Abstract:

One of the most debated policy discourses that have engaged the attention of countries in both the developing and developed world as well as the donor community is the varied pathways in improving the delivery of education through decentralization. Irrespective of the mode of its implementation, a key policy expectation is that through the active participation of the community education quality and related outcomes would improve.

This paper focuses on a review of four (4) key results areas – educational access, quality, management efficiency and transitions and identifies gaps in respect of these focal areas in terms of policies and practices. The paper concludes with suggestions that improving education delivery is increasingly tied to and powerfully shaped by key players at the local level, and that this happens through a combination of formal, informal and traditional roles, which are more trusted, but not necessarily representative of the image presented by policy. Hence, the need for policy to acknowledge that factors operating outside formal institutional structures play an equally important role in shaping outcomes of decentralization policy and practice.

Keywords:

Education, decentralization, decentralization policy, community participation, institutional structures.