Parents’ involvement in decision making and its Impact on the quality of education in secondary Schools: a case of Kyerwa District

This study investigated Parents’ Involvement in Decision making in Public Secondary Schools and how this affects the quality of education. Specifically, the study investigated the extent to which parental involvement in decision making can reduce the existing crisis of quality secondary education in Public Secondary Schools in Kyerwa district. The study involved 101 respondents, including 50 parents, 15 school board members, 15 teachers, 15 students, 5 WEC, and 1 district education officer. Both non probabilistic and probabilistic sampling techniques were used to select respondents. Questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and observation were used to collect primary data. Descriptive statistics with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel were used to analyze quantitative data, while thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Study findings show that, Parents are not significantly involved in the making decision for schools’ development to improve education quality. Rather, they are only involved in matters related to contributing for the development of schools’ learning infrastructure. Low parents’ turnout in reporting students’ weaknesses, inferiority complex, lack of cooperation between school managements and parents, abuse of school regulations among students as well as shortage of teachers were identified as challenges for provision of quality Education in Public Secondary Schools. Parents are summoned to give financial contribution for the plans that they were not involved in giving their opinions during the policy formulation stage. It was however, found that parents in the district are not suitable decision makers in technical areas of education decision making such as monitoring the quality of Education, the quality of Teachers, the quality of what is being taught to their children and the general evaluation of Curriculum due to low level of education. The study recommends that, the involvement of parents in decision making should consider the literacy rate (level of Education) of Parents and the nature of decisions to be made. The study findings suggest that, the involvement of parents in decision making in Kyerwa district should fully be made in non technical areas of decision making unlike technical areas. The school management should educate parents on the importance of investing in education and the importance of their involvement before involving them in financial contribution. Schools should develop a collaborative and community-based involvement system that seeks to enable parents develops positive attitudes to improve education quality. Policymakers in the ministries concerned with education and schools management should develop a clear system that explains parents’ roles in improving education quality.