Changing Framework of Local Governance and - Create

Changing Framework of Local Governance andCommunity Participation in Elementary Education1. IntroductionGovernance reform has emerged as a key concept shaping all debates and discourses ondevelopment in recent years, significantly impacting the dynamics of policy making as well asthe implementation of development programmes. In particular, there is an increasing trend ofmoving decision-making processes away from authorities at the centre to organizational unitsand towards individuals operating nearer to the grassroots, changing the patterns anddistribution of power and influence at different levels. These trends can be observedeverywhere – from liberal democracies to totalitarian regimes, unitary central governments tofederal arrangements, developing economies, and countries in transition to industrializedcountries. Changes in educational governance which are currently engaging the minds ofplanners and policy makers should be viewed as part of this larger phenomenon of reformingpublic governance structures and processes. Decentralisation, in particular, is beingrecommended as an important means of promoting progress in mass education and the DakarFramework of Action (UNESCO, 2000) explicitly calls for developing responsive,participatory and accountable systems of educational governance and management:The experience of the past decade has underscored the need for better governance ofeducation systems in terms of efficiency, accountability, transparency and flexibility sothat they can respond more effectively to the diverse and continuously changing needsof learners. Reform of educational management is urgently needed — to move fromhighly centralized, standardized and command-driven forms of management to moredecentralized and participatory decision-making, implementation and monitoring atlower levels of accountability. These processes must be buttressed by a managementinformation system that benefits from both new technologies and communityparticipation to produce timely, relevant and accurate information (UNESCO,2000:19).Establishing grassroots level democratic institutions for local self-governance has been anintegral part of the Indian perspective on public administration for some time. Efforts in thisdirection began even before gaining independence from British colonial control more than 60years ago. The Constitution of the country adopted in 1950 made this explicit by directing allstates to create local self-government bodies under the framework of panchayati raj 1 throughan electoral process. Article 40 of the Constitution of India states that ‘the State shall takesteps to organize village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as maybe necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government’. Subsequently, theBalwant Rai Mehta Committee recommended the establishment of the panchayati raj systemas an inter-connected three-tier organizational structure of democratic decentralization at thevillage, block and district levels.1 Village panchayat is the lowest level of democratically elected self-governing body operating in every villagewithin the three tier system of panchayati raj. Panchayati Raj is a system of governance inwhich gram panchayats are the basic units of administration. It has 3 levels: village, block and district. At thevillage level, it is called a panchayat. It is a local body working for the good of the village. The number ofmembers usually ranges from 7 to 31; occasionally, groups are larger, but they never have fewer than 7members.1