Making the Connection: Impact of School Leadership, Social Mobilization and Community Involvement on School Performance

Abstract

It is a common perception that performance of any organization depends on the vision of its leadership; this is leadership that enables the organization to make a difference. In Pakistan, school leadership is criticized that it has not been trained to meet the challenges of 21st  century. Governments have launched different policies and plans to generate the awareness among the mass about their role in school education and make it clear that leadership’s social mobilization and community involvement is necessary to achieve the desired goals for best survival in the present era. To involve the community in school management, concept of school management committees (SMCs) was introduced but the main obstacle to greater success remains the lack of acceptance and comprehension of the concept at both the community as well as school level (National Education Policy, 2009). Government of the Punjab also conducts workshops and trainings for school leaders to train them for social mobilization in the community and to involve community effectively in the school management to accelerate the performance of the school. The objectives of the study were to explore the contribution of school leadership, social mobilization and community involvement towards school performance and to find the best predictor of school performance. The sample for the study was the school headmasters/principals who have SMCs and have been trained by Government of the Punjab in social mobilization and to work with community and school. A self-developed questionnaire was used for the study to explore the best predictor among school leadership, social mobilization and community involvement of school performance. Multiple regressions were applied and it was found that community involvement was the best predictor of school performance.