Activity 2.
1
Advantages and Constraints
of Small Schools
Purpose: This activity will help you to recognize the advantages of having small
schools in providing education. It will also give you the opportunity to
describe the difficulties and constraints faced by teachers in single-
teacher schools and multi-grade classes, and find how they can be
resolved.
Questions: 1. What are the advantages of small schools?
Attending in small schools has an advantages and positive impact
on students, one of this is, students at small schools develop strong
relationships with their classmates and teacher. Student and teacher
relationship help students to feel more comfortable approaching them
whenever they find the lessons difficult. Second is, students at small
schools are more likely to be highly engaged in their school community,
leading to a sense of personal responsibility for the community and
fostering skills such as leadership and social emotional skills. And lastly
is, small schools can meet the needs of the students because there are
few students and they can cater them all. Also teachers are able to
better know the academic strengths and weaknesses of each of their
students and provide their instruction according to the needs of the
students.
2. What are our difficulties concerning:
Physical Environment?
Teachers often resent being placed in distant
schools, because: - they fear it will affect
their career by being far away from centres
of decision making;
o they are far away from their family,
friends and colleagues,.
o the remuneration is insufficient to
offset the cost of living away from the
main centres;
Long distances from roads, transportation,
shops, clinics, post offices, police stations,
etc.
Children are often less healthy than their
counterparts in the big schools.
Lack of communication with educational
support systems and authorities.
Social Environment?
Loneliness of the teacher, which can become
critical in an unsympathetic setting, or if the
teacher comes from a different
community/background.
Negative attitude towards multi-grade
teaching by the authorities, as well as the
general public.
Lack of a government policy on multi-grade
classes leading to:
o lack of appropriate pre- and in-
service teacher education;
o inappropriate and irrelevant
curriculum and materials;
o lack of appropriate textbooks (the
existing ones only cater for single-
grade classes); and no in-service
assistance for specific pedagogical
problems, such as teaching
methodologies and classroom
organization.
Small schools and multi-grade classes are
often in socio-economically disadvantaged
areas, leading to:
o deprived home environment;
o low educational attainment of
parents;
o health and nutrition problems;
o low aspirations of parents and the
community;
o interrupted school attendance
because pupils have to look after
animals, or work in the fields, or
look after the home; and
o lack of pre-schools.
Inadequate out-of-school experiences for the
pupils, e.g. sport, traditional dancing and
music, and visits to places of interest, which
can be used as starting points for learning.
Learning Environment?
Lack of supervision;
Lack of learning materials;
Lack of trained personnel;
Lack of facilities, such as:
o telephone, photocopier, typewriter,
o paper, pencils, chalk, etc.;
o textbooks, school library;
o resource materials and outside
resources
o such as city libraries, health centre,
o agricultural information centres;
o buildings, desks and storage spaces.s
3. Refer to Case 2.1 on Page 19, and discuss how your school can
forge a partnership with the community to improve the functioning
of the school.
Partnership means working and collaborating with others in
attaining the same goals. School and community plays an important
role to improve the functioning of the school. When schools and
community organizations work together to support learning, everyone
benefits. Partnerships can serve to strengthen, support, and even
transform individual partners, resulting in improved program quality,
more efficient use of resources, and better alignment of goals and
curricula stronger relationships with school teachers and principals
were more successful at improving students’ homework completion,
homework effort, positive behavior, and initiative.
School can forge a partnership with the community through
having a program, initiating activities where students, parents and
community could be benefited. Having a good communication and
relationship with others which can lead to improve the functioning of
the school.
