EQUIP2 Final Report.pdf - Education Policy Data Center

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EQUIP2 Leader Award Final Report
IMPROVING EDUCATION IN THE CONTEXT OF
DECENTRALIZATION
Decentralization is a dominant policy direction in many countries and has
been strongly encouraged by donors for years. However, there is little hard
evidence to support the argument that educational decentralization leads to
improved quality of learning, and there are few clear guidelines for making
decentralized systems more effective in improving the quality of education.
EQUIP2’s decentralization research aimed to fill this gap by developing
an analytical framework, research, and tools to connect administrative
decentralization, community participation, and local school management
with improved school outcomes, learning, and accountability.
EQUIP2’s first several publications in this area examined issues of
accountability. In a decentralized system, there is no one policy-maker who
is responsible for decisions; instead, there is a complex web of decisionmakers.
Strengthening accountability depends on strengthening the voices
of stakeholders, improving management, providing better information
to clients, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and increasing incentives
and consequences. EQUIP2 researchers identified school report cards
as one way to provide a useful and easily understood management tool,
stimulate parental involvement and citizen demand for school performance,
and motivate education reform at all levels. A case study of a school selfassessment
(SSA) system in Namibia provided an example of a low-cost and
highly participatory way to track performance and improvement in schools
using report cards. EQUIP2’s decentralization researchers also examined
issues related to information needs, school grants, and public expenditure
tracking.
However, the researchers found it difficult to make a connection between
education decentralization and school quality. While research showed that
decentralization may improve education, the extent of the improvement was
minimal in most cases, and any improvements were almost always found in
places where responsibilities were decentralized to schools rather than to subnational
governments. The researchers concluded that extensive, systematic
studies are necessary to better understand how decentralization should be
designed and implemented to improve educational quality. Rather than
making a major financial investment in this direction, the decentralization
team turned towards a more short-term, practical application.
In September 2006, EQUIP2 partnered with the World Bank Institute
and the British Council to support a four-month distance learning and
videoconference series on education decentralization in Kenya, Uganda,
Ghana, Ethiopia, and Zambia. The purpose of the series was to explore the