Education is the fulcrum of sustainable development that holds the key to social inclusion. It is one of the necessary conditions for advancing quality of life. In other words, universal access to quality knowledge and skills ensures that everybody has an equal opportunity to play a full part in work and society as. It is thus essential for integrating the marginalized and vulnerable in society into the development process promoting equity and active citizenship through a well-developed education and training system, therefore, needs to occupy the centre-stage of the development agenda in every society. See samples of project research materials & topics for students in colleges. However, even when the benefits of education are obvious, it has yet to acquire the required urgency in the development agenda of many several nations. As is the case with the secondary schools in the developing countries and more so, in Puntland where community involves in the schooling process is not a major concern. A major contributor to the success of children in schools is the family involvement because is a powerful influence on children performance in schools.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Schools are community in miniature. Education is not an activity in isolation. It is an activity in collaboration. Without community participation, education cannot achieve its goals and without education society cannot think of development. Through community involvement in the education process, quality of educational activities in schools can be improved and enhanced. Studies show that participation of various stakeholders from government to educational professionals and local community members such as, parents, students, and other local community organizations exercises a deeper effect on the performance of educational institutions in terms of improved access, retention of students and classroom attendance. According to an educational report, parent and community are the key factors which determine school effectiveness. Effective schools have better access and increased enrollment of students. Parents and community can improve children’s readiness for school and also ensure their balanced nutrition and health. This directly positively affects the quality of education. Research has underscored many benefits of community participation in education. Community participation in education ensures maximization of limited resources for education, developing relevant curriculum and learning materials, identifying and addressing problems that hinder the development of education. Participation of the community in educational outdoor activities such as visits and excursions of schools plays positive role in enhancing motivation and achievement rates of students.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Students’ academic gain and learning performance is affected by numerous factor including gender, age, teaching faculty, students schooling, father/guardian social economic status, residential area of students, medium of instructions in schools, tuition trend, daily study hour and accommodation as hostelries or day scholar. Many researchers conducted detailed studies about the factors contributing student performance at different study levels. “A student educational success contingent heavily on social status of student’s parents/ guardians in the society. It is generally assumed that the students who showed better or higher performance in the starting classes of their studies also performed better in future academic years at degree level. Everyone can be surprised with this assumption if it could be proved scientifically. From the last two decades it has been noticed significantly that there is great addition in research literature and review material relating to indicators of academic achievement with much emphasis on this dialogue, whether traditional achievement measures of academic performance are best determinants of future academic gain at university or higher level or innovative measures. However, it is also observed that many of the researchers are not agree with this view point or statement.
COMMUNITY INVOLEVEMENT AND STUDENTS PERFORMANCE
Education has been recognized by educational psychologists, government, stakeholders, teachers, parents, community members and even the students themselves all over the world, as one of the most important tools for meaningful growth and development of a nation. It is through the education acquired by the citizens of a nation that different areas of human endeavours are properly explored. It is in view of this fact that the past and present governments in Nigeria have accorded the educational sub-sector reasonable recognition. For instance, the huge annual budgetary allocations to education, the Education for All (EFA), the constant educational returns and the emphasis on mass literacy are example of government efforts to improve quality education output. The importance of education for national development has placed post primary education at the centre of the efforts of government to increase the rate of literacy level in Nigeria. Student academic performance is seen as the foundation of a successful educational system in any society. It is the outcome of education which reveals the extent to which students, teachers or institutions have achieved their educational goals. However, this academic failure has deep effect on the society in terms of death manpower in all spheres of the economy and politics. It also signal that many candidates failed to meet the entry requirements for further studies in the higher institutions. Hence, there is a generic complaint that the anticipated bright future of the country might continue to be bleak if urgent action was not taken to address the recurring mess facing the education sector and indeed the future generation of Nigerian leaders. Thus, many scholars assert that the successful passage through the process of educational attainment is partly dependent on the entire parental and community involvement, Because of deteriorated performance inpublic schools, there is distrust in the delivery of education in these schools, which by their design were purposed to serve as community schools, and preference for private ones has been growing. Community has relinquished its power to private proprietors of schools choosing to apportion all blame on the Government, rather than confronting the problem. The relationship between community involvement and academic achievement was positive, regardless of a definition of parental involvement or measure of achievement.