ABSTRACT
Continuous community-wide involvement and commitment of teachers, parents, and community members is fundamental in driving educational development at the school level. With continued technical cooperation from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Ecole pour tous project in Niger developed a methodology to establish sustainable community-wide collaboration to improve education, based on the institutional framework of the School Management Committee (SMC). This methodology consists of three core elements: (i) conducting secret ballot elections to enable the community to elect its SMC members democratically; (ii) carrying out the entire cycle of school action planning with community involvement; and (iii) establishing a sustainable monitoring and advisory structure to support SMCs. Democratically re-established SMCs can better represent the community by putting into leadership positions SMC members who are qualified, motivated, and trusted. Local stakeholders develop a school action plan to address education challenges identified through discussions on educational concerns and information at community general assemblies. The community discusses the progress of activities at mid- and end-year reviews and transparently manages the mobilized resources through community audits. So far, the methodology has been successfully scaled up in Niger with support from the World Bank, and expanded to several other countries in Africa.
