Influences of Community Participation on School Infrastructure Policy Implementation and Performance of Construction Projects

Abstract

Community participation has been used in the developing world as a fallback when government efforts to establish schools and education within communities fail or are inadequate. The study was conducted in Somaliland—a state in the horn of Africa that is in the process or rebuilding schools and reestablishing education after the wanton destruction of the education infrastructure during the Somali civil war. With a school infrastructure regulatory policy having been established to set standards for school infrastructure, the study examined how community participation influenced the effect of school infrastructure policy implementation on the performance of construction projects in public primary schools. The study was set in Somaliland and targeted all public primary school headteachers in all the administrative regions and District Education Officers (DEO) in all the Districts. A cross-sectional survey guided by pragmatism, the study collected data from 20 DEOs and 247 headteachers. Headteachers filled questionnaires while DEOs were interviewed. Primary schools that reported low levels of community participation also realized a positive influence of school infrastructure policy implementation on the performance of construction projects, while schools that reported moderate and high levels of community participation did not. Community participation doesn’t only bring positive influences to projects but negative influences as well. Community participation has a significant low and negative partial moderation effect on the relationship between school infrastructure policy implementation and performance of construction projects. A linear model exists among the three variables.