Managing public island schools: Governance challenges and opportunities

This study made use of explanatory sequential mixed-method design in exploring the different governance challenges and opportunities in managing island schools.  Specifically, this determined the degree of manifestations of island schools in the six domains of SBM Revised Self-Assessment Checklist, identified different challenges and opportunities, and the school’s adaptive practices.
The accomplished SBM Self-Assessment Checklist of the nine island schools in Tabaco City was analyzed to determine the degree of manifestation.  The results showed that both elementary and secondary schools are always manifesting the indicators under leadership, governance and accountability, human resource and team development.  For curriculum and teaching and learning environment, common challenges were on low proficiency levels of learners on literacy and numeracy and bullying cases respectively.  Under resource management and mobilization, both elementary and secondary schools are confronted with classroom shortage, lack of water and internet facilities.
The focus-group discussion with school heads, teachers and parents revealed several challenges like low proficiency levels, bullying and child abuse incidence, poor attendance during HRPTA meetings, retention of teachers, class suspensions due to inclement weather, lack of classrooms and other support services like library, guidance office, school clinic, water and internet facilities.  These challenges are addressed through local and national learning interventions implementation along with the adoption of alternative delivery modalities to make education accessible and inclusive for island learners.  Strong partnerships have also been noted which provide major support to island schools by providing varied assistance.