Education Decentralisation: A Pathfinder To Increasing Community And Civil Society Participation

Decentralisation is a ubiquitous (universal) word which has diverse connotations depending on one's understanding. The school of thought always been that when you have district, regional and national structures, you have decentralized, which is a clear structure of Ghana's decentralisation per the local government Act (462) but that is not the decentralisation we need as a country.

However, the kind of decentralisation we are asking for is the system where these structures exist and, authority and responsibility in decision making are also transferred (devolved) alongside setting up those structures. That's why we are urging government to adopt not just decentralisation but the devolution type of decentralisation. Decentralisation does not go with authority and responsibility; it only goes with administrative functions.

As part of the ongoing Education Decentralization Roadmap Campaign Project, Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) in collaboration with STAR-GHANA advocates for a more effective management system for public basic education in Ghana.

Currently, Ghana is practicing a deconcentration where all decisions and responsibilities are taken by the central government (Ghana Education Service headquarters in Accra). And when this is allowed to stay, our education system will not be desirable.

The too much concentrated administrative and policy powers of GES needs to be offloaded to the decentralised units. For example, it's a waste of time for a person in the District Education Office or a teacher to travel to Accra for a transfer, promotion, requests for chalk and exercise books and the permission to distribute those items including furniture. The Circuit Supervisors who monitors and examine the work of teachers within the districts have no power to decide who ought or who ought not to be paid salary but GES which has no eye contact with these teachers in the classrooms rather have the power to pay them, these has led to laxity, absenteeism, poor teaching and lack of respect for the school authorities.

The long chain of bureaucracy is such that it takes 8 months for GES in Accra to completely delete the records of a teacher who voluntarily resigns from the teaching profession, meaning that he/she will continue to take his/her salary for up to 8 months although that person is no longer working, but the local authorities who sees all these abnormalities are powerless and therefore, cannot bite. The same applies to new recruits, it takes years for their appointments be recorded into the GES database before any salary can be released.

These chain of bureaucracy has created a forbidden group for quality assurance, we are saying is that, devolve the system to empower district assemblies to take up the responsibilities of managing the educational affairs in the communities because the schools belongs to them. And when that happens, it will empower the district assemblies and encourage the community leaders to get involved in the management of basic education and Junior High Schools.

THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRADE UNIONS UNDER EDUCATION DECENTRALISATION REGIME

The trade unions in Ghana and particularly the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) are known as the strongest unions in Ghana because of the greater number of members. And so they always use their influence to compel the government to satisfy the demands of the members. The current system of education decentralisation allows for the nationalization of unions making them the most influential.

But when the system is properly decentralised to an extend that district assemblies were given the responsibility and authority to recruit and pay teachers, open applications for teachers to apply for recruitment like that of Brazil, Tanzania, Uganda and the rest, the unionization of GNAT, NAGRAT, Coalition of Concerned Teachers Association (CCT) etc will break, they see this as treat to their survival.

And even under the devolution regime, the Ghana Education Service (GES) shall be transferred to the district assemblies called Department of Education, Youth and Sports. And so monies that were transferred from Ministry of Finance to GES headquarters in Accra before the district assemblies go for financial assistants will stop and these monies will be transferred straight to the district assemblies.

Like in other countries, teachers will remain accountable to their districts assemblies and the culture of 'I don't like this district because I didn't choose it' will be a thing of the past.

We must remember that the labour unions in this country exist to serve the aims and interest of their members only. So because of the possible collapse of the front, some leaders of the labour unions behind the camera constantly undermines every effort by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to adopt devolution type of education decentralisation based on their hypocritical and pessimistic views about education decentralisation.

It continue to serve their interest to have some governments that are not interested in the devolution system paying lip service to decentralisation.

Even our very own leaders at GES, who have for so many years enjoyed the luxury of procurement and financial management as it where, also see no reason why such responsibilities be transferred to the district assemblies. So during 2010, efforts were made to develop the Education Strategic Plan (ESP) to come out with a framework and broad roadmap for education decentralisation but these activities are still at an incipient stage.

Considering the legal conflict of the Ghana Education Service Act, 1995 (ACT 506) and the Education Act, 2008 (Act 778). The constitutional review committee recommends that all the legal principles of the local government act and the two conflicting acts be integrated as one law. But the powers that be are also raising issues about funding challenges inorder to carry out that exercise.

GNAT, NAGRAT and the other trade unions have the greater opportunity of ensuring that we have a system that provides quality education otherwise the process will delay until it no more becomes an agenda.

RIGHT TO ACCESS INFORMATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY AND COMMUNITY FOR PARTICIPATION IN EDUCATION DECENTRALISATION

In education decentralisation, and before people can participate actively in the governing structure, the people must have access to information in order to be able to advocate for progress. The ability to advocate for reforms will depends on the ability to access information at the first, so when the system is decentralised, information which normally takes months to obtain from Accra will now be available at the districts assemblies for easy access and for public scrutiny.

Until the Right to Information Bill is passed, there wouldn't be any effective meaning to devolution. So we want a system where CSOs can write a letter to the district education director asking for information on details of receipts of capitation grants for the past year, under the Right to Information Bill which has also suffered time over-runs for the past 6years, such information must be furnished within 21days after request.

So finally, if government want to show that they are committed to devolving education management to achieving better education management, resource efficiency, better learning outcomes, then government will have to ensure that there is a system that provides transparent and accountable governance and beneath that is the Right to Information Bill.

Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC),

National Secretariat,
+233 (0)302521650.