The Philippines’ budget for Education receives only 3% of the total Gross domestic product. This suggests that the country is under-spending on basic education as compared to other Asian countries like Thailand and Singapore. This situation directly or indirectly affects the expenditure for teachers, school building, infrastructure, furniture and other learning materials which roadblocks the expected performance of schools particularly on quality of learning (Australia, A. I. D.,  2012).

 Being faced by this resource-gap, the Philippine government provides a mechanism to lessen if not totally eradicate the downside on resource gap. Republic Act 9155 also known as the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001 provides legal basis for all learning leaders to take actions on establishing school and community and encouraging active participation of teachers, non-academic personnel of public schools, and parents-teachers-community association in ensuring quality delivery of programs/and or projects for the total improvement of the learners.

 Further, Section 1.2 of the same Act and Section 3, Chapter 2 of Education of 1982 support and promote maximum participation and active involvement of the community. Likewise, volunteerism is emphasized from among all sectors to ensure sustainable growth and development in education. The school governing council to this effect is organized in Philippine schools to take part in the initiatives of schools in involving the different groups of stakeholders in school improvement processes.

As points out by Khattri (2012) the conscientious partnership and collaboration of schools and community are highly encouraged for this has direct implication for improved learning outcomes. In support of, the Department of Education promotes the principle of shared governance embedded in the implementation of School Based Management. (DepEd Order No. 83, s. 2012)

Carnwell (2008) describes the context of partnership and collaboration in health and social care agencies using analytical frameworks. This proposed study aims also at arriving concrete constructs how these two words are described in the context of learning leaders or school heads. Emphasizing how partnership and collaboration can significantly affect school performance along key result areas of the department such as access, quality and governance. the researchers seek to explore how this strong social mechanism is being sustained.

 The study is focused to answer the following: 1) how do learning leaders or school heads understand partnership and collaboration; 2) what is their lived experiences in establishing and sustaining school-community partnership; 3. what challenges have they experienced; and 40. how do they manage to address the challenges.

Through the process involved in analytical frameworks by Srivastava, A et.al (2009), the study hopefully aspires to harvest practices that enable the school heads to sustain the school-community partnership and collaboration. It could be understood that there is no other means by which the school head could deliver the desired results without involving the community and other stakeholders in the process.

The analytical framework will guide the researchers in constructing meaning, seeing the patterns and themes that are essential in describing, interpreting and analyzing what is happening in a particular setting which in this study is on school-community partnership and collaboration. 

Method/Methodology Qualitative method of research using Focus Group Discussion (FGD) will be used in this study to explore the experience and challenges being faced by the School Heads as they adhere to promote sustainable school-community participation and collaboration Research Locale The study will be conducted in the select Schools in the Division of Calamba City, Region IV A-CALABARZON. The schools will be chosen based on the result of School Based Management SBM) Level of Practices and are categorizes as big, medium and small public elementary and secondary schools. Participant of the Study The key informants of this study will be the 10 school heads with SBM level 2and level 3 practices. These include maturing to advanced level. The SBM level of practice describes how the school head combined leadership, resources and the community and all stakeholders to support the children’s learning outcomes and stewardship (DepEd Order No. 83, s. 2012) Research Instrument The main instrument of this study is the list of guide questions for FGD based on the indicators of shared governance relative to SBM. Specifically, these questions will address their experiences and challenges to sustain school-community partnership and collaboration. Data Gathering Procedure In gathering data, the researchers will consider the steps of conducting FGD by Freitas (1998) as follows: 1) planning which considers the number and size of the participants, the participants, level of involvement of the moderator, the interview content, the selection of the place and data collection); 2. conduct of the interviews; and 3) analysis of data. Data analysis The steps of the framework analysis which was proposed by Gale, et.al (2013) will be followed in the analysis of the qualitative data collected from the key informants through the focus group discussion as follows: 1) Transcription, 2) Familiarization with the interview; 3) Coding; 4) Developing a working analytical framework; 5) Applying the analytical framework; 6) Charting data into the framework matrix; and 7) interpreting the data.

The researchers recognize the role of different stakeholders for the school to deliver quality basic education services. The Department of Education as the agency being tasked to create policy to strengthen civic engagement has been challenged to closely examine what is happening in grassroots (school level) relative to harnessing partnership and collaboration. Such may provide a concrete solution to address the issues along sustainability and shared governance. The extensive experiences and challenges that will be drawn out from the testimonies of the key informants may serve as catalyst to intensify and sustain the school-community partnership and collaboration taking into consideration the context or situation of the schools. The research results will encourage learning leaders to take active role in setting platforms by which education stakeholders can be part of the planning and decision making process in terms of designing programs, projects and activities for the learners. This in turn serves as a driving force to sustain cooperation between the school and the community. The researchers find similarity as to the aspiration of public schools in the Philippines as revealed in the initial literature review on the work of Hartley (2010) and Dusi, P. (2012) among European school-community and family setting, that partnership and collaboration provides intrinsic value to build a functional society , it promotes common good, communication and connection and build up sense of community on top of diversity that will enhance the life chances and opportunities of children.

Australia, A. I. D. (2012). Philippines: Basic Education Public Expenditure Review. Batas Pambansa Blg. 232 (Education Act of 1982) Carnwell, R., & Carson, A. (2008). The concepts of partnership and collaboration. Effective practice in health, social care and criminal justice: A partnership approach, 3-21. DepEd Order No. 83, s. 2012 Impementing Guidelines on the Revised School-Based Managemnt (SBM) Framewor, Assessment Process and Tool (APAT) Dusi, P. (2012). The family-school relationships in Europe: A research review. CEPS Journal: Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 2(1), 13. Freitas, H., Oliveira, M., Jenkins, M., & Popjoy, O. (1998). The Focus Group, a qualitative research method. Journal of Education, 1(1), 1-22. Srivastava, A., & Thomson, S. B. (2009). Framework analysis: a qualitative methodology for applied policy research. Gale, N. K., Heath, G., Cameron, E., Rashid, S., & Redwood, S. (2013). Using the framework method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research. BMC medical research methodology, 13(1), 117. Khattri, N., Ling, C., & Jha, S. (2012). The effects of school-based management in the Philippines: An initial assessment using administrative data. Journal of development Effectiveness, 4(2), 277-295. Hartley, M., & Huddleston, T. (2010). School-Community-University Partnerships for a Sustainable Democracy: Education for Democratic Citizenship in Europe and the United States of America. Council of Europe Publishing, Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/386 Quismundo, T. (2012). Philippine education spending still below UN standard. Philippine Daily Inquirer, 30. RA 9155 Enhanced basic Education Act of 2001