Community Participation in the Development of Nonformal Education Programmes

This study intended to investigate the role of community participation in the development of nonformal education programmes through community learning centers. The researcher used a qualitative method and the design was a case study. The research was conducted in two selected CLC's of Cimahi city council, West Java, Indonesia. Data collection was done through; observation, interview, documentation study, and audiovisual analyses with the intent of establishing the kinds of nonformal education programmes, forms of community participation, categories of community members that participate most, and to ascertain the role of community participation in the sustainability of nonformal education programmes in community learning centres. Findings of the study; the staff members at the two CLCs are aware of the kinds of nonformal education programmes, the CLC programmes are basically government programmes, the forms of participation are of three categories, that is; passive participation, information giving participation and consultative participation, the CLC staff conduct field analysis only during the socialization process of CLC programmes to the grassischolar_main community, and the participants from CLCs are mostly from poor families with low economic background, but there were also those from well-off to do families. The recommendations made based on the fmdings of this research are: Nonformal education Professionals should be ready to face the needed desire for change in the development, planning and implementation of nonformal education programmes, Governments should allow educational and development programmes to come from the grassischolar_main with the active participation of the would be beneficiaries, people should be encouraged to; improve their knowledge, Skills and attitudes with the aim of systemic change, and Government should set standards to be followed by community learning centres such that quality is maintained.