DOI: 10.11648/j.ijsedu.20261403.14 ISSN: 2376-7472

Strengthening School Community Partnership for Quality Secondary Education in Odisha, India

Sasmita Kar, Purnabasi Rout
Community participation has increasingly been recognized as a vital component in developing quality education at different levels of school education. This study explores the role of community participation in developing quality education at secondary school level. It analysed important policies and programmes on community participation while examining the perspectives of stakeholders such as school heads, teachers, parents and community leaders. It was also intended to explore the school-led initiatives to promote community participation for improving quality education. Problems and challenges in the process of community participation were identified, and suggestions were sought from stakeholders for improvement of school-community partnership. Survey method under descriptive research was adopted for conducting this study. Perception scale for School Heads and teachers, interview schedule for School Heads, parents and community leaders were used to collect data from informants. Analysis of data revealed that there is a progressive evolution of community participation in educational policies, where major programmes and policies highlight a shift from welfare-oriented approaches to participatory governance models. It also indicates that while various policies strongly advocate community involvement, there exists a gap between policy intentions and ground level implementation. The findings indicate that community participation significantly influences the quality of secondary education across multiple dimensions. Based on the findings, the study recommends a suggestive model for strengthening integrated participatory school-community partnerships through capacity-building programmes, awareness campaigns and structured engagement strategies.