministry of education).
There may also be a weakness in the system as some
administrators may deliberately obstruct citizen participation in school
affairs.
Some school administrator may refuse to allow advisory committees
or PTA to make any recommendations (Schafer, 1972).
School boards which ignore or contradict the opinions of public
groups and teacher organizations unwilling to attribute any role of
significance to community groups or interests. (Robinson, 1978)

 Bureaucratic nature of schools
 The inertia of inflexible systems, bureaucratic delays, the lack of
teamwork and coordinating mechanisms, the absence of clear rules as to
who should do what and when, poor technical support from those meant
to provide it, and the fear of losing control to other agencies, to lower
levels of the system, or to outsiders, all make it difficult, to encourage
new initiatives and citizen participation in education.
 Effective citizen participation requires the schools to be flexible to
innovations once need be.
 Schools see citizen participation as interfering with the academic and
examination-oriented aspects of the curriculum or as being intrusive and
unprofessional.
 Some even see it as working against the accepted wisdom that quality
necessarily depends on higher teacher salaries, better facilities, and the
competence of a better teaching staff.

 The risk of tokenism
Only marginal change, wrapped in new packaging, leading not to an
alternative model of development but rather to the reinforcement of central
power and the reproduction of central values.
Participation, may end up being 'system-maintaining', designed to
"transform disadvantaged and disaffected groups into 'responsive citizens'
implementing policies outlined by some higher authority", rather than
'system-transforming', designed to "effectively transfer political and
economic power to hitherto disadvantaged groups and thus to introduce
more radical social change" (Pearse and Stiefel l980:65).
Attention paid and energy spent by the general population on such token
achievements are then lost to attempts to change more fundamentally the
basic political and administrative patterns of a society.

Human resource frame related barriers to citizen
 Professional deficiencies
Relationships, Individuals needs, feelings, fears, prejudices, skills,
development opportunities.
The attitude of teachers and administrators towards parents may
constitute a serious barrier to their participation in school activities.

 Lack of participatory skills
Participatory processes become more complex at higher levels and
demand different types of skills, knowledge, experience, leadership
and managerial capabilities.
Knowledge and skills: setting goals and priorities, running meetings,
planning budgets, accounting for resources are all needed for
effective participation.
The lack of technical expertise, supervisory skills, and animating
skills of a participatory grassroots tradition can serve as a barrier

 Lack training and sensitization of stakeholders
While some participatory education strategies have focused on
building the awareness and capacity of local citizens, others have
focused on training of elected officials and school authorities.
In some places such as India, where reservations have been made
for women and lower caste representatives, a great deal of work has
gone into training these newly elected representatives, many of
whom have no previous leadership experience in formal politics.

 Policy timeline restrictions
Often policy timeline can create difficulties for communities and
citizens looking forward to impact change on a particular educational
issue.
At times, government may be considering an innovation or change
for a long period of time, the public consultation process may be
relatively short and does not allow citizens with the time to research
and properly prepare to effectively participate in the change process.
This may act as a serious barrier to their participation in the change
process.

 Time
Parents most often are busy with their own personal activities and
can barely sacrifice time to meet up with school activities.
Many schools schedule their PTA around the same period, thus
making it very difficult for parents who have children in different
schools to meet up with the scheduled time.

 A lack of interest on the part of citizens
It is argued that most people are not very interested in being involved
with the schools.
The evidence on this point is mixed due to the fact that principals and
teachers say they want more contact with parents, but they seem to
feel that many parents are unavailable or not interested.
On the other hand, parents say they want to find out more about the
school but do not feel welcome.
Thus, public comment about lack of involvement could be intended
as a general complaint, but not as an individual commitment to
playing a greater role.

Symbolic frame related barriers to citizen
 Perceived resistance of communities as a partner to educational issues
Law Number 004 of April 14 1998, section 32, “The educational community shall
comprise all individuals and corporate bodies that contribute towards the
functioning, development and prestige of a school. It shall comprise the following
members: the authorities, the administrative and support staff; teachers; parents
and pupils, students; persons from socio-professional circles, regional and local
authorities”.
Government policy makers who want to affect schooling especially in rural
communities can sometimes be faced with community resistance to change.
Citizens may belief that they do not constitute part of the educational community
and will resist any innovation that trespasses the cultural identity of their
community.
Citizens can become reluctant to negotiate any of their beliefs and tradition even if
the proposed change or policy could lead to improvements (Doern &Phidd, 1988).

Symbolic frame related barriers to citizen
 Heterogeneous nature of communities
Many communities perhaps especially those most disadvantaged are
not at all homogeneous in nature.
Social stratification, divisions along caste, religious, and ethnic lines,
personal rivalries and social factionalism, and the incompatibility of
interests are all factors which make it difficult to talk of 'community/
citizen' mobilisation or participation.

Other barriers to citizen participation in
education 1
 Geographical
There are parents in the Far North, North and Adamawa regions, whose
children attend schools in the South West and North West regions of the
country.
It becomes very difficult for such parents to be physically present in any
school activities.
Another barrier may be the weather condition, as most activities are
scheduled during the rainy season, especially if it happens to rain on the
scheduled day is usually poorly attended by parents.
 Economic
Some people argue that marginal communities (and many governments)
cannot bear the added expense of participatory processes especially in
terms of financial resources and of the time and energy required of
participating community organisations, government agencies, and
individuals.

Other barriers to citizen participation in education
2
 Social
Participation is often in conflict with a political culture where initiatives
toward reform may require clear sanction from above and where, for
example participation in designing (let alone questioning) school
policies and flexible, non-standardized responses to a variety of
development contexts are difficult to imagine
 Infrastructural
The road networks to some educational institutions constitute a major
hindrance to the participation of parents and other educational
stakeholders.
It therefore, become almost impossible for such parents to meet up with
other school activities.

Other barriers to citizen participation in education
3
 Lack of citizen education and awareness building
The lack of awareness by some parents of contributions at home
towards citizen participation in education can be a barrier.
Some are not aware of the fact that, they are to provide for adequate
nutrition, healthcare and assist in the follow-up of their children’s take
home assignment.

Conclusion
Haven discussed the above barriers to citizen participation in
education under the various frames of an organization, it is therefore
logical to conclude that, citizen participation should not only involve
financial or material contribution to education, but all other issues that
have to deal with improving the quality of education

References
 Blair H. (1998). Spreading Power to the Periphery: A USAID Assessment of
Democratic
Local Governance, [online] Available at:
URL:http://www.dec.org/pdf_docs/pnaca.gov.pdf
 Bohme A. (1997), Articulation of Social Actors and Participation: four
experiences (mimeo).
 Chimwenje, D. (1992). Decentralised Decision-making in Education: An
International Perspective. Draft paper, Geneva, International Bureau of
Education
 Cogan, Sharpe and Hertberg, (1986). "Citizen Participation", Chapter 12 in The
Practice of State and Regional Planning, edited by So, Frank S. II, Hand, Irving,
and McDowell, Bruce D., American Planning Association, p. 283-308.
 Commonwealth Secretariat. (1992). Confronting Violence: A Manual for
Commonwealth Action Participation, Learning and Change. London. Rev, ed.
London:
 Cunill, N. (1997). Repensando lo Publico a traves de la Sociedad. Caracas,

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