Promoting Healthy School Climates in Public Secondary Schools in the South West Region, Cameroon: Role of Parents’ Participation in Decision Making Process

Abstract

Maintaining healthy and facilitating school climates constitute one of the greatest challenges faced by educational authorities in recent times. In Cameroon like others countries in the world, the government and education partners have been investing enormous energy to ensure that school environment are safe for all and conducive for teaching and learning. This study investigated the impact of parents’ involvement in decision making process on the health of school climates of public secondary schools in the South West Region of Cameroon. This study utilised the correlational research design. Data was collected through cross sectional survey of a sample of 31 schools and 135 parents whose children attend the schools. A structured questionnaire was used to collect relevant data after being subject to validity and reliability checks. The ANOVA statistics was computed to predict the overall effect of parents’ participation in decision making process on school climate. The findings showed that: H1 = parents’ involvement in decision making process has a very significant and positive impact on school climate (R = 0.276**, P < 0.001, far < 0.05). This positive signs of the correlation value implies that parents’ involvement in the participatory decision making will lead to healthy school climate and this is supported by a high explanatory power of 89.1%. On the bases of the above, we conclude that there is a positive and significant relationship between parents’ participation in decision making processes and a healthy school climate. A major recommendation was for the Ministry of Secondary Education to establish enforcement structure to ensure that all secondary schools comply with the policy guidelines that provides for the involvement of stakeholders in decision making process in schools in Cameroon.