Community Participation in Quality Assurance (CPQA): A Catalyst in Enhancing Quality Basic Education Service Delivery in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria, like most developing countries is having challenges in reaching the Millennium Development Goals, Education for All and national education goals within the globally agreed timeframe of 2015. While the widespread progress in enrolment figure is laudable due to social demand for it, there are persistent challenges of exclusion, inequalities, low completion rates and low learning outcomes. It is within this context that this paper examines Community Participation in Quality Assurance as a catalyst in  enhancing quality and equity towards the attainment of Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Nigeria Education Sector. A descriptive survey study conducted through the use of a developed instrument on expected role of community members in assuring qualitative education service delivery in the basic education sector tagged “Community Participation in Quality assurance Instrument”. Stratified random sampling technique was used to sample the opinion of 150 school managers (both principals and head-teachers) and 150 classroom teachers totalling 300 respondents. The instrument was validated and reliability test was carried out using test- re-test and found reliable at 0.85 reliability coefficient. Findings revealed that there is no significant difference in the perception of all the respondents towards community participation in Quality assurance at the basic education level. The implications of the study as a catalyst in fast tracking access, participation and enhancing quality and equity towards attainment of EFA and MDGs were also stressed,

Keywords: Community, Participation, Quality Assurance