Föräldrainflytande i grundskolan - Barnverket

observed, or the interests of a board member’s child may take priority over
those of the school as a whole. New and possibly greater demands will be
placed on the politicians responsible at both local and central level, to ensure
that such negative effects do not occur.
The study shows that the parents involved have not fully made use of their
rights and responsibilities as board members. One reason for this might be
that roles within the board have not been clearly assigned. There needs to
be a clarification of exactly which responsibilities and which rights apply
to a local board with a parent majority, and clear guidelines indicating
who makes which decisions - the municipal committee, the local school
board, or the principal.
Board members interviewed feel that there has been increased participation
in the activities of ‘their’ school, and greater co-operation between parents,
pupils, teaching staff and principal. Nevertheless, many parents who are
not on the board feel excluded, and have little knowledge of, or interest in,
the board’s work. This may be due to poor communication between the
board and the parents, and may also be one of the reasons for the difficulty
experienced in recruiting board members and the fact that there is a problem
in achieving fair representation of all parties on the board. This question of
representation needs attention.
The role of the principal in relation to the board is problematic, and can
lead to a conflict of loyalties. There is a great risk that the principal will feel
directly responsible to the municipal committee rather than to the board.
School principals are, after all, local government officials with responsibilities
clearly defined by state and municipality - which could lead to problems in
the transfer of power and authority from a principal to a school board. The
local board should be allowed to function as an executive board, where the
principal is responsible for carrying out the decisions that are made.
As things are today, the board can paradoxically help to reinforce the
principal’s role since in practice s/he functions as chairperson without
formally being so, and is forced to assume two roles simultaneously -
executive and decision-maker.
Municipalities are under an obligation to both evaluate and follow the
development of the local boards, but this study shows that in many ways
this is a neglected area. Annual reports and regular evaluations would most
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