A study on the role of parents' teachers' associations in primary schools: the case of the southern part of Botswana

Abstract

The study looked at the roles performed by Parents’ Teachers’ Associations in primary schools in Botswana. It has been observed that some PTA members in most cases feel obliged to work tirelessly for the organisations because of the thought of improving schools for the education of their children. There had also been an observation that some of the parents just “dump” their children at the schools and seem to have little or no interest to participate in PTA activities. Some parents seem not to be interested because they did not know exactly what was expected of them and this has led to some PTA members performing well while others were not. The study was mainly based on a mixed method design involving both quantitative and qualitative data as the two paradigms supplemented each other. For the quantitative approach the survey questionnaire was used while for the qualitative approach the semi-structured interview was used. Most of the data collection was done through questionnaires. The respondents were made up of head teachers, parents and teachers of both government and private primary schools in the southern part of the country. It is evident from the study that PTAs play a very important part in the running of both government and private schools especially when they are given the mandate to participate. The study also revealed that there are some problems that PTAs are facing such as lack of guidelines on how to run the organisations and that some parents are far away from the schools and this prevents them to be more involved.