LIBON COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Libon, Albay

Instructor: Ms. Jonna May R. Gnilo Subject Code: Prof Educ 4

Course Description: The Teacher and the Community, Course and Year: BTVTED FSM 2
School Culture and Organizational
Leadership
Module No.: 7 Week: 7

School as a
LESSON
Social System

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of Lesson 5, pre-service teachers should be able to:

a. Describe social interactions and their importance in building harmonious

relationships with the wider school community;
b. Seek advice concerning strategies that build relationships with
parents/guardians and the wider community;
c. Seek opportunities to establish professional links with colleagues in the school
community
d. Explain what school and community partnership means
e. Explain the legal and sociological bases of school and community partnership
f. Cite examples of school-community partnerships

a. community partnership
 Activity
1. Based on your school experiences, list down ways by which a community helps a school and
ways by which a school helps a community. Come up with an exhaustive list.

Analysis – Let’s Analyze

Based on your list, is there real partnership between school and community? Or do you
find one party (like the school) more favored because it gets more help than the other? Defend your
answer.

Abstraction – Let’s Conceptualize

What is a school community?

When used by educators, the term school community typically refers to the various individuals, groups,
businesses, and institutions that are invested in the welfare and vitality of a public school and its community—i.e.,
the neighborhoods and municipalities served by the school.

What makes up a school community?

The school, itself, is a community of its members - teachers, administrators, staff, students, and families of
students. But they also suggest that this collaboration can reach to the outside, to the community-at-large, to include
parents and local businesses.

What is the relationship between school and community?

Community is a part of the society and education is the counterpart of both. School is the social institute
where consciously designed learning experiences are provided with the objectives of achieving social aim at large,
over a period of time.
 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 exists, both parties benefit from the relationship. Thus, in the following paragraphs we shall
present what communities can do for schools and what schools can do for communities.

What can the community do for schools?

1. 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 forthcoming 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, s. 2009.
2. Curriculum development - This can mean use of community resources for learning. e.g. museum, elders
of the community as key informants in research or resource persons in the study of local history.
3. Work experience programs - Business establishments and offices in the community can serve as
training ground for learners. A concrete example is the Work Immersion required of Senior High School students. In
this Work Immersion, students are given the opportunity to work in relevant establishments or offices in the
community to help develop in them "the competencies, work ethics, and values relevant to pursuing further education
and/or joining the world of work... Partner offices for immersion provide Senior High School students with
opportunities: "1) to become familiar with the work place; 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 work 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 these 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 student and the community at the same time fulfilling the requirement of a curriculum.
4. Remediation and enrichment classes - Parents and retired teachers may be involved in the School
Reading remediation and Learning Enrichment Programs.
5. 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.
6. Community Service - Examples of community service are students participating in tutorial programs,
community reforestation programs, 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.
What can schools do for communities in return?
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 for mothers' class on 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

Learning from the Experiences of Schools and Community Partners

Here are concrete examples:
1. Dumingaga Central School, Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur
Strong school community partnership - Feeding program was maintained by community donors –
Mother Butler Mission Guild, barangay councils, office of the mayor, parents who budgeted, cooked,
purchased.
"Kiddie Cop" classes – Cops lectures on good manners and right conduct, drug addiction, child
abuse, child welfare. Municipal Welfare and Development Office - Municipal Health Office conducted
special classes on health and nutrition, rights of the child.
2. Angels Magic Spot and Project REACH, etc. - Pembo Elementary School, Makati
Pembo Angels Magic Spot (PAMS) were the volunteer environmental steward-students of Pembo
Elementary School while magic spots were the small dumpsites or empty lots in the barangay which
were converted by the students into vegetable gardens from which members of the barangay could
harvest for home supply, the school for their feeding program or sold them for cash for the purchase of
seedlings and planting of more vegetables. PAMS brought together students, teachers, school head,
parents barangay officials and other members of the community clean up little nooks for garbage and
converted them into green areas with vegetables shared by all. It also taught gardening skills and
positive attitude toward work to students and supplemented the feeding program for the underweight
and the malnourished in the school, Project BOWLS (Brain Operates Well on Loaded Stomachs).
Another effective practice was Project Revitalized Enthusiasm for Assistance to Children of
Humanity (REACH) where each teacher adopted one student and acted as his/ her mentor for the entire
school year. The teacher gave free tutorial to the adopted student during his/her free time, visit the
student's family every now and in some instances gave the student a daily allowance of ten pesos from
the teacher's own pocket. This contributed to improved performance of Pembo Elementary School, 23rd
in rank in the Division Achievement Test zoomed up to rank 9 and six years later rank 1. (near-zero
dropout rate), ad Kid
Urbanidad Kids were ideal students who acted as role models for the students and the PEMBO
community. They were the cleanest, most well-mannered and most diligent in class.
 BOWLS means Brain Operates Well on Loaded Stomach. Every recess, children who were
selected by the school as BOWLS beneficiaries due to malnutrition were provided a free bowl of lugaw.
Pera sa Panapon was a weekly trash market where students, their parents and other members of
the community were invited to bring their recyclable garbage. The project helped the school purchase
the necessary supplies and was able to support two students to a 2010 math competition in Singapore.

Sociological Basis of School-Community Partnership?

The functionalist theory states that institutions must perform their respective functions for the stability of
society. Other institutions must come in if one institution fails to do its part for the sake of society.
The school cannot do it all. "It takes a village to educate a child" so goes the African proverb. It has to work
in partnership with other institutions in the community such as the church, government organizations and non-
government organizations. With the breakdown of families, schools face greater challenge in educating the young.
The rearing and education of the child is the primary obligation of parents. The school, the Church and other
social institutions come in to assist parents and families to fulfill their irreplaceable obligation. The breakdown of
marriages, the demand for both mother and father to work to meet the demands of a rising cost of living resulting to
less or practically no more time for parents to spend time with their children have, however, attacked the stability of
families and have adversely affected families in the performance of their irreplaceable duty to educate children.
Added to these is the increasing number of families composed of single mothers struggling to raise a family. With
the burden of earning lodged solely on the shoulders of one parent, single parents struggle to earn enough to provide
for their families. Consequently, this responsibility leads to their having a limited amount of time to spend for and
with growing and developing children who, unfortunately become more likely Single-parent families themselves. The
cycle goes on.
This is not to mention the negative effect of uncontrolled and unregulated use of technology on the young.
While the use of technology has brought a lot of convenience its uncontrolled and unregulated use by the tech-savvy
kids expose these kids to all sorts of information not necessarily favorable for their development. So families, schools
and other social institutions need to work together to save the youth.

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 É (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
personnel of public schools and parents-teachers-community associations."
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."
This 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 admit that
Agenda 2030 cannot be realized without schools partnering with community. He said: "Our vision must be more
aggressive, more committed not just involving government, non-government agencies but all stakeholders."
RA 9155, states that partnership between school and community also ensures... that: 1) educational
programs, projects and services take into account the interests of all members of the community (Sec 3, d); 2) the
schools and learning centers reflect the values of the community by allowing teachers/learning facilitators and other
staff to have the flexibility to serve the needs of all learners (Sec 3, e): and 3) local initiatives for the improvement of
schools and learning centers are encouraged and the means by which these improvements may be achieved and
sustained are provided (Sec 3, ). So, schools and communities function better when they work as a team.

application of learning

1. Illustrate with a cartoon or a diagram the partnership between school and community.
2. School and community partnership enhances sense of ownership and sense of belonging. What do these
mean? How will these impact on schools and communities?
3. Can schools take the place of families in the rearing of children? Why or why not?
 Let’s Reflect
In what way am I involved in school and community partnership? What good have I done to school
and community? What else can I do?

(Title of your Paper)

REFLECTION PAPER NO. 6

REFERENCES

V. Vega Ph.D., N. Prieto Ph. D., M. Carreon Ed. D. 2015. Social Dimensions of Education.
LORIMAR Publishing Inc., Quezon City, Metro Manila.
N. Prieto, C. Arcangel, B. Corpuz, 2019. The Teacher and the Community, School Culture and
Organizational Leadership. LORIMAR Publishing Inc., Quezon City, Metro Manila.