Towards Good Governance in Basic Education

BY: YASMIN KHODARY

AUGUST/2014

TOWARDS GOOD GOVERNANCE

IN BASIC EDUCATION: A CASE

STDUY OF FAYOUM

GOVERNORATE

GOVERNORATE

The January 25th

and June 30th

revolutions witnessed

the outcry of the Egyptians against corruption, lack of

transparency, weak accountability and other similar

manifestations of poor governance in general and in

specific sectors related to their daily life, such as

education, health and water and sanitation. Those

manifestations of poor governance seriously barricade

the effective mobilization and allocation of resources

needed for development and for the achievement of the

Millennium Development Goals.

Due to the importance of good governance, the

Social Contract Center (SCC) carried out an

assessment of good governance in basic education

(along with two other sectors: primary health and

water and sanitation) in an attempt to evaluate the

degree to which basic education service providers

apply the principles of good governance (i.e.

efficiency, effectiveness, responsiveness, equity, rule

of law, transparency, anti-corruption, accountability

and participation). The assessment, which has been

carried out for the first time in Egypt, uses nationally

owned indicators that were developed in consultation

with stakeholders from government, private sector and

civil society in order to better reflect the Egyptian

economic, social, institutional and political context.

This policy brief introduces the main findings of

the "Governance in Basic Education" assessment

and provides evidence-based advice and

recommendations to improve the governance

related performance of the basic education sector

and eventually improve the service delivery to

citizens in this sector.

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Good Governance is the good

management of all state institutions that

ensures the adoption of 9 principles within all

institutions' policies and practices.

Such Principles are: Efficiency, Effectiveness,

Responsiveness, Equity, Rule of Law,

Transparency, Anti-corruption, Accountability

and Participation of all stakeholders.

Without good governance in the education, the

blooms of education and education reforms

will not fully and effectively trigger down to

the poor and marginalized groups.

.

The 2009 UNESCO “Education for All” Global

Monitoring Report asserts that inefficiency and

poor governance in education in Bangladesh,

for instance, resulted in geographical and

social gabs in the quality of educational

services and the accessibility to them.

Many literatures trace the decline in Egypt's

development indicators to the decline in

education-related indicators. It is, therefore,

essential to monitor the performance of the

education sector in order to observe the degree

to which it is capable of boosting the

development process.

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On a scale that ranges from zero to 100 degrees, where

zero is the lowest degree and 100 is the highest, governance

in basic education in Fayoum Governorate scored 50.5

degrees. This overall score reflects the average of degrees it

received for the 9 principles of good governance. While the

degrees of Equity (87.1), Efficiency (79.0) and Rule of Law

(65.6) were the highest, the degrees of Participation (5.3),

Accountability (16.3) and responsiveness to the needs of

students and their parents (30.0) were the lowest.

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Methodology

The findings of the assessment are based on a

household survey for a sample of 3000 households

representing districts, rural and urban areas of Fayoum

Governorate. The overall number of students surveyed

within the sample is 1741 students. Throughout the

survey, SCC cooperated with the Central Agency for

Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) for

withdrawing the sample, the Local Development

Observatory (Ministry of Local Development) for

facilitating fieldwork, and the Local Information

Centers in Fayoum for collecting the survey data.

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TOWARDS GOOD GOVERNANCE IN

BASIC EDUCATION: A CASE STDUY

OF FAYOUM GOVERNORATE

The main policy recommendation suggests improving good

governance in basic education through enhancing the

principles which scored the lowest degrees in the index (i.e.

Participation, Accountability and Responsiveness). In

addition, though 'Transparency' was not among the principles

scoring the lowest degrees, the policy recommendations still

address it because it has a positive multiplier effect on the rest

of the principles, such as anti-corruption, rule of law,

effectiveness, etc… Therefore, it is rewarding to boost the

level of transparency and access to information.

87.1

79.0

65.6

64.8

56.1

50.3

30.0

16.3

5.3

50.5

0 20 40 60 80 100

Equity

Effeciency

Rule of Law

Transparancy

Effectiveness

Anti-corruption

Reseponsiveness

Accountability

Participation

Overall Governance Indicator

The Governance in Basic Education in Fayoum Index*

Good Governance Principles

1- Efficiency: Providing the service at the lowest cost

and in the least time possible.

2- Effectiveness: Providing high quality service in

addition to customer satisfaction.

3-Responsiveness: Responding to citizens’ needs,

demands and complaints.

4-Equity: Providing the service with no discrimination

on any basis and according to equal opportunities.

5-Rule of Law: Availability and implementation of

laws and regulations organizing the service provision.

6- Transparency: Availability and accessibility to

information.

7-Anti-Corruption: Availability and implementation

of anti-corruption procedures and mechanisms.

8-Accountability: Availability of mechanisms and

institutions to hold the service providers accountable.

9- Participation: Effective engagement of citizens in

planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

* The Governance Index is the average value of all principles of good

governance (Efficiency, Effectiveness, Responsiveness, etc…). Each

principle is composed of a set of indicators and sub indicators.

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The degree of participation (5.3) is the lowest among the

governance principles. It reflected extremely low levels of

participation by students and their parents in the financial and

educational matters related to the school (7.5) or related to the

Ministry of Education and its directorate (0.8). Most of the

students and their parents were unable to express their opinion

or evaluate the school administration, teachers, activities,

premises or facilities. In addition, students and their parents

rarely took part in students unions and the school boards of

trustees, which are the two main mechanisms of participation.

The degree of accountability (16.3) is the second lowest

among the governance principles. It reflected the absolute

inability of students and their parents to hold the school staff

and policies accountable (1.3) in addition to their overall low

knowledge of the available internal or external agencies and

entities responsible for monitoring education service providers

or holding them accountable and their sense or perception of

their existence and their role (31.3).

The degree of Responsiveness (30.0) is the third lowest

among the governance principles. It reflected the low degree

of responsiveness by both the school (25.9) and the Ministry

of Education and its directorate on the local levels (34.1) to

the needs and problems of the students or their parents. This

included responding to the needs and complains properly and

timely and having in place enough mechanisms of complains.

The degree of Transparency (64.8) reflected the

availability of channels for communicating information (e.g.

the school administration and teachers, newspapers, T.V and

Radio), however, with a low level of really using these

channels to disseminate information that are: financial (e.g.

school budget and tuition fees (42.0), the education overall

budget (4.9)) or study related information (e.g. monthly grades

of students, school start date, vacations, etc…).

Main Findings of the Governance Assessment in Basic Education

Lack of participation by students in the

students unions and by parents in the

boards of trustees is traced to: the apathy

by students and parents (possibly because

the two entities are neglected by the

school and are ineffective), the direct

selection by the school administration of

their members and lack of transparency

in communicating the timings of their

elections and other information.

The respondents' knowledge of the available

entities in charge of holding education

service providers accountable was limited.

Their knowledge of external entities, such

as students unions and boards of trustees

was extremely weak (1.3) compared to

their knowledge of internal entities (45.1)

(e.g. Ministry of education).

TOWARDS GOOD GOVERNANCE IN

BASIC EDUCATION: A CASE STDUY

OF FAYOUM GOVERNORATE

According to the survey, the main

unsatisfied need for the respondents is the

availability of secondary schools (general

or technical), females' friendly schools

and classes for disabled.

It is worth noting that one of the best

mechanisms for complaining reported by

the respondents is holding meetings with

the schools' staff.

Increasing accessibility to information and

enhancing levels of transparency are very

important as they reduce corruption,

enable citizens to better know and practice

their rights and assist them to hold service

providers accountable on the basis of their

roles and responsibilities.

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1) Enhancing partnerships (and participation) through: a) facilitating all procedures to allow civil society and

private sector to participate in the educational process either by constructing schools, restoring or building fences or

donating lands), and b) ensuring that students unions and boards of trustees (which are considered excellent arenas

for effective practice of democracy and citizenship) are playing their roles in planning, implementation and

monitoring and evaluation. This requires the educational directorate to better supervise students unions and boards

of trustees and guarantee their roles are being played, announcing publicly and transparently their election dates,

processes and results and providing incentives for parents to participate in the boards of trustees (e.g. inviting them

to the governorate club, etc…).

2) Increasing supervision and accountability through: a) establishing clear and transparent rules for

appointments, increasing supervision over schools especially during the non-morning periods in order to ensure

better quality of education, b) increasing citizens' awareness of entities responsible for holding service providers

accountable, especially bodies other than Ministry of Education such as the boards of trustees and the students

unions, and c) ensuring that schools' administrations apply self-assessment mechanisms that give space for students

and parents to express their opinion or evaluate the school and its roles/facilities.

3) Responding better to the needs and complaints of students and their parents: this does not necessarily

require establishment of new schools, but may include, for example: a) arranging with the local unit to have cheap

and safe transportation to schools and more secured environment around schools, b) considering redistributing

available teachers among the schools to ensure the existence of teachers for activities and all other classes, which

may require some training or rehabilitation for teachers, c) paying special attention to 1st, 2

nd, and 3

rd grades in

primary education by training teachers in those grades or by achieving a more efficient allocation of teachers for

those grades, d) placing emphasis on school activities and providing adequate number of teachers for them, e)

encouraging schools to establish small projects that serve the village in addition to generating profit, f) monitoring

the cleanliness of the school buildings and other facilities, especially classrooms and toilets, g) maintaining and

supervising the school feeding program, h) encouraging non-traditional and low-cost but successful solutions (e.g. in

the areas of cheap construction), i) opening new classes for secondary education or for the disabled instead of

building new schools and j) increasing complaints' mechanisms and announcing the steps for handling such

complaints.

4) Enhancing Transparency through: a) increasing access to information related to education, in general, or to the

education budget and schools revenues and expenditures specifically, and b) expanding the use of available

mechanisms to disseminate information related to education. In this regard, school can be perceived as an efficient

mechanism to disseminate information about education vision and plans, students' records, school activities, etc…

chools' tuitions, grades, activities, etc…

Policy Recommendations for better Governance in Basic Education

* 70% of parents reported

that transportation to schools

is expensive, unavailable and

unsafe and that school

activities are inefficient and

insufficient.

In the coming years, it is important to integrate the principles of good governance gradually into

the priorities of education reform. At the current stage, it is recommended to focus on enhancing

the principles of participation and accountability followed by the principles of responsiveness and

transparency as the starting steps to improve the levels of governance in education.

* 30% of parents reported that schools do

not efficiently utilize the resources

available for them.

* 20% of parents reported that the

environment around the schools is unsafe.

* Over 30% of parents were not

satisfied of the school toilets.

* 25% of parents were not satisfied

of the space and cleanliness of the

classrooms and the playground.