The Power of Persistence: Education System ... - EQUIP123.net

4. Technical validity, policies, capacity, and adequate resources to address
funding gaps are necessary but not sufficient conditions to enable real
change. Equally critical are political will and institutional commitment, which
may rest on the intangible factors of relationships, trust, and credibility.
In the case study countries, the primary drivers or constraints to system
reforms were political and institutional. As a constraint, real progress on
governance and management reforms in Egypt was not possible until large
scale political issues had been addressed (a notable one being the eventual
truce between the government and radical Islamists) and opportunities created
for reform leadership could be exerted. In Zambia, critically needed changes
supporting decentralization and community schools in the 1996 Education
Act were not addressed until five years after their articulation in the National
Education Policy. At the time of this writing, a revised education act is with
the Zambian Parliament, even as policy changes continue to be implemented
at Ministry HQ and decentralized levels. As a driver, the strong political power
and leadership of key ministers of education in El Salvador and Nicaragua
have powerfully influenced how the reform agenda is pursued.
The obvious value of leadership in driving reform easily tends to move observers
toward a ‘great man’ view that valorizes the role of charismatic and politically
powerful leaders. Certainly, in the case studies there are sufficient examples of
strong leaders enabling reforms to encourage such a view. Egypt’s proliferation
of policy reforms came about with the appointment of a new MOE in 2005, and
the policies of Humberto Belli dominated Nicaraguan education for a decade
after he left office. El Salvador’s long string of qualified, effective Ministers
and deputy ministers was an undeniable factor in the country’s stability and
progress, and Namibia’s strong leadership that began with Nahas Angula set the
stage for years of continuous progress. Of course, it is also true that individual
support requires political and social conditions to be favorable to specific
reforms. In Egypt, for example, the same Minister who limited decentralization
reforms throughout the 1990s approved the decentralization pilot in Alexandria
and the delegation to the six other governorates once the radical Islamist threat
and other issues had been addressed. As the case studies demonstrate, effective
and committed leaders make good reform more likely than do weak leaders.
But a reliance on individual leaders to effect reforms may be thwarted by the
ordinary fact that commitment, charisma, and championship of reforms are
not traits inherent to positions, and successors will not inevitably have the
same desirable qualities as their predecessors. People change jobs and roles,
they go away entirely, and permanent leadership is not possible even if it were
desirable. Fortunately, another lesson of the case studies is that political will
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