Education Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2007
Journal
Canadian and International Education
Volume
36
Issue
1
First Page
93
Last Page
116
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2703-0_10
Abstract
Many countries have decentralized their education systems. In some countries, especially developing countries, educational decentralisation is part of a larger exercise of devolving all public services. In sub-Saharan Africa, the factors that encourage centralization include positive effects such as political stability and economic development, as well as push factors like existing regional inequalities and inadequacies, real and perceived, of central governments. Donor communities are encouraging these poor countries to decentralize and/or privatize public services. Among these countries, Uganda has proceeded quickly in an almost-all-at-once decentralisation strategy. The current Ugandan government administered some decentralisation in the areas under its control in the early 1980s while it was still a guerilla force called the National Resistance Movement. After it came to power in 1986, the government adopted country-wide decentralisation, cost sharing and privatization as policies sup- ported by multinational donor agencies, such as the World Bank (WB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). To date, most government-administered services (except a few, such as the police and the army) that have not yet been privatized are decentralized. These include primary healthcare, education, basic services in water and sanitation, feeder roads and agricultural extension. Decentralisation has changed the delivery of public services, particularly education.
Citation of this paper:
Namukasa, I. K.,& Buye, R. (2007). Decentralization and Education in Africa: The Case of Uganda. Canadian and International Education, 36(1), 93–116.
