Planning for Church and State Educational Leaders' Partnerships in Ghana: An Examination of Perceptions Impacting Relationships.

Education is a means to unlocking human potential for social, economic, and religious advancement. The Catholic Church and government in Ghana have had a long-standing partnership for the promotion of education at the pre-tertiary levels. The partnerships between religious bodies and the government dates back to the British colonial period, and is enshrined in the Education Acts of 1961 and 2008 of post-colonial governments. The partnerships have gone sour with accusations and counter accusations from both sides as Church and government policy makers as well as frontline educational leaders blame each other for the rapid decline in discipline in Church schools and poor student performance. Poor monitoring and supervision of schools by educational leaders is reported to be responsible for poor teaching and learning. Weak institutional collaboration between Church and government as well as role conflicts accounts for poor monitoring and supervision that negatively impact on schools. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods methodology, the researcher sought to understand educational leaders’ perceptions of their attitudes, skills, and behaviors in the partnership. Quantitative and qualitative data on demographics as well as partnership attributes regarding competence, skills, and behavior of educational leaders were collected and analyzed for differences, relationships, and meaning. The main findings include significant interaction effects of demographic variables on perceptions. Education as a demographic variable, along with competence, and social skills were statistically significant predictors of individual behaviors in partnerships. The quantitative findings were correlated with the qualitative results and the findings have implications for leadership in pre-tertiary education. Policy makers associated with both Church and government relationships in pre-tertiary education should review policies on their respective partnerships and focus on the training of educational leaders in strategic planning to improve partnerships in order to improve education. INTRODUCTION Education is universally accepted as a means to unlocking human potential for social and economic progress, and for participation in society (Akyeampong, 2009; Ministry of Education, 2003; Patrinos, Barrera-Osorio & Guaquera, 2009). Besides the economic and social benefits of education, some religious bodies consider education as a means of evangelization (spreading religious beliefs and making followers). The state and the Catholic Church have a long-standing relationship in the promotion of pre-tertiary education in Ghana that historically led to rapid expansion and a high degree of quality education (Graham, 1971). The rapid expansion and the degree of quality in education over the years have both been declining at a rapid rate especially at the pre-tertiary level. Though programs put in place by the government of Ghana have contributed to increasing the enrollment, the quality of education has witnessed a serious decline (Ghana News Agency, 2009, 2010, as cited in Okyerefo, Fiaveh, & Lamptey, 2011; Ministry of Education, Ghana, 2012; Quist, 1999). High failure rates have caused more students to drop out of school (Imoro, 2009) at a rate unacceptable to both the Church and the state. Poor monitoring and supervision by educational leaders have been identified to be related to poor teaching and learning in public basic schools (Baffour-Awuah, 2011; Ministry of Education, 2012; Okyerefo et al., 2011). Weak institutional collaboration accounts largely for poor monitoring and supervision (Ministry of Education, 2012; Patrinos et al. 2009). Okyerefo et al. (2011) stated that the government needs to improve effective partnerships with communities in order to improve the performance, and the Ghana Education Service (GES) should “strengthen monitoring and supervision systems to ensure that problems are identified at early stages and dealt with” (p. 287). In this light, there have been calls by the Churches and state educational authorities to strengthen the partnerships so that improvement can be made on the monitoring and supervision of schools (Akyeampong, 2009; Conference of Directors of Education (CODE), 2014; Okyerefo et al., 2011; Osei-Bonsu, 2010). Patrinos et al. (2009) stated that in order to promote the quality of education we need the right polices and the right institutions working cooperatively. Partnership as a concept is a central theme in educational policy and practice and yet the area is under researched especially as to what sustains a partnership (Dhillon, 2009). This study was designed to promote better understanding of the nature of the partnerships from the perspectives of both the Church and government educational leaders by examining their perceptions as to what sustains partnerships.