DECENTRALISATION AND EDUCATIONAL GOVERNANCE: TWENTY YEARS OF EXPERIMENTATION; WHERE ARE WE?

Educational governance and administrative structures were introduced during the 1987 educational reforms as part of the decentralisation of education management to the district level. As a result, district directorates of education were established and mandated to manage schools within their jurisdictions. School governance structures were also introduced to improve schooling and to make schools accountable to communities in which they are located. The objective of all these arrangements was to provide parents and the communities a greater say in the governance of their local school. However, there seems to be minimal empirical evidence on how these administrative and governance structures have functioned in the various districts, municipalities and schools across the country. Using the qualitative methods of interviews and focus group discussions, opinions from practitioners of education and other key stakeholders were solicited to ascertain how the introduction of these administrative and governance structures have enhanced the management of education in districts and the governance of schools. Findings indicate that contextual differences are the key determinants of failure or progress and that in most cases, against policy expectation, these governance and administrative institutions have been fraught with many challenges which limit their effectiveness.