Educational development councils are among the mechanisms supporting partnerships between schools and local communities, providing a framework for communication and cooperation between the two sides.
Article 7, Paragraph A, of the Education and Human Resources Development Law No. 13 of 2026 stipulates that the ministry shall strengthen relations between educational institutions and local communities by forming local school councils, including school network councils, educational development councils, student parliamentary councils, and councils for parents, caregivers and teachers.
Paragraph B of the same article states that the ministry shall regulate matters related to these councils and activities through instructions issued by the minister for this purpose.
Against this backdrop, questions have emerged about the objectives of these councils, their working mechanisms, their actual role in the education sector, and the extent to which they support schools and meet their needs, as well as ways to strengthen their effectiveness and expand their impact.
Education experts say educational development councils are an important tool for partnerships between schools and local communities. They can help identify educational needs, support development plans and mobilize local resources for schools. They also play advisory and supportive roles within their defined mandates: network councils support schools, while educational development councils provide advisory support to education directorates by reviewing development plans, submitting proposals and recommendations, and helping mobilize support for their implementation.
In separate statements to Al-Ghad, the experts said the councils’ responsibilities include identifying schools’ needs and priorities, helping overcome challenges facing school administrations, strengthening their ability to respond to the characteristics and cultures of different local communities, and supporting efforts to bring about change and development within schools. They stressed that strengthening the councils’ effectiveness requires greater diversity in the expertise and professional backgrounds of their members.
Councils and Performance Assessment
Education expert Faisal Tayah said educational development councils are one of the mechanisms for strengthening partnerships between schools and local communities by helping identify educational needs, supporting development plans and mobilizing local resources for schools. He noted that evaluating the councils’ role should be based on the extent to which they respond to schools’ needs and support the educational process.
He explained that the councils’ effectiveness should not be measured solely by the number of meetings held or members involved, but by their ability to transform community participation into organized initiatives that address schools’ priorities and contribute to improving the educational environment.
Tayah noted that Instructions No. 9 of 2024 governing school network and educational development councils regulate their formation, responsibilities and working mechanisms. Article 7 of the Education and Human Resources Development Law No. 13 of 2026 also calls for strengthening relations between educational institutions and local communities through the formation of local school councils, including network and educational development councils.
He said these councils perform advisory and supportive roles within their defined powers. Network councils support schools, while educational development councils provide advisory support to education directorates by reviewing development plans, submitting proposals and recommendations, and helping mobilize support for their implementation. These roles complement the responsibilities of official education administrations rather than replacing them.
Tayah pointed out that the performance of councils may vary depending on the circumstances of each school and education directorate, available resources and the level of local community engagement. Assessing their performance therefore requires examining the nature of their activities, how closely they are linked to schools’ needs, the mechanisms used to follow up on recommendations, and the results achieved.
He added that regular meetings and implementation of initiatives are only part of the councils’ work. Evaluating their effectiveness also requires determining whether their activities are linked to clear plans, what has actually been achieved, and what obstacles have affected implementation.
Tayah stressed the importance of conducting field assessments to provide an accurate picture of the councils’ performance rather than making generalized judgments.
Key Roles
Tayah said one of the main roles of educational development councils is to strengthen communication between schools and local community institutions and make use of available resources and expertise to address educational needs.
This can include establishing partnerships with municipalities, universities, the private sector, civil society organizations and parents, and directing these partnerships toward priorities identified according to schools’ needs.
He emphasized that the councils’ work can extend beyond providing financial support or helping improve school facilities to include supporting student learning, providing enrichment opportunities, assisting students most in need, and contributing to safe and supportive school environments. This would strengthen the connection between community participation and educational priorities.
Regarding ways to strengthen the councils’ role, Tayah stressed the importance of developing work plans based on schools’ needs, with clear priorities, feasible initiatives, defined responsibilities and measurable performance indicators.
He also emphasized the need to build the capacities of council members through training in planning, identifying school needs, building partnerships and monitoring initiatives, while clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of councils, school principals and education directorates to ensure coordinated and complementary efforts.
The School’s Role
Tayah said schools are responsible for identifying their needs and priorities, while councils contribute proposals and mobilize community support. Education directorates are responsible for coordination and follow-up within their areas of authority.
He stressed that clearly defining these roles is essential to ensure that efforts are directed toward actual needs.
Tayah also highlighted transparency and results monitoring as important elements in improving the councils’ work by documenting plans, initiatives and outcomes and making information available to local communities about what has been achieved.
He said performance assessments should examine the councils’ responsiveness to school needs, their ability to mobilize resources, the continuity of partnerships and the extent to which students benefit from implemented initiatives, in addition to monitoring meetings and activities.
He called on the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development to continue supporting educational development councils by developing mechanisms to evaluate their performance, exchange successful experiences among them, and provide the resources needed to improve their effectiveness according to the needs of each council, while respecting their defined roles and powers and ensuring their integration with the responsibilities of official education authorities.
He also stressed the importance of establishing clear mechanisms for following up on council recommendations and explaining which recommendations were implemented, which were not, and the reasons why. This would strengthen communication between councils and relevant authorities and help sustain local community participation in supporting schools.
Tayah concluded that strengthening educational development councils depends on clearly defined objectives, complementary roles, consideration of schools’ needs when developing plans, and regular monitoring of results. He stressed that their impact should be measured by their contribution to addressing school needs and supporting students’ learning opportunities, thereby strengthening the role of community partnerships in educational development.
Strengthening Partnerships
Education expert and Director General of Al-Rai and Kingston Schools, Dr. Mohammad Abu Emara, said educational development councils were established to strengthen partnerships between schools and local communities, make use of community expertise and capabilities, involve parents in supporting school administrations, and contribute to developing plans and policies that improve the educational process.
Based on his experience as a member and chairman of educational development councils on several occasions, Abu Emara said their role includes identifying schools’ needs and priorities, helping overcome challenges facing school administrations, strengthening their ability to engage with different local communities and cultures, and supporting efforts to introduce change and development within schools.
He noted that schools and local communities vary in their levels of cooperation and available resources, making the councils’ role important in building bridges between schools and their surrounding communities and making use of individuals’ and institutions’ capabilities to meet educational needs.
Abu Emara said council members have, in many cases, helped meet some of these needs through their community relationships and communication with civil society organizations and relevant institutions. He described this role as a form of community solidarity and partnership in supporting schools.
He said strengthening the councils’ effectiveness requires diversifying the expertise and professional backgrounds of their members so that they include representatives from various sectors, such as education, media, industry and commerce. This would allow schools to benefit from the expertise of different sectors according to their needs and broaden the community’s contribution to supporting students and improving the educational environment.
He added that diverse membership can give students opportunities to learn from professionals in different fields and help schools reach organizations capable of providing appropriate support, strengthening the concept of community partnership and making it more closely aligned with the actual needs of the education sector.
Working Mechanisms
Regarding working mechanisms, Abu Emara said awareness and training programs for council members could clarify their roles and responsibilities and distinguish between tasks they can undertake directly and those requiring approval from the relevant administrative authorities.
This would help organize their work and establish clearer lines of responsibility.
He stressed the importance of setting timelines for addressing schools’ needs and adopting mechanisms to document members’ achievements and assess their impact, including the extent to which their contributions benefit schools and students. He also called for using assessment results when renewing council memberships or selecting new members to strengthen effectiveness and continuity.
Abu Emara also highlighted the importance of recognizing the efforts of educational development council members, noting that some contribute their time and expertise to serve schools. He said institutional recognition of these efforts would encourage continued participation.
He concluded that educational development councils provide an important framework for involving local communities in the educational process. Strengthening their role requires expanding participation, clearly identifying priorities, and improving working and evaluation mechanisms so that councils can move beyond addressing immediate needs toward making a broader contribution to school development and improving students’ learning opportunities.
Need for Review
Education expert Ayesh Al-Nawaisa said educational development councils were established as part of efforts to strengthen community partnerships between schools and local communities and expand the participation of parents and community members in supporting schools.
He noted that the councils were one of the main components of the School and Directorate Development Program, which began more than 15 years ago.
Al-Nawaisa explained that the councils’ structure is based on dividing education directorates into geographic clusters comprising groups of schools. Their principals form an educational council, while the educational councils collectively form an educational development council at the directorate level, with the aim of organizing community efforts to support schools.
He said the councils’ experience has helped strengthen community partnerships in a number of schools through various forms of support and assistance. However, their implementation also revealed some issues requiring review, which led to the issuance of regulations governing their work, including instructions introduced in 2015 and subsequent amendments to their operating framework.
Among the issues identified, he said, were mechanisms for selecting council members and the requirement that the council chair hold a bachelor’s degree. He argued that this condition could limit the participation of volunteers who wish to serve their communities but do not meet the educational qualification requirement.
Al-Nawaisa pointed out that educational councils provide an organized framework for involving local communities and parents in supporting schools. Their contributions have included financial and in-kind donations, moral support, assistance in meeting certain school needs, and helping schools address challenges they face.
Overlapping Powers
Al-Nawaisa said the councils’ role has, in some cases, extended to communicating schools’ needs and demands to other bodies, including governorate councils and central councils. This has created additional channels for communication with relevant institutions and strengthened schools’ ability to convey their demands beyond education directorates.
He noted that some experiences have witnessed confusion over the councils’ powers and the limits of their role. In some cases, their role was interpreted as extending beyond support and assistance to intervention in school management or leadership, resulting in disputes between some councils and school principals and affecting cooperation between the two sides.
He stressed that community partnership is an important factor in improving education by integrating the efforts of schools and local communities to support students and provide an appropriate learning environment.
Al-Nawaisa said councils can play a role in discussing educational needs and challenges, proposing initiatives to address them, strengthening communication with parents, and promoting shared responsibility for students’ education, in accordance with their defined duties and working mechanisms.
Regarding efforts to encourage councils, he noted that the Ministry of Education organizes an annual competition for educational councils across the Kingdom’s three regions — central, northern and southern — aimed at encouraging initiatives and strengthening partnerships between schools and local communities through school development departments within the supervision and training directorates.
He said the competition allows directorates to compete in presenting initiatives and services that support schools, including educational and development activities and contributions to meeting schools’ needs. He stressed the importance of assessing the impact of these initiatives on the school environment and their responsiveness to schools’ actual needs.
Al-Nawaisa noted that regulating the councils’ work can strengthen communication between the Ministry of Education and local communities and provide channels for cooperation in addressing school challenges, whether through educational or material support.
He emphasized the importance of clearly defining roles and responsibilities in a way that preserves the authority of school administrations while strengthening cooperation with them.
He stressed that developing the experience of educational development councils requires building on the positive aspects of their work while reviewing the issues that emerged during implementation. This would strengthen the participation of local communities and parents, direct their efforts toward supporting schools and meeting their needs, and contribute to improving both teaching and learning.
Source: Al-Ghad
