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

was beyond the mandate of the Minister of Education, so the policy dialogue
process engaged the Ministry of Finance, legislators, private sector, and political
leaders to explore alternative strategies. This process was a good demonstration of
the maturity and effectiveness of the structures and processes in El Salvador.
Scaling up
The other relevant development concept is scaling up. The experience in these
countries indicates that this is one of the greatest challenges, and that it requires
significant patience and persistence. Scaling up requires that all of the other
elements have been met—that the interventions and policies have proven to
be effective; that the changes have been introduced in sufficient depth as to
have genuine ownership and leadership at all levels; and that the reforms are
sustainable and survivable. When all of these conditions are in place, scaling is
possible, but still not easy.
The key factors for success in the countries that have made significant progress
in adopting processes and principles on a national scale have been continuity,
adaptation, and time. In none of the cases are specific reforms operating at
acceptable quality standards on a national scale. Many of the key reforms were
not intended for scaling up. Countries such as El Salvador determined that
one size does not fit all, but adapted core principles about community school
management for different purposes. In Namibia, several donor-funded project
innovations have been folded into national-level improvement initiatives,
retaining the key elements of the original program interventions. In Nicaragua,
an explicit policy decision was made to scale-up the Active Schools approach to
all schools. The Zambia community schools expansion was largely an organic
process rather than a policy decision. In Egypt, strategic planning was initiated
on a pilot project basis in one, and then seven, governorates before becoming a
national program. The National Strategic Plan not only was coordinated bidirectionally
with the seven governorates’ planning processes, but also facilitated
strategic planning initiatives in all other governorates. In this case, a process and
planning mentality was scaled-up rather than a specific intervention.
The Zambian experience offers an example of gradual strengthening and
increasing functionality of a system within the constraining context of highlycentralized
human resource and management policies and limited resources.
Throughout the reform period, donor activities have extended the reach of
the system, but at times did so in ways that did not strengthen, and sometimes
undermined, system capacity development. Implementation of too many
activities in the early 2000s diluted MOE focus; the system simply did not have
the resources or capacity to scale-up all promising pilots. However, processes
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SECTION 3: SUMMARY fINdINGS ANd CONClUSIONS