Decentralization and Education

Definition, Measurement, Rationale, Implementation, School Finance, Effects of Decentralization

The ways in which public primary and secondary education is financed and delivered varies greatly throughout the world.
In France, education is highly centralized at the level of the national government, whereas in Canada the national
government does not even have an education ministry, and in the United States education is mainly the responsibility of
local school districts. Many developing countries and countries in transition to market economies have highly centralized
government administration of education and other public services. During the 1990s and early twenty-first century, many
of these countries began to decentralize education. This phenomenon proceeded fastest in Latin America and eastern
Europe, but several countries in Asia and Africa also began initiating decentralization policies.

Definition
Decentralization is defined as the transfer of decision-making authority closer to the consumer or beneficiary. This can
take the form of transferring powers to lower levels of an organization, which is called deconcentration or administrative
decentralization. A popular form of deconcentration in education is to give additional responsibilities to schools. This is
often called school autonomy or school-based management and may take the form of creating elected or appointed school
councils and giving them budgets and the authority to make important educational decisions. Deconcentration may also
take the form of empowering school directors or directors and teaching faculty to make decisions within the school.
Another form of decentralization, called devolution, entails transferring powers to lower levels of government. Most
often, education responsibilities are transferred to general-purpose governments at the regional or local levels. Examples
are the decentralization of basic education to local (district) level governments in India and Pakistan. In rare cases
additional responsibilities are given to single-purpose governments, such as the local school district in the United States.
When education responsibilities are transferred to general-purpose governments, the elected governing bodies of those
governments must make decisions about how much to spend on education versus other local services.
Measurement
The measurement of education decentralization is especially difficult. Economists often measure decentralization to lower
levels of government by looking at the percent of educational revenues that come from local (or regional) sources, or,
alternatively, by looking at the share of educational resources–whatever their origin–that local governments control.
Using these measures, education is highly centralized in countries such as Greece, Italy, and Turkey and highly
decentralized in countries such as Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
However, these measures may be misleading when central governments mandate educational policies or programs that
require the local government to allocate its revenues in a certain way. Mandating reductions in class size or the creation
of special education programs, for example, reduces the degree of power the local government has to allocate its own
revenues or resources. In the United States, the federal and state governments influence local education resource
allocation both through unfunded policy and program mandates and through the use of conditional grants-in-aid, which
require local governments or school districts to match federal or state funding for certain purposes. The combination of
these mandates and conditional grants results in local school districts having discretionary expenditure control over only
a small portion of their revenues and budgets.
An alternative means of measuring education decentralization is more subjective and entails (1) identifying the major
decisions made regarding the finance and provision of education and (2) answering the question, who makes each
decision? The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed a methodology for
measuring the degree of education decentralization. This methodology divides educational functions into four groups: the
organization of instruction, personnel management, planning and structures, and resources. The content of each group is
given in Table 1.
TABLE 1
Some educational functions are decentralized even within centralized systems, and others are centralized even within
decentralized systems. An OECD survey of its members, for example, shows that, even in centralized systems, schools
make most of the decisions about the organization of instruction. On the other hand, in many countries most personnel-
management decisions are made at a central level.
Measuring decentralization by answering questions concerning who makes decisions in what areas does not provide an
easy answer as to how decentralized one country's education system is relative to another's. Not all decisions are equally
important. Indeed, one decision-making area is far more important than the others. Teachers and other school staff
represent about 80 percent of total recurrent education spending in developed countries and more than 90 percent of
total recurrent education spending in many developing countries. Research on learning also demonstrates that teachers
and their ability to teach are the single most important factor in the school that affects learning. Thus, a shortcut for
determining whether one country is more decentralized than another is to compare the countries' policies in personnel
management. Countries that allow school councils to select school directors and allow schools to recruit, hire, and
evaluate teachers have already achieved a significant degree of decentralization even though school finance may still be
highly centralized and teachers may be paid according to a national pay scale.
Rationale
The rationale for education decentralization tends to be associated with four distinct objectives: democratization, regional
and/or ethnic pressures, improved efficiency, and enhanced quality of schooling. Several countries with a history of
authoritarian government have decentralized government in the name of democratization. More specifically,
decentralization in these countries is designed to increase the voice of the local citizen and to empower the citizen to
more fully participate in decision-making at the local level. Democratization has been the rationale for transferring
education responsibilities to local governments in countries as diverse as Poland and Brazil.
In other countries, there have been pressures from regionally based ethnic and language groups to develop their own
curriculum, teach in their own languages, and manage their own schools. A good example of this is Spain, where initially
the Basque and Catalan regions gained the right to manage their own educational systems, followed later by other regions.
One of the potential benefits of decentralization is increased accountability to the citizen/beneficiary, resulting in
improved efficiency in the use of school resources. The improved efficiency results from two effects. One effect is the
better match between services provided and the preferences of citizens. The other effect is increased output relative to
resources or expenditures. Chile is an example of a country where education was decentralized to local governments
primarily in the pursuit of greater efficiency.
When education is decentralized in pursuit of democratization, or in response to regional/ethnic pressures, it is usually
just one of several services being transferred to local or regional governments. In addition, educators often resist
decentralization for these purposes, fearing greater inequality in spending and educational outcomes. On the other hand,
when education is decentralized in pursuit of greater quality, it is usually done as part of a larger reform promoted by
educators themselves. An example of this can be found in several large U.S. cities where school councils and school
directors have been given greater decision-making autonomy. At the same time, however, the performance of schools is
carefully monitored, and schools are held accountable for improved performance to both parents and system
administrators.
These four objectives account for most, but not all, of the reasons for education decentralization. Some countries have
transferred the finance and delivery of education to lower levels of government to help solve the central government's
own fiscal problems. Argentina, for example, transferred education from the national to the regional governments in order
to reduce central government fiscal deficits. Since the education sector employs more personnel than other sectors and
also requires large recurrent salary expenditures, it is a tempting target to decentralize for fiscal reasons. Other countries
have given local governments the authority to run their own schools as a means of circumventing central government
bureaucracies in order to rapidly increase enrollments in remote areas. El Salvador provides an example of
decentralization to remote rural communities for this purpose.
Implementation
Like other education reforms, decentralization can result in political winners and losers. The potential winners are those
gaining new decision-making powers, while the potential losers are those losing those powers. Two of the potential losers–
civil servants and teacher unions–are sufficiently powerful that that they can effectively stop decentralization processes.
The civil servants working in education ministries have perhaps the most to lose, because some of their jobs become
redundant and their power to influence the allocation of resources may be diminished. In countries where corruption in
government is a serious problem, reduced power will be also reflected in a reduced ability of civil servants to extract
financial or in-kind rents. The leaders of national teacher unions also lose power to the extent that salary negotiations,
teacher recruitment, and teacher promotion are moved from national to lower levels of government. Union members
may also fear lower salaries if the funding of education is moved to local governments with fewer sources of government
revenues. In countries where being elected head of a teacher union is an important stepping-stone to a political career,
decentralization of labor negotiations is likely to reduce the political importance of leading the national union.
The implementation of education decentralization reforms can either be rapid or slow. Legislative or constitutional
changes that immediately transfer responsibilities from the national to lower levels of government run the risk that lower
levels of government will lack the required administrative capacity required to manage the system well. The result may
be disruption in the delivery of schooling to children that adversely affects their learning, at least for a time. A more
gradual decentralization can allow powers to be transferred to lower levels of government as those governments gain
administrative capacity. The difficulty with gradual decentralization is that it may never occur at all, as the potential losers
marshal their forces to fight the policy change.
In some countries with serious problems of internal conflict, weak public bureaucracies, or very weak government
finances, one finds de facto decentralization of education. In these cases, the central government abdicates its
responsibility for financing and providing public education, especially in remote areas, so local communities organize and
finance their own schools and recruit and hire their own teachers. In Africa, the countries of Benin and Togo provide
examples of community control and finance of schools resulting from the lack of central government supply. In other
cases, the central government finances an inadequate number of teachers and other school resources to ensure schooling
of adequate quality. In these cases, parents may form school councils to raise revenues to hire additional teachers,
construct and equip school buildings, and provide other school resources. By virtue of their important role in funding
education, parents and school councils may exercise significant decisionmaking power.
School Finance
The financing of decentralized education can be very complicated in systems where two or three levels of government
share financing responsibilities. The choices for financing education in such systems can be framed as follows: (1) central
versus local funding, (2) conditional versus unconditional grants, and (3) negotiated versus formula-driven grants. The
choices made concerning education finance are extremely important as they determine both the degree of effective
control local governments have as well as the implications for efficiency and equity.
The single most important choice is whether the level of government providing education (in most cases, the local
government) is expected to generate its own revenues for education from its own tax and other revenues sources or if it
will receive the bulk of the required educational revenues from a higher level government. Local government capacity to
generate revenues (i.e., its tax base, or its fiscal capacity) tends to vary widely across local governments within regions or
countries. Thus, requiring local governments to raise all their own revenues for education ensures an unacceptably high
degree of inequality in spending per child. Countries where local governments finance education from their own source
revenues (e.g., Brazil, the United States) have adopted intergovernmental grants to help even out spending inequalities.
In the case of Brazil, the central government provides additional financing to ensure each jurisdiction spends a minimum
amount per student. In the case of the United States, school finance policies vary by state, but in general they, too, ensure
a minimum level of spending and, in some cases, put a cap on the maximum amount a local school district can spend.
Most countries have made the choice to fund a large portion of primary and secondary education spending from either
the regional or national government budgets. This funding can be provided in one of two ways. Monies can be transferred
from the central government to either the general fund of the local (or regional) government or to a special education
fund of the local (or regional) government. In the former case, the local or regional government receives funding sufficient
to cover a large portion of expected education expenditures, but the local or regional government makes the decision of
how much to spend on education. In the latter case, the local or regional government is required to spend the grant
monies on education only. Requiring grant monies to be spent on education ensures adequate education spending but
reduces the expenditure autonomy of the local (or regional) government.
Once a decision is made to transfer monies to lower levels of government, a further decision needs to be made as to how
to determine what amount of money should be transferred to each receiving government. The basic choice is whether to
negotiate that amount between governments or to determine the amount using a capitation formula. Negotiation has
political advantages in that it allows central governments to reward their political allies, and thus it is often popular.
Capitation formulas, however, are more equitable and may also provide incentives for educational performance. Chile,
for example, determines how much it provides to each local government based on a formula that includes indicators of
educational cost, educational need, and student average daily attendance. Since local governments receive more revenues
if more students are enrolled and attending regularly, the formula has encouraged those governments to undertake
campaigns to keep children in school.
Effects of Decentralization
It is extremely difficult to disentangle the effects of education decentralization policies from other variables
simultaneously affecting educational outcomes, and there have been few rigorous attempts to do so. Two studies that did
attempt to isolate the effects of devolution in Central America concluded that it increased parental participation, reduced
teacher and student absenteeism, and increased student learning by a significant, but small, amount.
See also: GOVERNMENT ANDEDUCATION, THE CHANGING ROLE OF; SCHOOL-BASED DECISION-MAKING.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FISZBEIN, ARIEL, ed. 2001. Decentralizing Education in Transition Societies: Case Studies from Central and Eastern
Europe.Washington, DC: World Bank.
HALASZ, GABOR. 1996. "Changes in the Management and Financing of Educational Systems." European Journal of
Education 31 (1):57–71.
HANNAWAY, JANE, and CARNOY, MARTIN, eds. 1993. Decentralization and School Improvement: Can We Fulfill the
Promise? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
ODDEN, ALLAN, and CLUNE, WILLIAM H. 1998. "School Finance Systems: Aging Structures in Need of
Renovation." Educational Evaluationand Policy Analysis 20 (3):157–177.
ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT. 1998. Education at a Glance: OECD
Indicators. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
WINKLER, DONALD, and GERSHBERG, ALEC IAN. 2000. "Education Decentralization in Latin America: The Effects on the
Quality of Schooling." In Decentralization and Accountability of the Public Sector,ed. Shahid Javed Burki et al. Washington,
DC: World Bank.
WOHLSTETTER, PRISCILLA, and ODDEN, ALLAN. 1992. "Rethinking School-Based Management, Policy, and
Research." Educational Administration Quarterly 28:529–542.
DONALD WINKLER
DECENTRALIZED EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
Many countries are currently in a process of modernizing the management of public sectors. Education is one of the largest
sectors in terms of personnel and recurrent expenditure and is also among the larger public sectors in terms of capital
expenditure.
Strategies and activities aimed at modernization of public sector management therefore we have a significant
impact on education sector management.
Of the principle features of public sector modernization, there are directly relevant for education : decentralization,
international commitments, and new forms of programme-based resource allocation to education. These trends will
shape the way in which the education sector will be functioning in the future.
MEANING OF DECENTRALIZATION IN EDUCATION
Decentralization implies increasing responsibilities for efficient resource management and education quality
improvements at levels below the central level. However, decentralization also calls for greater responsibilities for policy
making and implementation monitoring at the central level, in particular by the Ministry of education.
The modernization of education sector management is a challenge to both the Ministry of Education and to
provincial level education authorities.
The challenges are
(i) Strengthening the professional and technical knowledge. Of staff at both levels is an essential condition for the
successful modernization of education sector management.
(ii) Management staff needs to be enable to
a) actively contribute to the shaping of the new functions, and
b) to carry out new management tasks in the areas of planning, programme preparation, and
implementation monitoring.

THE MAIN PURPOSES OF PROVINCIAL EDUCATION PLANNING

 To ensure that national education policies are effectively implemented and that national goals and targets are
reached
 To ensure that targets are set and reached which respond to particular needs of the province
 To convince Ministries, provincial education reforms
 To convince the Ministry of Finance (and other public funding sources) to provide the required funds
 To mobilize private sector and community contribution, particularly for education sub-sectors that are not
compulsory and not free (e.g. Secondary Education and Pre-school)
THE PRINCIPAL STEPS OF PROVINCIAL EDUCATION PLANNING INCLUDE
 To obtain a comprehensive factual and analytical overview of the present situation
 To set the targets to be reached during the planning period.
 To assess the resource implications of the proposed targets.
  To assess the resource gap.
 To outline implantation action programmes.
 To evaluate progress made during plan implementation
 To write the plan document and given it adequate layout.
OPERATIONAL AREAS OF PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATION

*ACCESS * QUALITY *MANAGEMENT

ACCESS covers all actions required in order to attain those targets which are directly aimed at ensuring that every
child of school age is enrolled in school and has the possibility of completing the full education cycle. The operational area
ACCESS comprises actions needed to ensure that every child enrolled in the first grade of the cycle stays in school for the
entire primary cycle. The actions include construction of schools, provision of teachers, provision of teaching and learning
materials, and particular provisions for specific population groups such as ethnic minority groups. QUALITY comprises all
actions needed to attain those targets that are specifically aimed at improving the quality of education. These actions
concern curriculum development, teaching-learning materials, teacher training, students, assessment, and special actions
for specific population groups. MANAGEMENT concerns actions that are specifically aimed at improving the management
of education at all levels. This includes planning.
Decentralized educational planning and management
(a) Grama panchayat
1. Grama panchayat will be formed by for a village or a group of villages. The panchayat will have elected
representatives. Besides, each panchayat may constitute a village education committee (VEC) which would be
responsible for administration of the delegated programmes in the field of education at the village level.
2. The major responsibility of the VECs should be operationalization of house survey and periodic discussion with
the parents. It should be the endeavor of the committee that every child in every family participates in the primary
education. In these activities will be provided expert guidance and support by DIET.
The State governments may consider entrusting the following functions of the VEO
1. Generation and sustenance of awareness among the village community ensuring participation of all segments
of population and developing teacher/instructor and community partnership to oversee and manage the effective
and regular functioning of the schools and centers.
2. In view of the critical role and functions of VEC, it should be vested with appropriate statutory and necessary
financial and administrative authority.
(b)Block panchayat
It is observed that the block level set of educational administration is very weak almost all over the country. The
supervisors often have little contact with the schools. The routine administrative duties such as collecting statistics, is
bursement of salaries, posting and transfer of the staff take up most of their time.
The following steps be taken to improve the functioning of block level education set up
1. Norms, not only on the basis off number of schools but also number of teachers should be evolved through
systematic studies so that the block level education officer may effectively cope with his administrative
responsibilities and supervisory functions.
2. Most of the time block level education officers is spent on routine administrative work. Their duties may be
laid down in detail so that their support for the academic programmes gets due importance.

(c)District Panchayat
1. The jurisdiction of a district for the educational purpose may be co-terminus with its revenue jurisdiction.
2. The big districts would be divided into sub-educational districts but these will be coordinated and controlled
by a chief education officer (CEO) for the whole district. He will look all after levels of education-primary, middle,
secondary and higher secondary, nor-formal and adult education.
3. The planning and statistics branch of CEO will be provided with computer facilities for educational management
information system (EMIS)
Advantage of decentralization
1. It will create awakening and a feeling of self-dependence.
2. It will inculcate qualities of responsible behaviour and loyalty in the employees and authorities of
administration.
3. It makes familiarity with the needs of the people easier and shape education accordingly.
4. It makes a possible regarding educational affairs and policies.
5. As the main responsibility of education his lies with the people and local units, so the government has to bear
lesser burden of education expenditure.
Disadvantage of decentralization
1. As the educational system is generally influenced by local opinion, soften, the tendency of favouritism towards
a particular class, caste, community, religion, race or political party is generated in and children of all the areas do
not get equal educational opportunity.
2. Indian situation is not suitable for it. There is much difference in different regions. Here are economic
inequalities between different classes of society. All the local units are not equally rich in resources. While the rich
local units can make better arrangement. Poor units fail in their educational effects. Decentralization at primary
level is a glaring example of the fact that Indian conditions are not suitable for decentralization in education.
In the decentralized Indian educational system educational supervision and control should be effective. However, the
education commissions appointed from time to time for studying the prevailing educational system and to advise
improvement in it, have bitterly criticized the control and supervision system. Following is a critical estimate of the existing
system.

CONCLUSION

The decentralized system has been implemented in all parts of the country. The success of this decentralized system of
evaluation depends on how the monitoring agencies such as the government at the centre and state level with its officials
to coordinate it, and the educational institution/school management at the local level respond to it with the help of
principal, teaching and non-teaching staff, parents, students and local society at large.
DECENTRALIZED EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

DECENTRALIZATION OF THE MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING INSTITUTIONS

Experience has shown that highly centralized planning is non-participatory and tends to ignore the peculiarities of
various localities in the development process. In the Education and Training Policy it is noted that the powers and
decision making in the management and administration of education and training institutions have remained heavily
concentrated at the ministerial level. Attempts to involve regions, districts and communities in the management and
administration of education and training institutions in their areas of jurisdiction are wanting, yet effective
management of education and training institutions necessitates community involvement.
In this regard the education sector has initiated regulatory changes and interventions to support the decentralization
process to lower organs. Among the notable interventions in support of the decentralization process includes:
The establishment of District and Community Education Funds, a matching grant intended to encourage
communities to finance the provision of education to their own children.
DBSPE initiative intended to contribute towards improving the teaching/learning environment to enhance
decentralized management of education and training institutions.
The institutionalization of district managed Teacher Resource Centers (TRCs) and the establishment of ward-based
teacher development (in-service programmer).
The decentralization of textbook provision and distribution initiated as a pilot project in 1993.
The initiation of Primary Education Facilities Project (PEDFAC) intended to mobilize as well as enhance the capacity
of district authorities to plan and manage financial resources at their disposal therefore promoting accountability,
transparency and project management skills.
To decentralize the management of FDCs with more participation from the Local Authorities.
All basic education based interventions are gradually being realigned to correspond with the Local Government
Reform Programmer which places emphasis on improved service delivery, autonomy in decision making,
transparency, accountability and good governance. The new Local Government system is based on political
devolution, decentralization of functions and finances within the framework of a unitary state. The Local
Governments will be holistic i.e. multi sectored government units with a legal status. They have the responsibility
for social development and public service provision within their jurisdiction, facilitation of maintenance of law and
order and issues of national importance such as education, health, water, roads and agriculture. To facilitate these,
financial reforms, regulations for governing the utilization of block grants and basket funds have been issued, service
regulations for local Authorities employees have been approved and the platinum system is being introduced in all
local authorities. Attendant with such developments, MOEC/MSTHE/MRALG have specified education sector specific
performance indicators and minimum standards for service delivery.
NEW APPROACH TO EDUCATION PLANNING
Traditionally, education planning has been highly centralized. Plans were and have continued to be conceived,
initiated and developed by the central authority at the national level. Thereafter, developed plans were disseminated
to lower organs for adoption and implementation. Hence, the grassroots have contributed little, if any, to the
development of plans for implementation by the same.
The top-down planning process was originally justifiable because the Government structure was still centralized.
The decentralization process is however in the initial stages of development and the requisite capacity is in the
process of being developed. The means and instruments to enable lower organs to initiate and develop their own
plans based on concrete assessment of potentials and problems faced as well as the developmental needs of the local
community in a participatory approach also are in the process of being provided through the adoption of Planning
and Management guide for Regional Secretariats prepared under the Local Government Reform Program. PO-RALG
is also leading the formulation of a National framework for participatory District Planning to be in place by March
2001.
In response to the planning reform requirements a number of initiatives have been put in place to set the new system
in motion. The planning reform initiatives include school mapping and micro planning of the whole school
development program and ward based education management program.
In the planning reform process (bottom-up vs. top-down), the school is the lowest and the initial planning unit. Each
school and each education institution is required to prepare its own education development plan. The next planning
unit is the ward. The ward education development plan should be a synthesis of school development plans in that
ward. The district is the next planning unit. The district education development plan should be the synthesis of ward
education development plans in the district. The bottom-up hierarchical planning process continues to the national
level but in line with National guidelines aimed to match grass root development with National interests. This is also
a caution that sometimes and in some cases top down planning will be required in order to address a national crisis,
disaster or epidemic etc.

COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION AND PARTICIPATION

Community mobilization and participation in the process of eliminating child labor is another important ingredient
in the process. Social and community mobilization efforts to eliminate child labor bring in a time element into the
process, as they, in turn, motivate and monitor all the sectors involved to move fast towards the goal in a time-bound
manner. The local community could be actively involved in all the three steps of prevention, rehabilitation and
monitoring, bringing in ownership as well as accountability-

Prevention

Identifying and responding to the needs of children at risk, as well as working children through regular interactions
and awareness generation campaigns in partnership with local Non Government Organizations and authorities.
Groups within the community could be formed with leadership from influential persons from within the community.
They could in turn try to forge partnerships with local Non Government Organizations working in the area of child
labor and join hands to help prevent the same.

Rehabilitation

Identification and planning of integrating the children removed from work into the schooling system, in
consultation with their parents and local schools as well as vocational training centers.

Monitoring

Monitoring of the workplaces, where children were previously working, as well as schools and vocational
centers, where these children have been enrolled, to ensure retention and to eliminate dropout and re-entry into
work. Self Help Groups, Mothers’ Groups etc. can be brought in as monitoring mechanisms from within the
community. Group meetings could be conducted to sensitize them towards the need to keep vigil on previously
working children and ensuring that they go to school.

The local bodies can also be involved. Actions to be taken for awareness and social mobilization -

§ Launching special anti Child Labor campaign through radio, Television, local cable channels by using the
material developed by International Labor Organization.
§ Organizing rallies of school going children and youth groups.
§ Training children about consequences of child labor.
§ Developing awareness among employers, parents and young workers about labor laws.
§ Disseminating message of anti child labor through various ways like printing on electricity bills, tax bills,
writing on State Transport buses etc.
§ Giving award to District Collector whose district is child labour free.
§ Conducting awareness sessions in the meetings of Trade Unions for enhancing education of the children.
§ Obtain an undertaking while granting any license/permission from the applicant to the effect that
he/she should not engage child labour; in case of violation cancel the license/permission.
§ Employers’ Association to influence the members not to employ child labour.
§ Employers’ Association to sponsor schemes in rehabilitation of child labourers.

COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION & MEDIA

The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 confers Constitutional status on the Panchayati Raj Institutions
(PRIs). The Constitution provides for devolution of powers and responsibilities upon Panchayats at appropriate
level. Keeping with the vision of the Constitution (Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth Amendment) Act, 1992, SSA has
made adequate provision for community involvement in facilitating the implementation of various aspects of the
programme. Experiences of earlier programmes like BEP, DPEP have also reinforced the role of community in
education. It has been envisaged under SSA that the Panchayats, VSS and other community forums both in rural &
urban areas, would complement each other by creating a strong base at the grassroots level for community
participation in the education scenario.
The huge task of UEE cannot be achieved without active involvement of community. That is why; in SSA great
emphasis is laid on Community Mobilization. Bihar Education Project has consistently and consciously included
community participation and environment building in its strategy. Education is, undoubtedly, an integral part of the
process of social transformation. Emergence of the “Bihar State VSS Act 2000 " regarding constitution of VSS with
every school and other statutory character has been perceived as an outcome of the ongoing empowerment exercise
for community.
The community is expected to play a key role in micro-planning, especially in the development of Village/Habitation
level plan and School Improvement Plans. Community based monitoring in specific issues like enrolment, retention,
education of girl child and other disadvantaged groups, utilization of various grants and construction is important
to ensure attainment of the programme objectives. Communities can be involved in programme implementation
through following key activities:
Empowerment of community;
Generate community awareness towards education;
Involve community in micro level planning;
Involve community in monitoring & supervision; and
Construction & maintenance of school infrastructure.
COMMUNITY BASED REHABILITATION AND MICRO – PLANNING

COMMUNITY BASED REHABILITATION

Home Based services are provided to those children/adults who are unable to come due to severity of their disability.
Physiotherapy, Activity of Daily Living skill transfer apart from guiding the families are key components of
community based intervention. Multi Purpose Rehabilitation Workers and special educators regularly interact with
community and support them attaining independence.
Important point in both above approaches is that we do not believe in putting child in special setup for ever. At the earliest
opportunity, when she gains basic functional skills, AKJ tries to integrate them in regular school or curriculum. Last year
37 children appeared for National Institute for Open Schooling exams and passed smoothly. Objective here is to explore
full potential of child as well as get some certification for her.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PARTICIPATION & AWARENESS

Objectives:
To create consciousness on the rights of children and women.
To ensure access to schools for all children and ensure that all children of school going age attend school.
To retain all children in the schools.
To remove prevailing superstitions and myths in women and children.
To ensure that women have access to decision making and a choice to different livelihood options.
To form peer groups with women and children who would activate / facilitate change in their families and
surroundings.
Major Activities:

The major activities planned for the purpose are:

@ A Rapid Participatory Assessment of the area for baseline indicators
@ Community mobilization and formation of groups of women and children
@ Interactive and participatory approach with the target groups
@ Quality education for children based on skill learning activities
@ Campaigns and workshops & Holding one-to-one interactions
@ Setting up of Community Learning Centers and Community Resource Centers for attending to the
educational needs of vulnerable children in the community
@ De-education and re-education programme for women on their rights and literacy
@ The project would work with young women in the area to form ‘Peer Advocate Corps’ with skills of
leadership, education and consciousness on their rights and responsibilities
@ Children groups would be formed on different issues as sports, environment protection, green rights, etc.
@ A mid-term review needs to be done at organization cost

Methodology:

A Rapid Participatory Assessment of the area for baseline indicators

Community mobilization
Interactive and participatory approach with the target groups
Campaigns and workshops & Holding one-to-one interviews
De-education and re-education programme for women
Quality education for children based on skill learning activities
The participants asked about the type of involvement this project would expect from the members of
the Municipality. Thereafter the roles of the Municipality as per the following guidelines were
discussed in detail:
v Helping in the selection of the target area and population
v Facilitating of the implementation schedule of the work based on the situational analysis
v Helping in the identification of venues and making them available - free space for learning centres.
v Providing venue for the trainings and meetings and organizing workshop
v Facilitating the work with the formal schools/Municipal Schools
v Active participation in every programme
v Facilitating sharing of the programme report by IPER from time to time.
Pre-Selection Teachers’ Training programme

A Four-day Pre-Selection Teachers’ Training programme was conducted by IPER under the Project with the
identified women who had the required qualification and showed potentiality and interest in working in the Project
at the Community Learning Centers and Adult Literacy Centers.

Community Learning Centers

Presently the 5 Community Learning Centers are running in the 4 Municipal Wards with nearly 200+ children. The
first Teachers’ Orientation has taken place and community meetings are held regularly.
Preparation of IEC Materials for the community is on. Health Education classes for the children are being taken by
health educators in the 5 Community Learning Centers.

District Primary Education Council, South 24 Parganas

A meeting with the Chairman of the District Primary Education Council, South 24 Parganas, seeking permission to
hold orientation programme with the teachers from the 9 Schools in the selected areas of the Municipality. The
purpose of this training would be to ensure retention of children in the schools and facilitate quality education in the
schools. This training would be held from time to time and would require participation of at least 15 to 18 teachers
from these schools.

BOOKS REFERRED

& National Policy on Education towards an Enlightened and Humane Society.