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Education Decentralization in Africa: Great Expectations and Unfulfilled Promises

Global Trends in Educational Policy

ISBN: 978-0-76231-175-0, eISBN: 978-1-84950-325-9

Publication date: 12 July 2005

Abstract

Over the past decade most central governments across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have begun to decentralize some fiscal, political, and administrative responsibilities to lower-levels of government, local institutions, and the private sector in pursuit of greater accountability and more efficient service delivery, often in an attempt to solve broader political, social, or economic problems (SARA, 1997). Education, in particular, has been fertile ground for such decentralization efforts. From Ethiopia to South Africa, SSA countries have engaged in some form of education decentralization, though the pace has been quite uneven. Ethiopia, Uganda, Senegal, and South Africa, for example, are proceeding fast, while Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe are under way more slowly. Guinea, Niger, Zambia, and Nigeria are at the other end of the continuum. Decentralization of social services, including education appears to be embedded in the political changes occurring in the region. In almost all SSA countries the introduction of decentralized systems are accompanied by popular elections for local councils as part of the general trend of the introduction of or return to democratization.

Citation

Naidoo, J. (2005), "Education Decentralization in Africa: Great Expectations and Unfulfilled Promises", Baker, D.P. and Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) Global Trends in Educational Policy (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 6), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 99-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3679(04)06004-9

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited