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Parental Participation in Schools
 

The rights, duties and responsibilities of national/local education providers and parents with regard to providing education

Scotland

Austria

Belgium
(Flemish Community)

France

Italy

Netherlands

Portugal
There is compulsory education between the ages 5-16. Almost 96% of children attend free co-educational, non-selective and comprehensive state schools managed by Scottish Local Authorities. Around 4% of children attend fee-paying schools.

To improve the quality of education provided, some authorities promote particular initiatives such as special arrangements for children to complete homework, and summer schools where senior pupils work with mentors to help encourage them to undertake further education. The Government is allocating significant resources to ensure that study support (including homework clubs and a wide range of school clubs) is in place in all secondary schools and as many primary schools as possible by 2001.

Education authorities also promote good practice across schools in important aspects of learning and teaching, for example managing difficult behaviour, promoting positive discipline and anti-bullying measures.

Parents are legally responsible for their children’s education. They have the right to choose their child’s school, within the limits of available places and the right to information about schools. National legislation encourages parental involvement in School Boards. Around 80% of all schools in Scotland have a School Board.

 Constitutional and simple legislation underpins decision-making powers and parental participation at national, Bundesland, district and school level. There are opportunities for parents to serve at federal state committee level, Bundesland and district collegiate assembly level, and on school councils. Children in Austria are required to attend either a public or a private school during the period of compulsory education. As in Scotland, children with special educational needs can be educated either in special schools or mainstream classes, and parents also have the right to educate their children at home.

The role of parents is broadly two-fold: parents act on behalf of children who have not reached a certain age; and school laws define parents as partners in schooling, giving them the same status as teachers and pupils. All school partners have to work together to achieve the aims of the school. Parents have a duty to provide pupils with learning materials and to ensure regular school attendance and adherence to the school community requirements.

Parental rights include:

  • access to information concerning all issues affecting the school and its pupils;
  • the right to be heard and to make proposals;
  • representation of their interests through elected representatives;
  • meetings with teachers individually or in groups to discuss pupils’ progress, careers, SEN and health and safety issues;
  • the right of appeal if the child is not accepted into school, is expelled or is not promoted to the next class, or does not receive a completion certificate; and
  • a place on the Class Forum or representation on a school committee with advisory and decisive power in the decision-making processes of the school.

Parents’ Associations exist in the majority of schools, their main task being fund-raising. Many parents have undertaken training at in-service establishments and many edit information bulletins and brochures for their members.

 There is free compulsory education until age 18, full time until age 16. Parents are free to choose the school which their child attends. There are three main types of organising authorities: community schools; official subsidised schools; and free subsidised schools. Each of these autonomous networks has relative freedom of choice of curriculum (within a framework), timetabling and learning and teaching methodology. Schools can be established independently of the government but must follow statutory and prescribed regulations to obtain subsidies and officially-recognised certificates. Parents themselves may establish schools.

Parents can elect and appoint representatives to local school councils (community schools) and to participation councils (subsidised schools). They have the right to advise and to be informed. All parents have the right to be a member of a Parents’ Association. These associations seek to:

  • inform other parents;
  • influence the decision-making processes of the school;
  • set up joint projects with the school; and
  • promote contacts and relationships in the school.
 Major decentralisation of power occurred in 1982. The State retains responsibility for the national curriculum and examinations, staff training, recruitment, budgetary allocation and the rules governing schools. City councils are responsible for building and maintaining pre-school and primary schools, the Districts for lower secondary schools and the Regions for upper secondary schools. The Districts and the Regions are involved in the organisation of vocational training.

Over the past 20 years, schools have been encouraged to be more open in their relationships with parents, to communicate well and promote their involvement in schools. Progress has been made through mandatory requirements and local initiatives. Parents can be formally involved in many ways.

  • They may choose between a private or public sector school but not normally the specific public sector school which is usually dependent upon place of residence.
  • They are represented on a High National Educational Council at Regional and District Council level, on the School Governing Board, and, for selection purposes, on the Class Council. They are also represented on Local Education Committees, formed in 1997, which operate at a level between District and municipality. These bodies organise consultations with parents over issues relating to opening or closing schools, a particularly sensitive issue for primary schools in rural areas. In all representative bodies, however, parents only have a consultative role and are in the minority.
  • Increasingly, parents are involved in decisions about secondary education, for example, in the choice of streams in which their children may be placed and subject choice.
  • Parents’ Associations represent parental interests but comprise mostly middle-class parents which creates a problem in many urban schools where parents are mostly of a working class background. There are two main Federations of Parents’ Associations for the public sector and one for the mostly Roman Catholic private sector.
  • Parental participation in elections for school governing boards in 1993 was 47% in primary schools, 33% in secondary schools and 17% in vocational upper secondary schools.
 Parents are responsible for their children’s education, in particular during the period of compulsory attendance, between ages 6-14. Under the Italian Constitution, parents have complete freedom of choice in education. They may choose to educate their children in state schools, non-state schools or at home. The choice among different state schools is limited by the number of places available, though appeal against a refusal of entry is possible. The law gives parents the right to information on curricula and teaching methods. Parents have a legally-sanctioned role, especially in an advisory capacity, at District, Provincial, school and class level.

The education authorities formally control:

  • financial resources

- building

- equipment

- running costs

- the management of teaching staff;

  • aspects of teaching and learning;

- curriculum

- methods

- resources; and

  • time

- length of school year

- hours in school per week

- time allocation for subjects.

As members of the School Council or Board, parents may express views on school times, meals and transport and can exert pressure on local councils.

 Formal schooling in state and non-state schools is overseen by national and local authorities, including participation councils which involve parents. Parents are expected to:
  • have responsibility in educational matters;
  • become involved in the participation councils; and
  • engage in founding and administering School Boards for non-state schools.

Some parents form parents’ councils, organise lunch-times and perform other supportive tasks.

 Significant measures have been introduced by the government, Parliament and the Ministry of Education since 1974 to give support to the participation of parents in schools. Parents are now involved at:
  • national level

- federative representatives in the National Council for Education;

  • regional/local level

- Pedagogic Council of Schools; and at

  • school level

- school administration through a School Governing Board

- pedagogical issues through the School Pedagogical Council

- curricular issues through direct participation on the Area Escola.

Within the new democratic context, the rights, duties and responsibilities of parents have increased and participation in education at national and local levels has been encouraged. The Parental Association Movement, generally effective in secondary schools, has grown in strength in recent years.

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