Enabling Environment for Social Accountability in ... - SASANet

Ulaanbaatar, asking them to identify their needs and make specific requests to enhance collaboration with
the community.
Although more than 40 percent of the respondents to the CSO Survey indicated that their organization
works in the area of education (annex 6, Question G), there are relatively few NGOs dedicated
specifically to education, most notably MAPSSD and MEA. Both NGOS are spin-offs from the OSF and
work to increase community involvement in Mongolia’s schools. MAPSSD n particular specifically
supports school councils. In addition, whereas unions in the education sector are instrumental in
promoting social accountability in many countries, in Mongolia they are, in the words of a CSO leader,
“just kind of sleepy” (Finding EDU 3).
ENHANCING THE PROFILE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SCHOOL COUNCIL ELECTIONS
Enhancing the profile and significance of school council elections may be an effective way to change
popular perceptions about community involvement in local schools. Although the majority of council
members are typically nominated by the governors, the law now stipulates that the remaining council
members must be elected. The implementation of this important provision, however, has been
problematic (Finding EDU 4).
Not all members of the community or even those elected to the councils are aware of the elections. The
governor of Uyanga soum related that a parent had visited him to discuss a matter unrelated to the school.
During their conversation, the governor had mentioned that the parent had been “elected” to the local
school council. The parent had neither solicited nor accepted his nomination before he became a parent
representative on the council.
According to the Uyanga governor, it is not uncommon for parent representatives to school councils to be
elected in absentia. Indeed, another parent representative at the school in Uyanga mentioned that she had
not known of her election to the council until she was contacted by the school social worker who serves
as the chair of the council. According to the social worker, the election took place at the first parents’
meeting at the beginning of the school year, which this parent, like many others, did not attend.
Moreover, the director of MAPSSD noted that council members are often chosen by principals. Not only
is this contrary to the rules and the purpose of the elections, which is to ensure that council members are
accountable to the community, but it seriously undermines the capacity of councils to objectively evaluate
the performance of principals or to recommend their dismissal.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION FOR
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR
Another factor that undermines community involvement in the education sector is the inadequate access
to the information necessary for activism in and monitoring of school governance (Finding EDU 5).
Preliminary results from the World Bank-sponsored Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) project
indicate that parents characteristically have no information on the school budget processes. Although the
representative of MEA noted that it is easiest to gain access to information “at the bottom” (soum level),
she indicated that officials typically refuse at the aimag level. Currently, the law on education does not
require that school finance or fiscal information be available to the public, a legal lacuna that clearly
undermines the capacity for social accountability in the education sector.
87