hr. 1. EducationaI Development, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 27%288.1991 Printed in Great Britain

u738-0593/91 13.00+ .oo Pergarnon Press plc

ORGANISATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE LOCAL MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS: PAPUA NEW GUINEAN CASE STUDIES*

ROSEMARY PRESTON

International Centre for Education in Development, Department of Continuing Education, University of Warwick, U.K.

Abstract-Associated with the economic adjustments of recent years, there is a trend in many countries for governments to devolve responsibility for logistical support to schools. This paper is a study of factors that can influence the local management necessary for the provision of this support. Drawing from two, largely rural, studies in Papua New Guinea (a national survey and a detailed analysis of community management of 13 schools in a single area), the paper describes the school, its Board of Management and the community as a trio of organisations with theoretically complementary objectives. It points to the inadequacy of general cultural explanations for Board inability to sustain operations over time. It claims that Board members, people in the communities they represent and teachers all have private expectations of their association with schools, which if not met, will undermine commitment. Ensuring these are met, with secondary regulatory action, can reduce the frequency of organisational troughs of apathy. As it is, in Papua New Guinea and elsewhere, the prospect of expectation fulfilment associated with socio-economic advantage means that those with least to gain may refuse to become involved with education systems.

INTRODUCTION

Until the crisis of the late 1970s and the subsequent restructuring of economies, there had been little research interest in the influence of non-government contributions on the pro- vision of state education in less developed countries. Now, as governments worldwide are devolving responsibility for the finance and management of schools (while retaining control of curriculum related activities), questions are being asked about the implications of this for educational access and quality in places of very different social and economic status. A series of country and community case studies have been undertaken. Both UNESCO and the World Bank have commissioned papers on the community finance of education, but not all of these are available. The proceedings of a Commonwealth Secretariat Conference held in

*The substance of this paper is drawn from Preston, R. (forthcoming) Ways forward? The problems of organisa- tional dynamics and simple policy approaches to community management of schools, in Bray, M. and Preston, R. Community management and financing of schools in Papua New Guinea, Report No. 73, National Research Institute, Waigani.

1985 in Gabarone have, been published (Bray with Lillis, 1988).

Most studies to date are national level descriptions of systems of, what has been recently termed, ‘directed devolution’ (Martin, 1990) and the implications of this for com- munity support and estimates of the extent of provision. It is now being acknowledged that, by and large, communities have always made substantial, if hidden, contributions to educa- tional expenditure. This has been found to more than double government inputs when oppor- tunity costs to households are included in the calculations (Tilak, 1989). It has also been observed, using macro-level data, that both absolute levels of public and private investment in education and the relative importance of education to other forms of investment may fluctuate with variations levels of national budget (Tilak, 1989; Reimers, 1990).

Micro-level observations of processes that enhance or inhibit the effectiveness of com- munity contributions to education are few, while attempts at theoretical explanations are conspicuously lacking. The present paper, on community involvement in school manage- ment, derives from two studies of primary schools in Papua New Guinea. It takes a step in this direction.

275

27h ROSEMARY PRESTON

BACKGROUND

The structure of primary schooling in Papua New Guinea is marked by two important periods of the country’s history. Long after the 1970 creation of a unified educational system, the mission origins of schooling are apparent in continuing church responsibility for certain functions in nearly half of the non-private schools. The introduction of a decentralised administrative system, following the Inde- pendence of Papua New Guinea from Australia in 1975, has given 19 provinces the onus of managing primary, lower secondary and vocational schooling. Finance for this comes principally from the Minimum Unconditional Grant (MUG) from central government to provinces for largely stipulated expenditure, although there is some marginal autonomy. In a few cases, this money is supplemented by income generated from within the province from productive activities or external invest- ment (Bray 1984aJ. Over the years, in all provinces, the proportion of the educational budget allocated to salaries has increased, sometimes to more than 90%. There has been a corresponding decrease in the proportion of non-salary expenditure (Regan, 1988). This, combined with a drop in the purchasing power of the funds available, must adversely affect the quality of education provided.

In this decentralised system, central govern- ment assumes responsibility for the develop- ment of the core curriculum and associated learning materials. It trains teachers and administrators, approves the registration and status of teachers and the numbers of positions it will fund. It monitors the quality of teacher and pupil performance. Provinces administer the appointment and payment of state regis- tered teachers. They may appoint and provide payment for other teachers as they see fit. With communities and individ~lal schools, they may have an influence on the non-obligatory components of the curriculum. Communities. within the terms of the Education Act, arc designated as responsible for the overall management and maintenance of their local schools. In church agency schools, repre- sentatives of their respective churches may veto the appointment of teachers of other denominations in their local schools, but they often assume some resp~~nsibility for building construction and maintenance. There is no

statistical information available about the extent to which levels of community investment in education in Papua New Guinea have changed over time, in relation to either government expenditure or to the changing value of money.

Currently, across the country, approximately 67% of the age group enroll in Grade 1 of community schools. Of these, some 67% will complete Grade 6. Reasons for drop out are many, but certainly reflect dissatisfaction with the quality of education provided and oppor- tunities it affords (Yeoman, 1987). No more than one third of those who complete Grade 6 in community schools find places in provincial high schools and there are few prospects of employment for those who do not. Reaction to this and other factors can result in school closures, a product of either community frustrations or teacher despair.

~OMMUNITrES AND PRIMARY SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN PAPUA

NEW GUINEA

The terms of the 1983 National Education Act gives community school Boards of Manage- ment (BOMs) responsibility for finance, Iand and building provision and building and grounds maintenance. student enrolment , school policy formulation and student disci- pline. They are also empowered to take action in any way that will promote the fulfilment of the 1983 Education Act, a blanket provision that extends their statutory powers very considerably (Independent State of Papua New Guinea, 1983). The Act specifies that BOMs are to meet at least once a term and that members should include representatives from the different communities served by the school, one teacher and the headteacher, who is to be present ex officio. Communities, according to the Act, may aiso form Parent and Citizens Associations, but the functions of these are not specified.

In 1983, Mark Bray undertook a study of community school Boards and Parent and Citizen Associations (P&Cs) for the National Department of Education in Papua New Guinea (Bray, 1984b). The study focused on the compositions of the Boards and their related P&Cs, as well as on their functions in law and the extent to which thcsc functions were fulfilled. The study did not discuss Board

PERSPECTIVES ON SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN PNG 277

influences on academic achievement or the consistency of community involvement in either Board or school affairs (Bray, 1988). In 1985, a second study was commissioned which sought explicitly to identify and explain the nature and extent of regularities and irregularities in the process of community management of primary schools and the effect of these on the quality of education (Preston and Khambu, 1986).

This paper focusing on the second, considers what the two studies above have revealed about community management of schools in PNG and what the implications of this may be for future development of primary education. The paper opens with a discussion of the ways in which the different research strategies used, while reproducing some observations, have enabled the analysis of a broader range of issues than would have been possible by either study alone. The paper goes to examine some of the underlying influences on the conduct of Board business and the implications they may have for policy intended to promote Board effective- ness, before embarking on a brief discussion of some of the ways in which local, regional and national development might be affected. Finally, an attempt is made to locate these observations in a wider comparative context.

TECHNIQUES AND OBSERVATIONS

The studies had in common their sponsorship by the National Department of Education (NDOE) and the implicit obligation to identify ways in which policy might be recommended to improve the quality of community school management. However, their scope is very different. The Bray report derives from information collected in response to a short postal questionnaire completed by 591 head teachers, a response rate of 54.9% which represented just over a quarter of all com- munity schools. These data provide cross- sectional information from all kinds of schools in eight (of nineteen) provinces. They include information on the characteristics of members of Boards and their related P&C Associations, meetings and their regularity, income and activities, the nature and form of Board and P&C Association constitutions. They afford the comparison of similarities and differences in Board of Management and Parent and Citizen Association characteristics, between provinces and between government and church agency

schools. Bray also obtained data from a small number of individual schools. Collected on teaching practice by students, these were to validate questionnaire responses and not intended as ethnographies of communities and school management processes.

Preston and Khambu’s study used a range of techniques to understand the dynamics of the relationships between schools, their Boards of Management and the communities which they represented. The study was restricted to 13 schools, all church schools, all in a single district. This means that what was observed could not be supposed to obtain elsewhere, either in the province, or in PNG as a whole, without supporting information from research carried out in other parts of the country. In practice, the study allowed an analysis of the extent to which the variations found by Bray, in a wide range of government and church schools, were present in schools in a single locality administered, with two exceptions by a single authority.

The area chosen for the study was 180 km to the west of Port Moresby along the Hiritano Highway. It was believed that this would permit the attendance of the researchers at Board meetings, following initial visits to the schools to collect interview and documentary data. Initial information about the different schools in the area was obtained from the Provisional Division of Education and from the Community School Inspector for the district. The 13 schools selected for the study represented as wide a range of characteristics as possible, in terms of size and number of teachers, location, agency and impressions of the quality of their management (Table 1). There were no government schools in the area.

Visits of one or two full days were made to the selected schools by two researchers who shared the work of documentary searches and interviewing. Every attempt had been made to inform the schools of the study, via the Provincial Division of Education and via the local school inspector, but in only one case was the visit anticipated. On arrival at a school, the purpose of the study was explained to the head and other teachers and the nature of assistance required from them and from the community. In every case teachers and community repre- sentatives did their utmost to supply the information requested.

The pattern of interviews, held with teachers

27x ROSEMARY PRESTON

Table 1. The case study schools, August 1985

School No. Level Agency Teachers Children Group

Bereina

Baquioudu

Ipaipana

Afagaifi

Akufa

Yule Is.

Pinupaka

Waima 1 Wama II

Inawaia

Inawabui

Kivori

Delena

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Y

IO 11 12

13

4 Catholic 9

3 Catholic 6

3 Catholic 6

3 Catholic 4

4 Catholic 7

3 Catholic 5

2 Catholic 2

4 Catholic 6

2 United Ch. 3

5 Catholic 10

3 Catholic 4

3 Catholic/UC 5

3 United Ch. 4

271 Mekeo

193 Kuni

238 Roro

100 Mekeo

I81 Mekeo

1go* Roro

46 Roro

200* Roro

72 Roro

30 I Mekeo

I19 Mekeo

164 Roro

13x Roro

*Estimate.

Table 2. Interviewees during field work

Interviewees School (by project number)

I 2 3 4 s* 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13

Teachers Head x x x x x x x x x x

2 xxxxxxxx x x X

3 x x x x X X

Board of Management Chairman X x x x x x x x x

Secretary X X X

Treasurer X

Other X X

Priest x x x x x X

*At Akufa interviews were held with both the present and immediate past chairmen and secretaries of the Board of Management.

and members of the community who were principal interviewee lacked. In several cases serving on the school Board of Management, interviews with community representatives varied and no attempt was made to standardise were conducted through an interpreter, usually procedures (Table 2). In some cases an one of the teachers, because of researcher interview started with the head teacher alone linguistic deficiencies in either Motu or the local and in others teachers and/or Board members vernaculars. It is recognised that all of these were also present. It was rare that the same factors will have affected the quality of participants were present throughout an inter- information obtained from the schools. How- view and, at times, it was necessary for others to ever, without them, the data would be less be called who possessed information that the complete and there is no implication that their

PERSPECTIVES ON SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN PNG 279

qualitative impact on the data is necessarily negative.

Interviews were based on a scheduled guide which covered topics under the following headings:

Board composition and organisation Finance Expenditure Enrolments Discipline Buildings and maintenance The organisation of labour School community relations School closure Relationship with the Provincial Division of

Education Board and school policy

Relevant information given, supplementary to that sought by the guide, was always noted and in some cases items were added to the schedule to ensure that information on the same topic could be sought at other schools.

The documentary search through files at the schools and at the office of Central Province Division of Education aimed to identify present and past activities of Boards of Management. Ideally, where the records were available, it should have been possible to trace patterns of Board activity and of community support from term to term and from year to year. In practice, records were sparse. Minutes of Board meetings were often missing, as were annual accounts. Sets of Monthly Reports to the Provincial Division of Education in which head teachers report on Board meetings and activities were also incomplete.

These deficiencies limit the possibility of comparing patterns of Board activity in, and community relationships with, a school over time or between schools at the same time. The best that can be hoped from such data is that the information that they provide is approximately representative of the total range of Board activity and community relationships with the schools, of the variations within them and of the fluctuations that they imply.

During the period of field work two of the schools arranged Board of Management meet- ings. One was cancelled for the lack of a quorum and the other took place. It became quickly apparent that it would be very difficult after the period of data collection in the field to obtain

information in Port Moresby on the timing of board meetings in Bereina schools and some alternative means of obtaining information about their conduct would have to be devised.

THE CASE STUDY AREA AND SCHOOLS

The 13 schools are all in the Bereina area of the Kairuku District of Central Province (see Fig. 1). Between 160 and 200 kilometres to the north west of Port Moresby, they serve communities of Mekeo, Roro and Kuni groups on and to the west of the Kubuna river and on and southwards from the Akufa. The people have always been traders. Early Europeans found that the different groups exchanged food, crafts and marine products between themselves and other groups in the area. More recently, the opening of the Hiritano Highway in the late 197Os, coupled with the booming demand nationally for betelnut, the principal cash crop, has enabled market expansion and increased the frequency of contact outside the area, principally with Port Moresby. This, combined with the long exposure of the area to education, might be expected to make the Mekeo and Roro relatively more cosmopolitan in outlook than other groups more recently contacted by Europeans, although not all writers would agree on this (Hau’ofa, 1981).

The earliest description of encounters be- tween Europeans and the Roro and Mekeo peoples were written in 1846. Since then, while initially intermittent, a European presence has been maintained in the area. Initial contact was along the coast by members of the London Missionary Society, followed in the 188Os, by Catholic missionaries keen to lay a claim to the souls of the interior. With the missions came schools, which in several cases were created before the construction of a church. Those at Yule Island and Delena opened well before the turn of the century and others, Afanaifi and Waima, for example, in the early years of the 20th century. The more recent expansion of the education system, particularly through the 1960s saw the opening of many schools in the area, most of which were established by the Catholic church. It was also a period of financial investment in existing schools, with the construction of school buildings and houses for teachers made from permanent or semi- permanent manufactured, rather than bush

‘X0 ROSEMARY PRESTON

‘Yl \ r-++AKUFA /

KEY

r

WAIMA

BIOTO

5

SCHOOLS

PROJECT SCHOOLS

NON-PROJECT SCHOOLS

BAKOIUDUI r

I-’

KUBUNA /’ MISSION ,/’

y

Fig. I. Map of the Bercina District, Central Province.

PERSPECTIVES ON SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN PNG 2x1

materials. All the schools visited were housed in

permanent buildings with sheet metal walls and corrugated iron roofs with factory treated wooden frames and supports, making them more substantial than schools in many rural areas. Most had been built under the direction of the missions, with as much or more mission than community support. By the 1980s this had changed and the onus of financing building and arranging labour for its construction is now assumed entirely by the communities. At the four schools where classroom construction was under way the work was beset by problems which were causing considerable delays to project completion. Nevertheless, it was anticipated at the start of the research that it would be the sustained mission contribution to schools in the District, at least until very recently, that might make them different from schools elsewhere, in particular with regards to the effectiveness of their management. In any case, comparing the management of like schools in one area with patterns-observed variously in mission and state schools across the country, it becomes possible to assess the extent to which variations in management practice found nationally occur within small localities.

If all the schools visited were of solid construction, the general condition of the classrooms was poor. Only one had been recently painted, furniture was minimal and of poor quality while walls and window louvres were frequently in need of repair. All were, it seems, weather proof with the exception of Afagaifi, located on the flood plain of the Akufa river, which is subject to annual innundations that close the school until they subside.

Teachers’ houses at the schools were also, in the main, built from manufactured materials. At two schools only were teachers’ houses made from bush materials. Everywhere complaints were made by teachers about the poor state of their houses and in several cases their very limited access to water. On these grounds teachers at several of the schools were refusing to pay rent to the Board. At six of the schools insufficient houses meant that one or two teachers, usually members of the local com- munity, were living in the village rather than at the school. That they had the opportunity to do this immediately relieved the pressure on the Board of Management of the schools and on the community to construct more houses. At the

same time strong reservations were expressed by other teachers and by Board members about the effect of family and clan obligations imposed on teachers living away from the school and reducing their commitment to it. In particular, they were more likely to be absent or late for class than their colleagues. Further, because of their links with the community, the Board of Management was often reluctant to take action against such teachers because of fear of customary repercussions against themselves. At the same time, the fact that the majority of the teachers in the Bereina schools were Central Province Papuans and from the Bereina district, made for generally good relations between them and the children, and between them and the community. Most had been at their jobs for several years and few seemed anxious to be moved elsewhere and then not out of the area.

Children at the schools appeared to be relatively well-fed and presented. Most wore uniforms. However, malaria is endemic and climatic fluctuations can mean years of drought followed by years of excessive rain when crop yields are very low. In recent years, climatic rather than administrative problems had led to the closure of two schools for several weeks. They were Baquoiudu in the Kuni area because of lack of food and Ipaipana in the Angabanga salt flats because of lack of water, consequences of a prolonged drought in 1982. At all schools teachers complained of frequent high levels of absenteeism among their pupils, said to be particularly acute at the time of the study, July- August 1985, seasonally a period of peak activity in family gardens. It was not clear how many children returned to school after such absence or how many effectively dropped out.

Impressions of relations between their schools and their Boards of Management varied. At eight of the schools, the general impression given by the teachers was that the Board of Management was ineffective and had limited success in generating community support for the school. At three of the schools teachers felt that one or two Board members were very active in their support for the school, but that they were unable to fire others with their enthusiasm. In only two cases was it thought that the Boards were fully active and only one of these was seen at the time of the study to be supportive of the school. The other, because it had recently refused to accede to a request from the teachers. was perceived as

282 ROSEMARY PRESTON

being contrary. Documents perused for the preceding eight

years provided evidence of the deliberate or inadvertent mismanagement of school funds by Board members, including teachers, in all but one of the schools. They also indicated that several of the schools had been pulled back from the brink of closure by last minute action by the Board to persuade communities or teachers to take avoiding action. At the time of the study, one Board had been issued with an order to close the school on account of failure to repair insanitary latrines.

In conclusion, although all of the schools in the district were church agency schools, there seemed little to differentiate them from rural schools the length and breadth of PNG. If anything, within the group, it appeared that support from the United Church to its schools was not as strong as that from the Catholics.

OBSERVATIONS COMPARED

The two studies complement each other in ways which strengthen their individual obser- vations and suggest the widespread occurrence of their findings. In particular, the nature of both the similarities and differences observed in the structure of Boards of Management and in the tasks that they undertake appear to be the same in Bray’s study across provinces and agencies as they were in Preston and Khambu’s research in church schools within the district of Bereina. The implications of what appears from this to be marked school by school variation, regardless of province or agency, arc complex and are discussed below.

The two studies show, beyond doubt, that community management is critical to the development, maintenance and quality of community schooling in PNG. This is impor- tant, for, with the economic adjustments which began in the mid 198Os, communities are likely to be required to provide an increasing proportion of essential school resources. Notwithstanding the problems which dominate the discussion which follows, it has to be concluded that the Board system works, on the whole, effectively. Schools function normally most of the time, depending on the balance of relationships between the teachers, Boards and communities at any one time. Equally, the Bereina study makes it clear that a breakdown in relationships between either the Board and

the teachers or the Board and the community can and frequently does result in the closure of the school, causing disruption to the education of local children.

Bray’s report rehearses the often expressed confusion concerning the distinction between the functions of BOM and P&C Associations, attributable to their different historical origins and to the lack of specification in the Education Act about their inter-relationships (Bray, 1988). Preston and Khambu found that, in the Bereina schools, the problem had been resolved by making the Parents & Citizens Associations, to which all community members automatically belonged, the body from which the BOMs were elected and to which they were answerable. There is no indication in Bray’s report about how reported differences in modes of P&C Association formation affected the nature and conduct of Board business. Likewise, neither P&C nor BOM business is seen to be affected by whether a school is administered entirely by government or by a combination of government and church agencies.

The two studies find that Boards of Manage- ment conform structurally to the terms of the 1983 Education Act and that they aim to operate within bureaucratic norms. Selected members are designated, by nomination or by election, to assume the offices of Chairman, Vice-chair- man, Secretary and Treasurer. Agendas are usually prepared for meetings, often at the start of the meeting, and the intention is that minutes should be taken. Board members, seemingly across the country, do tend to represent. geographically and socially, different sectors of the school catchment areas. They also display a range of educational and employment statuses, with officers frequently drawn from among those more educated and with experience of formal sector employment. This representative- ness does not extend to gender and women arc virtually excluded from Board membership. (On the assumption that women more than men would promote the education of girls, their absence from school Boards may work against the intentions of national government to increase female enrolment). Everywhere, the regularity of Board meetings and the levels of fee imposed seem to vary from school to school, while very diverse business agendas are commonplace.

Through these agendas is revealed the extent to which Board business conforms. or not. to

PERSPECTIVES ON SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN PNG 283

the responsibilities specified in the 1983 Boards appeared to be little involved in Education Act. The studies confirm that school policy relating to activities in school. Their role Boards do assume responsibility for activities in disciplining pupils tends to be confined to designated by the Act, but that they do not endorsing school recommendations for sus- accord these activities equal priority. Both pension or expulsion and taking action in studies find that Board energy is concentrated respect of school children misbehaving in the on the maintenance of school buildings and community. Routine discipline in school was grounds, the raising of money and organisation maintained by teachers. of labour to enable them to undertake this work It is clear, however, that Boards take on tasks (see Table 3). The Bereina study describes the that have not been specified in the Education difficulties Boards encounter in maintaining Act. In the Bereina case, their most frequent these activities so that projects are completed. activity, after the management of finance and It highlights the adverse educational effects of: construction and maintenance, was the moni- the non-payment of BOM and other fees; toring of teacher performance and initiating community refusal to provide labour on relevant disciplinary action, locally or through building and other projects, which can also lengthy correspondence with the Provincial result in school closure; sanctioning children for Department of Education (PDOE). Bray too parental failure to meet these obligations, by indicates that Board concern for teacher sending them home, depriving them of commitment emerged in his research. The materials in the classroom and giving them Bereina study explains the irregularity of additional chores. In one case, long-term meetings of Boards to be related to levels of attrition resulting from sanctions such as these business and to the state of relations between raised the teacher-pupil ratio to the extent that the school, the Board and the community. one teacher was withdrawn from the school. More significantly, the Bereina study dis-

cusses ways in which difficulties experienced Table 3. Board of Management concerns in the Bereina by Boards in maintaining community support

schools, 1980-1985 and good relations with teachers can affect teacher attitudes, pupil access to school and

Per cent learning resources and subsequent learning Buildings and maintenance 31 and work opportunities. Firstly, enthusiastic Finance 27 headteachers can, with regular and considered Teacher problems 14 consultation, stimulate strong Board and Pupil discipline 8 community support. Without consultation, the BOM and P&C organisation 9 authoritarian headteacher, adopting superior Random other topics 11 attitudes to the community, is likely to induce -

N = 375 100 apathy and alienation among Board members. Alternatively, where community commitment to education is high, the Board may generate

Much less time is given by Boards to the high levels of activity to change the attitude of enrolment of new entrants to Grade 1. In some the teachers or to have them removed. cases, this was seemingly below the level that Conversely, Boards and community members would be required for the job to be effectively at schools with unsatisfactory staff may distance done. However, in Catholic schools such as themselves, to avoid confrontation. It is only in those in the Bereina area, with well-kept birth this last set of circumstances of combined staff and baptismal registers, the task may be problems and Board and community disinterest straightforward and require little time. In other or negligence, that school viability may be afleas, without such records and where commit- threatened (see Fig. 2). ment to schooling is poorly established, the collection of this information has been found to be much more onerous (Preston, 1985).

Board commitment High Low

Elsewhere, it seems that teachers themselves assume responsibility for taking censuses of Teacher High Optimal Adequate

young children and compiling prospective commitment Low Adequate Minimal

enrolment lists (Bray, lY84b). Fig. 2. Conditions for school viability.

‘X4 ROSEMARY PRESTON

THE DYNAMICS OF BOARD COMMITMENT

It is important to try and understand some of the conditions under which high levels of teacher and Board commitment can be maintained over time. The Bereina study found that two factors appeared to relate to commitment: innovation and the need to manage crises. New teachers or new Board members, in particular new Board officers, tend to be enthusiastic and strive to improve conditions, principally through fund-raising and construction. Stable Board membership and teachers in a post over a number of years, on the whole, seem to ensure that Board activities arc maintained at routine levels. Over time. however, lack of variation, sometimes associ- ated with community disappointment at the small number of children offered places at provincial high schools, appears to induce disinterest, failure to sustain required commit- ments and disruptive behaviour on the part of teachers, Board members or both. In extreme cases, action may be required to avert school closure, decreed by government on the grounds of poor sanitation being a risk to health or effected by members of the community attacking teachers or destroying buildings.

It emerges that the series of structural factors that explain the patterns of interaction between Boards, schools and communities and changes in them over time make guidelines for policy that effects superficial change ephemeral. Knowledge of techniques of money manage- ment, labour organisation and committee administration is insufficient in a context where the ebb and flow of commitment and apathy appear to be subject to forces which are only partly within the control of individual members and which are, in any case affected by events in the wider social and economic environment.

AN ORGANISATIONAL TRIO To support this assertion, it is proposed to

conceptualise the school. the community and the Board as a triad of organisations in which the Board is intermediary between the other two. In terms of the Education Act. the school is answerable to the community through the Board of Management. In practice, the relationship appears to be reversed, with the community, through the Board, responding to the needs of the state education system as

expressed by the local school.

Critics may claim that the community has only some, but not all characteristics of an organisation (Caplow. 1964). However, in the Bereina case for example, it is possible to argue that the Parent and Citizen Association, with its community-wide membership confers formal organisational status on the community, in respect of its relations with the school. Elsewhere, where there is less clarity about the role of the P&C, such a tidy approach may not be possible. However, it is sometimes agreed that non-organisational elements of organisa- tional structures are in some measure under the control, or at least under the influence, of organisations (Adams, 1980).

All organisations have objectives, which may or may not be consonant with the objectives of related organisations. The objective of the school is to ensure that as many children as possible acquire a common body of skills and knowledge deemed essential by government to the maintenance of national well-being and economic growth. The objective of the community may be said to be to optimise the social and economic well-being of its members through whatever means, including school education. The objective of the Board of Management is to ensure that conditions are favorable for both the community and the school to meet their complementary objectives.

While all this is straightforward, problems can prevent any or all of the organisations from meeting their objectives. These obstacles can originate from within one organisation. from obstacles created by an associated organisation or from influences outside the organisational network (Emery and Trist . 1965). For example. teacher absence prevents one organisation, the school, from fulfilling its objective of ensuring that children acquired the knowledge pre- scribed in the educational curriculum. It interferes with the objectives of a second organisation. the community, to enhance well- being through the education of individuals. Likewise. community failure to maintain buildings can result in school closure and restrict the future opportunities of children. Simultaneously, it thwarts the fulfilment of school objectives and the Board, as an intermediary body (Adams, 1980), appears to have failed in its business. Exogenous forces, Ministry failure to supply materials as well as events in the wider social and economic

PERSPECTIVES ON SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN PNG 28.5

environment, general elections, for example, can disrupt school life directly or indirectly, as can conflict in or between communities.

CULTURAL INFLUENCES

It is tempting to provide an explanation for all this in terms of inter or intra-cultural dissonance. Notwithstanding the cultural specificity of organi- sations as phenomena of nation states and indust- rial societies, all organisations generate their own cultures, at the same time as they are constrained by the culture of the environment in which they are located (Bhagat and McQuaid, 1982; Smircich, 1983). These can be caricatured: in the case of the school, as the bureacratic culture of the modern organisation, with standardised hierarchical roles, regularised inputs and quality controls of outputs. The community, because of the clans of which it is comprised, is claimed to represent pre-contact social relationships which are seen as antithetical to those of modern organisations: lack of concern for the use of time, reciprocity, variable unspecified roles.

With the Board such stereo-typing is more difficult. Structurally it is bureaucratic, but, its members include representatives of both community and school. Often, it can be seen to be subject to internal conflicts of interest, apparently because of conflicting objectives of its linked organisations, the school and community. This may be expIained by a more profound cultural schism between them, attributable to their notionally differing social origins. In this, because the community is under pressure to conform to the culture of the state, not least by sending children to school, there emerges a conflict of status within the Board and between the school, the Board, and the community. The school, through its Board representatives, assumes superior attitudes to the Board and other members of the com- munity, accusing them of backwardness and traditionality. This is made possible to some extent by a tendency to explain PNG’s halting progress towards the creation of a modern state in terms of the supposed negative effects of the Melanesian way.

In practice, it is not clear how far these claims can be supported or how far they are used as a rhetoric to ensure popular docility in the face of the continued economic and social privations, which are particuIarly acute among rural populations. It is difficult to justify the claim

that hypothesised cultural differences between members of school Boards and between schools and communities, of themselves, explain breakdowns in these relationships. Residents in the Bereina district have had more than a century of contact with Europeans and so of exposure to organisational activities with institutional representatives of non-indigenous cultures. The community itself, as organised today, is a modern organisation, linked to a national system of organisations, of which, within even small communities, there may be as many as 20 or 30 branches (Aisoli, 1975), each one with its own objectives and culture. These branches incorporate all community members from birth and most adults are active in more than one. Common organisational experience in Papua New Guinean communities, there- fore, contradicts the notions that it is lack of familiarity with organisational norms and the cultural gap between Board members repre- senting different constituencies that explains institutional incompetencies.

By the same token, it would also be wrong to suggest teacher alienation from the web of customary relations within communities which are the responsive and adaptive backdrop to this institutional intrusion. The lives of most teachers, however western their image, are led according to the combined principles of both sets of social relations. They have themselves been reared as clan members in rural communities and go back whenever they can, although their formation and employment has been exclusively in the modern sector.

Thus, returning to the relationship between the community and the school, the extent to which the community perceives that it can further its objectives through the school becomes critical in explaining the depth of community commitment to school management through the school Board. As the majority of children are prevented from using education as a mechanism through which to develop careers that will confer desired social and economic status, so their families will choose to reject the school as the means of promoting their interests and withdraw support from it. In general, the competitive nature of selection for further education, even if no more than one or two places are offered, still ensures to date continuing support for the principle of school- ing, if only from selected sectors of the community.

286 ROSEMARY PRESTON

If community commitment to schooling vacillates with prospects of expectation fulfil- ment, it is possible to suggest that teachers too become disillusioned at the worsening con- ditions of their work. Poor housing, limited promotional opportunities, decreasing availa- bility of classroom materials and associated decline in student motivation, all undermine the conditions of teaching and so the ability to maintain commitment.

These explanations, suggest that there are con- stituency prerequisites, private returns, which have to be met at certain levels if the cultural dynamics of school Boards of Management are to be conducive to objective fulfilment. In each of the examples given, expectation frustration is a consequence of modern sector failure and not attributable to customary influences. On the contrary, customary support is likely to mitigate their effect, through ritually determined response mechanisms. However, assuaging the impact of system related failures on Board morale and the relationship between schools and communities is not easy and would require increased levels of investment in human and material resources at a time when these are scarce. Without it, the frequency of peaks and troughs of commitment and apathy which afflict all Boards will continue to be high. Although inherent to organisational life cycles, they can to some extent be regulated by, for example, changing the balance of member characteristics, assuming of course that there are reasonable expectations of at least minimum private returns being met.

LIFE CYCLES

The birth of an organisation tends to be marked by high levels of activity as members struggle to mould its characteristics so as to best meet stated objectives as well as their own interests. Once this stage is complete, a period of routine maintenance activity follows to consolidate this work. The point at which maintenance is interrupted, because of mono- tony, loss of sight of objectives or changed objectives, is the point at which activity should be renewed to regenerate the organisation and bring it back from or take it over a crisis. Frequently, but not necessarily, new leadership is introduced at such times to compensate for the flagging commitment of established in- cumbents (Pfeffer, 1977). The length of time over which peak levels of activity can be

maintained after a change will vary according to the circumstances of individual Boards and their relationships with their schools and communities. Eventually, however, it will stabilise until new initiatives are required that generate, once again, a renewed impetus.

It is important to understand something of these processes if any sense is to be made of the interaction between schools, communities and their Boards of Management and before any action is planned to promote Board efficiency to sustain educational quality. They suggest that, as indeed occurs, there should be some turnover of teachers and Board members, particularly of head teachers and Board Chairs. Regular injections of adrenalin should be given to Board members through contact with school inspec- tors and provincial administrators, workshops or even simple publications, such as Bray’s New Resources for Education (Bray, 1986). However, there can be no pretence that initiatives to refresh practical skills in, for example, budgetary planning and book-keep- ing will ensure sustained commitment or efficiency, particularly when Board members and parents are confronted with a crisis of educational expectations, when expected private returns are not commensurate with those accruing to society as a whole. The time has come to stop criticising people who have served on Boards for many years, for whatever reasons, endeavouring to support their schools, who, by weakness of the school system and wider social tensions, may have been rendered impotent.

LIMITATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Finally, it is important to note that while all Boards are subject to such organisational pressures, it is likely that disruption of school routines will vary according to the character- istics of the community served by the school and so by the characteristics of members of the Board. A notable weakness of the studies which form the basis of the argument above is that their data are drawn almost exclusively from rural areas, where people have fewer economic opportunities than people who live in towns. It might be hypothesised that Boards of schools in relatively rich communities, such as those in towns where the majority of families have access to employment-generated income. have

PERSPECTIVES ON SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN PNG 287

better access to the resources required for effective management and so are subject less frequently and less dramatically to the low points of organisational cycles. Members of such Boards are likely to be well-educated, in some cases better educated than the teachers, which in turn implies that they will have a strong and steady commitment to the education of their children. It means too that the Board as a whole will be able and willing to cope with routine administrative tasks of writing letters, taking minutes and keeping accounts, probably to greater effect than Boards with Iargely unschooled memberships. They are helped in this by being able to levy fees sufficient to contract labour to do construction work and the maintenance of school grounds, unlike those in less advantaged communities who have to devote time and energy to cajoling parents and community members to give up their time to do such work. By the same token, the quality of the school buildings in wealthier areas will be better and require less maintenance than those in less well endowed communities. Such Boards will have less problems in acquiring supplementary classroom materials, both because they have the money to pay for them and because they are not faced with costly and logistically difficult transportation. Finally, when they have com- plaints about teachers, they have easy access to local education offices and so can reasonably expect quick assistance from staff there, which, in some cases, can distract PDOE attention from meeting the needs of schools which are less centrally located.

There can be no doubt, as Bray suggests, that a cluster of factors associated with community social and economic status can influence Board effectiveness in such a way as to reinforce and exaggerate existing differences in the quality of schooling received by richer and poorer communities (Bray with Lillis, 1988). As the economic crisis worsens in PNG and com- munities are required to provide increasing assistance to schools, so the gap will widen. As communities assume greater control of school resource provision, the continued state control of cu~iculum may be disputed. This is most likely to occur if opportunities after school are seen to decrease, regardless of the level of community well-being.

Clearly, it is not appropriate to extrapolate from these observations in a small island territory with a large proportion of its

population in subsistence production, but the shift to local management of schools elsewhere, including highly differentiated post industrial societies, seems likely to reproduce these processes. Recently completed research in Mexico and progress reports of studies of so- called educational reform in Britain confirm the strengthening of central government control of curriculum and devolution, to whomsoever will pay, of responsibility for logistical support (Martin, 1990; Brehony and Deem, 1990). Not only will educational access and quality become less equal, the prospect of outright and large scale rejection of a system which seems to demand so much and give so little in return has to be faced.

REFERENCES

Adams, J. S. (1980) Interorganisational processes and organisation boundaries activities. Research in Organisa- tionai Behaviour 2,321-355.

Aisoli, M. (1975) Community education in Kara, Kavieng, New Ireland District. In Education in Meianesia (edited by Brammall, J. et al.). UPNG and Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU, Canberra.

Bhagat, R. S. and McQuaid, S. J. (1982) Role of subjective culture in organisations: a review of directions and future research. Journal of Applied Psvcho~a~v 67.653485.

Bray, M. (1984a) Educational Planning t% a ~ecentra~~ed System: the Papua New Guinean Experience. IJniversity of Papua New Guinea Press, Waigani.

Bray, M. (1984b) Community School Boards of Manage- ment and Parent and Citizen Associations in Papua New Guinea National Department of Education, Waigani. (The substance of this research has been included in Bray with Lillis, 1988).

Bray, M. (1986) New Resources for Education, Community Management and Financing of Schools in Less Developed Countries. Commonwealth Secretariat.

Bray, M. (1988) Community Management and Financing of Schools in Papua New Guinea. In Commun~ry Financing of Education: Issues and Policy fmplications in Less Developed Countries pp. 155-169. Pergamon, Oxford.

Bray, M. with Lillis, K. (eds) (1988) Community Financing of Education: Issues and Policy Implications in Less Developed Countries. Pergamon, Oxford.

Caplow, T. (1944) Principles of Organ~sar~~n. Harcourt, Brace and World, New York.

Craig Brown, M. (1982) Administrative succession and organisational performance: the succession effect. Administrative Science Quarterly 27, l-16.

Emery, F. F. and Trist, E. L. (1965) The causal texture of organisational environments ~l~nzan Relations 18, 21- 32.

Hau’ofa, E. (1981) Mekeo. Australian National University Press, Canberra.

Independent State of Papua New Guinea (1983) Education Act. Waigani.

Martin, C. J. (1990) Discretion, referral and repulsion: relations of educational provision in West Mexican schools. Paper presented to the annual conference of the

28X ROSEMARY PRESTON

British Comparative and International Education report for the Eastern Highlands Provincial Govern- Societv. Cambridge. ment, Papua New Guinea.

Pfeffer, J. (1977) Thi ambiguity of leadership. Academy of Manazement Review 2. 104-112. (Quoted in Craie Brown (1982) Administrative Science Quarterly 27: 1-16.

Preston, R. (1985) Attainment and Community in Managalas Schools. Educational Research Unit, Uni- versity of Papua New Guinea, Waigani.

Preston, R. and Khambu, J. (1986) Between the Community and its School: Boards of Management in Papua New Guinea. Educational Research Unit, University of Papua New Guinea, Waigani.

Regan, A. (1988) Operation of financial arrangements for provincial government: the Eastern Highlands case. A

Reimers, F: (1990) Deuda Externa Financiamiento de la Education: su Impact0 en Latinoamerica. UNESCO.

Smircich, L. (1983) Concepts of culture and organisational analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly 28, 339-358.

Tilak, J. B. G. (1989) Family and government investment in education. Paper presented to the 10th Anniversary Conference of the International Journal of Education. University College, Oxford, September.

Yeoman, L. (1987) Universal primary education: factors affecting the environment and retention of girls in PNG community schools. In Ethics of Development (edited by Stratigos, S. and Hughes, P. J.). University of Papua New Guinea Press, Waigani.