TEACHERS’ PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING: A NECESSITY FOR EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS
This paper examined the necessity of teachers’ participation in decision-making for effective management of schools. The issue of participatory decision-making is one of the challenges facing the education sector. In the past, school heads were seen as experts who knew the best answers to all educational problems. Most of the decisions were taken by the school heads without consultations with their teachers. In recent years, school system has become complex and school has a lot of problems to contend with. Hence, it becomes imperative for a joint decision-making to take place so as to arrive at the best solution for educational problems. Effective management of schools must have its bedrock on shared decision-making otherwise, known as participatory decision-making by those who are directly concerned with the running of schools namely the school heads and the teachers. The paper discussed the importance of participatory decisionmaking, the extent of teachers’ participation in decision-making and effects of participation indecision-making on teachers’ job satisfactions. The paper recommended among others that school heads should create room for teachers’ ingenuity and initiatives in decision-making.
Keywords: decision-making, effective, management, necessity, participation, schools, teachers’