1. Institute of Educational Development,
BRAC University (IED-BRAC U)
Master of Education (MEd) and Postgraduate Diploma (PGD) in
Educational Leadership, Planning and Management
EDU 506: Leaders as Learners: Leading People in
Educational Institutions
Individual Reflection Paper
Community and Stakeholders Involvement
Submitted By
Almeer Ahsan Asif
2014 Fellow,
Teach For Bangladesh
Submitted to
Kazi Sameeo Sheesh
Dilruba Sultana
Tariqul Islam
Submission Date: 25th
June, 2015

2. Brief Introduction
Every time we think about education or school, the picture that commonly comes to our mind, is
of teachers and students. Many a time, we forget about the people who are behind the scenes of a
successful education program or school. These are the people of the Community and Stakeholders
of the school. The term ‘community’ and ‘stakeholders’ have a vast importance when it comes to
the field of Education and school. In countries like Bangladesh, where most of the government
schools, especially in Primary Education sector, are lacking resources and fund. In these schools,
roles of community and stakeholder is very crucial. The paper will be a reflection of the current
practices and some suggestions related to the ‘Community and Stakeholder Involvement’ in
Government Primary Schools.
Key Concepts
Community is indicated to the people living nearby the school and they may or may not be the
parents of the students. They can take part directly or indirectly in school development programs
and contribute voluntary services to school when it requires. A positive relation of school with the
community can be a huge asset for the teachers, students and the school in itself.
Stakeholders are the people who are directly involved with the development of program/institution.
There are different groups of stakeholders when it comes to School and Education. These are:
i) Parents and Families (Parent Teacher Association)
ii) School Management Committee (S.M.C.)
iii) Upazilla Resource Center (URC)
iv) Local Government
The stakeholders are directly involved with the school development programs. They have invested
their time/money/resource behind the school and have an important role in the decision making
process.
i) Parents and Families (Parents Teacher Association)
When it comes to the children’s education, parents can be the greatest source of resources
and support, right after the teachers. Parents are the key investors/financiers behind a child’s
education and for their wellbeing. Their attitudes and mindsets towards a school can make a
world of difference. In the Primary Education Program, there is a term called ‘Parents
Teacher Association’ or PTA in short. It is comprised of some of the active and vocal parents
of the students of the schools. They represent other parents of the students and provide
continuous feedback to the Head Teacher in formal and informal meetings. They can also
take part in Monthly General Meetings. They voice out their concerns about the teachers,
schools and teaching-learning. They are can provide voluntary services during any school
events, for eg. School feeding programs, National Holidays, etc.
ii) School Management Committee (S.M.C.)
School Management Committee (SMC) are the vital stakeholders for the school. SMC are
comprised of people with various backgrounds; they are educators, social workers and

3. businesspersons. Head Teachers, sometimes even parents, are a part of the SMC. For
strategic reason, local leaders are also involved in the SMC. They are the decision makers on
the affairs of the schools, such as Teacher Transfer, fund collection, infrastructural
development etc. They also monitor the school performances, and try to find solutions for
possible challenges, such as student absenteeism, drop outs, results of the high stake exams
etc. The committee holds monthly meeting which is ideally presided by the Chair of the
SMC. Vice-Chair pays frequent visit to schools for informal meeting with the Head Teacher.
iii)Upazilla Resource Center (U.R.C.)
URC was started under PEDP I to provide in-service trainings to the teacher throughout
school year. Each upazilla education office consists of one officer and 6-8 assistant officers.
The number of schools in an upazilla ranges from 150 to 200. Each assistant upazilla
education officer is responsible to supervise 25-30 schools. The responsibility of an officer is
to inspect five schools a month and each assistant ten schools.1
They arranges sub-cluster
trainings quarterly and subject based trainings periodically, which generally takes 3 days to
complete. They also monitor classrooms to give feedbacks to the teachers.
iv) Local Government
A local government can be involved as an Upazilla Education Officer. They can also be
made involved through SMC. When local government gets involved, the school gets
additional protection. Local Governments main purpose is to monitor after the upazilla. They
are also responsible for allocation of funds and budget distribution.
Significance with the field of Education
The topic ‘Community and Stakeholder Involvement’ is very important as it has a huge role in the
field of education. School and student related decision making, voluntary services and even
infrastructural development can take place with the involvement of community and stakeholders.
To establish a proper teaching-learning environment, community and stakeholder have to play an
effective role.
For eg, in the PTA, parents can ensure that other parents and students are aware of the school
programs and initiatives. They can talk to other parents to reduce drop outs.
Community people can make sure that there is a safe environment for the students, especially
girls, inside and outside of the school.
SMC can take part in fund collection and use it in proper allocation of school budget.
URC can give continuous feedback to the teacher’s progress and lacking.
So it can be seen how these stakeholders have influence in the field of education. This topic will
enable us to reflect further upon the good and bad practices of these stakeholders and also tell us
what is currently happening.
1
http://research.brac.net/publications/smfinal.pdf

4. Actual Scenario, Challenges and Good practices
Actual Scenario
In most practices in Bangladesh, there are some discrepancy with theory and practical. It isn’t
much different in case of Involvement of Stakeholders and Community.
Stakeholder Ideal Scenario Actual Scenario
S.M.C.  Regular Monthly Meetings
 Full SMC body present
 Fixed Agenda
 Discussions and Solutions Recorded
 Solutions are Implemented
 Irregular Monthly Meetings
 4/5 members absent
 Fixed Agenda, discussions get diverted.
 Solutions are not implemented
P.T.A.  Representatives of other parents.
 Written submission of suggestions
and critics.
 Participate in school well fare.
 Few parents only give their own
personal opinion.
 Mostly critics about teachers based on
personal opinion.
 Inactive in school events and activities.
U.R.C.  Sub-cluster and subject based
trainings on regular intervals.
 Continuous feedback cycle between
trainers and teachers based on
monitoring.
 Classroom monitoring and
evaluation on regular interval.
 Trainings are mostly clumped during a
specific time of the year.
 Trainings are mostly one way
instructions based and few group
works, without any feedback cycle.
 Very few classroom visits throughout
the year.
Community  Active participation in school
welfare
.
 Unaware about school’s needs.
Local
Government
 Proactive in creating a better
environment for the students
 Less importance is given to matters
regarding education.
Challenges
There are lot of challenges for the communities and stakeholders to provide their 100%
effectiveness. Some of the big challenges are:
i. Unclear roles and responsibilities: Most of the stakeholders are not 100% clear on their
roles and responsibilities. There is also a big gap in communication with the stakeholders
among themselves. The discussions and findings are not shared commonly.
ii. No incentives to participate: The work SMC and PTA do, they do it as a voluntary
service. There is no monetary or other sorts of benefits for them. Even URC instructors’
faces lot of difficulties with transfer issues while dealing with the nominal salary.

5. iii. No accountability or Transparency: If a decision has been taken regarding an issue, the
stakeholders are not accountable to anyone about its proper implementation. Even the
transparency with the budget and funding are not kept updated in most of the cases.
Good Practices
There are two sides of every coin. Just like that, inspite of all the challenges there are some good
practices among the stakeholders.
Even though there are no incentives for the SMC body, they still come on meetings and take part
in school development. Our school lacked a place for guardians to wait for their kids. So the
SMC body collected the fund and made a beautiful shed for the guardians to wait. They could
have used some chairs for the guardians, but instead constructed a proper sitting place. They also
took part in beautification of the school with garden.
The subject based trainings arranged by URC are also very helpful for the new teachers. One of
our pre-primary teacher was struggling with her classroom management, the URC officer took
special note of that, and made sure that she attended the next pre-primary training from that
school, even though the number of participants were already full.
The community people in our school are also very protective about the school children. In case
of any disturbance or medical accidents, they are the ones who rushes towards the aid of the
student
In the PTA, parents are very vocal about the punctuality of the teachers. They also make sure
teachers are covering the syllabus accordingly and on time. This limits the bad practices of
teachers at some extent.
Recommendation
Some recommendations based on personal experience are mentioned below:
1. Give a daylong seminar/workshop for the SMC/PTA on their roles and responsibilities
towards the school and how to achieve that.
2. URC should be open to the teachers for continuous feedback support.
3. The subject based trainings should be planned ahead by 1 year and sent to each school so
that teachers can plan accordingly.
4. Some incentives, like recognition should be given to community people who are always
active in school development programs.
5. There should be a formal evaluation system for the URC and the PTA to monitor the
performance of the teachers and the students.
6. All the funding, budgets and meeting discussions should be properly documented.
Conclusion
In a country like Bangladesh, we cannot always rely everything on the teachers and local
government to solve all the problems. The community and stakeholders also need to step up and
play their roles accordingly. Only then we can create the next generation of educated leaders in
our society to take our country forward.