Abstract
Family-school partnership is essential for achieving academic performance to level 4 students at a CET College. The partnership comprises the ability of families and schools to provide holistic support and guidance to students as they progress toward independence and becoming responsible community members too themselves. However, this is not prevalent in the majority of CET centres, particularly those in low-income communities. The study explored family-school partnership and supporting level 4 students. The current study intends to assist schools/centres with strategies that could be used by the centres to involve families and communities to enhance the academic performance of students in the CET College.
The study was guided by the interpretivism paradigm. Data was gathered using semi- structured individual interviews and document analysis. The research participants were the centre manager, lecturers, parents and students doing level 4 at a CET College. Epstein's model of school, family, and community interaction served as the foundation for the study.
The findings of this study reveal that families want to be involved in their children's education, but they don't have the time owing to various commitments. Furthermore, the findings reveal that inflexible centre meeting times, a lack of communication, and socioeconomic status all had an impact on family involvement.
To maximise parental involvement, the centre should hold meetings during weekends to accommodate parents who are working full time during the week, where they have lesser commitments during weekends compared to during the week.
Keywords: Level 4; CET Colleges; Family-school partnership; Community education; Support