Abstract:
Local people participation in the primary school development is very essential to improve education
quality and make attractive environment. Therefore, the core objective of this study is to look on the
practices, challenges and opportunities of participation of the community in development of their
primary schools. This study was conducted in Ambo town on two selected schools, namely Awaro
and Addis Ketema Primary School, randomly. The researcher followed a mixed research design
where data collection approaches was joined with qualitative and quantitative methods and both
probabilities sampling and non- probability sampling was applied through multi-stage sampling
procedures. A total of 156 respondent households were selected randomly to respond to the
questionnaire from different socio-demographic and –economic background. In addition, 45
participants were selected purposively from different population subset either participated in FGD
or interviewed as KII. Observation is also another crucial data collection tool used in this study. The
collected data, both primary and secondary data, were analyzed using SPSS version 26 for windows
and interpreted and presented using statements, tables and diagrams such as pie chart, bar chart
and histograms. Of the surveyed household respondents 75 (49%) were female respondents while 78
(51%) were male respondents, respectively. According to the survey results, almost all of the
respondents correctly defined the concept of community participation and agreed up on its
importance. The study also found that fund contribution, labor, provision of different resources and
organizing and attending different events as the main practices of community participation in the
development of primary schools in the study area. Similarly, the study identified low income, lack of
secularism, lack of awareness, low level of initiation from schools and reluctance and lack of
commitment as the major economic, political, social, and personal challenges hindering community
involvement in the development activities of primary schools. In general, the research identified that
only small proportion of the community members participate in development process of their
schools. Therefore, more effort to improve the level of community participation in development
process should emphasize.
