Abstract
Empowerment of parents and community members improves accountability and monitoring of schools. Nevertheless, accountability relationships need to be accurately defined for decentralization to improve schools’ performance. This study, therefore, aims to explore educationists’ and Parents Teachers Council (PTC) members’ perceptions of local accountability and monitoring of elementary schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. A semi-structured interview of two provincial and five district educational administrators, five school principals, and six PTC members inform this phenomenological study. Participants’ responses were coded to identify emerging themes and patterns. The analysis reveals that PTC can become a part of the accountability and monitoring system of the public schools through empowering PTCs, awareness of the community, sharing information with PTC members and its community, and trusting the potentials of the community. This study recommends that principals and parents should be empowered and accountability procedures should be devised for an effective local accountability and monitoring of the public schools.