Impact of decentralization reforms on financing and access to pre-primary and primary education
Regional report, Eastern and Southern Africa
Highlights
Decentralization in the delivery of education services in recent years in many African countries has raised hopes that the transfer of responsibilities and resources to sub-national authorities will lead to greater consideration of local needs in the education system and induce greater efficiency. The study assessed the extent to which decentralization reforms have had an impact on the delivery of pre-primary and primary education services, with the main aim of generating evidence to inform decentralization reforms on the education sector by governments in Eastern and Southern Africa.
From case studies from Uganda, Namibia, Tanzania and South Africa, the main findings of the study are as follow:
- Decentralization is a development priority for countries, even if the models vary from one country to another.
- Decentralization has made it possible to improve the community participation and the performance of education systems and schools, through capitation grants and local planning and budgets that take account of local needs.
- Leadership and human and financial resources are key to an effective decentralized system, which still remains a challenge in some areas.
- Coordination between ministries and levels (district, regional, central) is improving, but should be made more systematic.
- Inter-Government Fiscal Transfer (IGFT) systems are in place but are not always working optimally.
- We are seeing a trend towards recentralization of previously devolved responsibilities.
Main recommendations of the regional study:
- The development and enforcement of service delivery standards, lines of communication and reporting between different levels and between ministries, as well as criteria for the equitable allocation of teachers and financial resources to schools.
- School grants should be released on time and more aligned to local needs. The equitable share formula for basic education should consider other factors like rural and urban index, number of learners, poverty analysis, learning outcomes, inequalities and out of school children.
- Affectations of human resources and reinforcement operational capacities of local authorities and school inspectorates for effective monitoring of service delivery, supporting teacher management and tracking performance of schools.
- Reforming the Inter Government Fiscal Transfer (IGFT) system with some focus on increasing the simplicity and the transparency of resource allocations and ensuring responsiveness to shocks and geographic vulnerabilities.
