School-Based Education Improvement Initiatives : The Experience and Options for Sri Lanka
Most developing countries following independence opted for strong central control and direction of the education system, partly because of limited resources and the need to plan carefully and partly because of a felt need to create a sense of natio...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/05/17723819/school-based-education-improvement-initiatives-experience-options-sri-lanka http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16561 |
| Summary: | Most developing countries following
independence opted for strong central control and direction
of the education system, partly because of limited resources
and the need to plan carefully and partly because of a felt
need to create a sense of national unity among diverse
ethnic and linguistic groups. This meant that key areas of
control and decision making, such as management of resources
and personnel, curriculum, evaluation of performance, and
accountability, were under central rather than local
control. The empowerment of schools has two major
components: school-based management and the involvement of
parents and communities in the work of schools. The emphasis
given to one or other of these components depends on general
national policy, local traditions, and context, with the
result that almost every system is unique when one considers
who makes decisions, the actual decisions that are made, the
nature of those decisions, the level at which they are made,
and relationships between levels. Thus, there are
'strong' and 'weak' versions of school
empowerment. In some, only a single area of autonomy is
granted to schools, while in others the community management
of schools, even the establishment of schools, is encouraged
(World Bank, 2007). In this paper, the author will briefly
outline the history of school empowerment in Sri Lanka with
particular reference to the Program for School Improvement
(PSI), which commenced in 2006. The final section of the
paper contains suggestions designed to strengthen process of
empowering Sri Lankan schools and improving education outcomes. |
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