Basic education is a key element to development. Recognizing this, worldwide effortrnhas been made to access basic education for all in a shortest time possible. Hence,rnalternative approaches such as alternative basic education program (ABEP) camerninto being. One of the purposes of introducing this alternative approach to basic education is tornmake a difference in regard to local community participation. It is to create a sense of ownershiprnand to initiate the whole community to participate actively. However, in spite of physicalrnproximity, fiexibilities, facilities and other peculiarities of the program, the local communities 'rninvolvement in the ABEP seems unsatisfactory, limited and almost all problems that are relatedrnto local community participation in the formal program are still persisting. This motivates thernresearcher to assess the challenges and prospects of the local community participation in thernABEP in the study area (North Wollo).rnTo this end, a descriptive survey method was used as an appropriate methodology tornreflect the intended purpose of the study. Besides, the Input - Process - Output (IPO)rnmodel was used to identify the available inputs, the nature of the process and thernresults to identify the challenges and prospects of the local community participation.rnRelevant data on a wide range of issues pertinent to the study were collected fromrnthree woredas of North Wollo namely Kobo, Meket and Wadla. The basic instrumentsrnused were questionnaire, focus group discussions and structured interviews. Thernrespondents were education experts, school cluster supervisors, ABE facilitators,rnABE centre management committees, ABE students, parents and other localrncommunity members.rnLooking through the process, forms and extents of participation of the localrncommunities, the study identified challenges of local community participation inrnABEP and prospects for active participation. The major challenges identified arernmismatch of interest and economic capacity of local communities to participate, lowrnlevel of awareness of local communities on ABEP, lack of adequate and relevantrnprocedures / guidelines, high expectation of external support (donation and otherrnexternal support), lack of joint planning mechanisms among sectors of the woredas,rnabsence of formal mechanisms to maintain and transform knowledgelinformationrnand documents. Consequently, the prospect seems blurred and active participationrnmight not be obtained, unless those obstacles are removed timely.rnFinally, the study includes recommendations. The major recommendations are:rnprepare user friendly and relevant procedures / guidelines specifically on ABEP andrncommunity participation, design formal mechanism to transfer knowledge/rninformation and documents, provide detail orientation to the localrncommunity; and create mechanism to enable government sectorsrnto plan their schedule jointly.