THE WHY AND HOW OF SCHOOL AND

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP
 Opportunities for School-Community
Partnership
• Partnership implies two parties helping each
other. Both parties benefit. This means that if
a school - community partnership exist, both
parties benefit from the relationship.
What can the community do for schools?

• Brigada Eskwela - This program engages all

education stakeholders to contribute their
time, effort and resources in ensuring that
public school facilities are set in time for the
forth coming school opening. It takes place
more or less two weeks before classes begin
in June. This is a school maintenance
program that has been institutionalized since
2009 when DepEd issued DepEd order #100.
• Curriculum Development – This can mean
use of community resources for learning e.g.
museum, elders of the community and key
informants in research or resource persons
in the study of local history.
• Work experience programs – Business
establishments and offices in the community
can serve as training ground for learners
example is Work Immersion required for
Senior High School students.
• Partner offices for immersion provide Senior
High School students with opportunities: “1)
to become familiar with the workplace; 2)for
employment simulation; and 3) to apply their
competencies in areas of
specialization/applied subjects in authentic
work environments (Enclosure to DepEd Order
No. 30.3.2017).
 In this school-community partnership, the school
can fulfill what curriculum requires and may
improve on their curriculum based on community
feedback, enables the students to undergo hands-on
experience, while community establishments
contribute to the formation of graduates who are
more ready for life and more equipped for the world
of work. Business establishments or any world of
work in the community are the ultimate
beneficiaries of the graduates who have been more
prepared through work immersion.
 Some schools call this service learning
since it actively involves students in a
wide range of experiences which benefits
students and the community at the same
time fulfilling the requirement of a
curriculum.
• Remediation and enrichment classes –
Parents and retired teachers may be involved
in the School Reading remediation and
Learning Enrichment Programs.
• Youth Development Programs – The young
may involve themselves in youth
development programs and develop their
skills and talents, learn how to deal positively
with peers and adults and serve as resources
in their communities.
• Community Services – Examples are
students participating in tutorial programs,
community reforestration, clean up drive
for a river, assisting in medical mission;
school head involved in planning local
celebrations, teachers managing programs,
projects, activities; school band playing in
fiesta parade.
Schools may allow the community to use school
resources. Here are concrete examples
enumerated by the DepEd Primer on School
Community Partnership:
• Classroom used by community organizations
for meetings.
• School used as a polling place and venue for
medical mission which it may co sponsor with
the Rural Health Unit.
• School used by the Rural Health Unit by
mothers’ class in child care.
• School used as an evacuation center.
• School facilities used for community assemblies
• School basketball court used for local
celebrations and barangay sports league.
• Schools conduct livelihood skills-training
programs for parents and out-of-school youths
by using school resources.
• Livelihood skills-training for parents and out-of-
school youths by teachers themselves.
Sociological Basis of School-Community
Partnership?

• The functionalist theory states that

institutions must perform their
respective functions for the stability
of society. Other institution must
come in one institution fails to do its
part for the sake of society.
Legal Bases for Parents and Community
Involvement

• It is no wonder why even our laws

support school-community
partnership. RA 9155, Governance of
Basic Education Act, Section E (10)
explicitly states that one of the
responsibilities of school heads is
“establishing school and community
networks and encouraging the active
participation of teachers
organizations, nonacademic
Section 3 (f) of the same Act encourages “local initiatives for the
improvement of schools and learning centers and to provide the
means by which… improvements may be achieved and
sustained.”
Batas Pambansa Blg. 232, otherwise known as the Education Act of
1982, Section 7 states that:

Every educational institution shall provide for the establishment of

appropriate bodies through which the members of the educational
community may discuss relevant issues and communicate
information and suggestions for assistance and support of the
school and for the promotion of their common interest.
Representatives from each subgroup of the educational community
shall sit and participate in these bodies, the rules and procedures
of which must be approved by them and duly published.
• Another law, RA. 8525, Adopt –A-School Program Act,
also provides for school-community partnership. It
allows “private entities to assist a public school,
whether elementary, secondary, or tertiary,… in, but
not limited to, the following areas: staff and faculty
development for training and further education;
construction of facilities; upgrading of existing
facilities, provision of books, publications and other
instructional materials; and modernization of
instructional technologies.”
• Even the Philippine Education for All (EFA)
2015 Plan, then a vision and a holistic program
of reforms that aimed to improve the quality
of basic education for every Filipino by end
2015 likewise states: “Schools shall continue to
harness local resources and facilitate
involvement of every sector of the community
in the school improvement process.”
• The EFA 2015 Plan was extended in Education for All
Beyond 2015 – agenda 2030. Agenda 2030 has 7 new
educational targets from 2015 to 2030 that must
involve education stakeholders which in essence is
school – community partnership. UNESCO Assistant
Director General for Education Dr. Qian Tang, himself
admits that agenda 2030 cannot be realized without
schools partnering with community. He said: “Our
vision must be more aggressive, more committed not
jus involving government, non government agencies
but all stakeholders.”
• RA 9155, states that partnership between school and community
also ensures… that: 1) educational programs, project and services
take into account the interests of all members of the community
(Sec 3, d ); 2) the school and learning centers reflect the values of
the community by allowing the teachers/learning facilitators and
other staff to have the flexibility to serves the needs of all
learners (Sec 3, e ); and 3) local initiatives for the improvement of
the schools and learning centers are encouraged and the means
by which these improvements may be achieved and sustained are
provided (Sec 3, f ). So schools and communities function better
when they work as a team.