Recently, Ukraine crossed the 6th anniversary after the Revolution of Dignity. Many people in the U.S. have asked me Was it worth it? The deaths? The tears? The stress? And the events that unfolded? As a person who stood in the cold winter 6 years ago demanding freedom, democratic governance, and redistribution of power (which was heavily centralized and held in hands of a bunch of kleptocrats), I cannot usually answer in one word. But has life changed back home? Have you received what you demanded?
Well, one of the reforms considered to be the most successful is decentralization which correlates with the aspirations of people and the EU subsidiarity principle. As I was working in the field of education, I couldn’t help but notice that redistributing power to the communities has led to many small and big changes. As big as the creation of flourishing communities with active engagement of citizens and good local governance, rebuilding schools, increased engaging of stakeholders, and at some places as little as questioning the status quo. Change is not linear.
However, as a person who is coming from society with low-trust to the government, I always aim to stay critical and keep my eyes wide open. What do we mean under decentralization, specifically in education? To which extent the schools and communities perceive that they are in charge of education? Is it only administrative and fiscal autonomy or might they influence the content of what is taught at schools? Where do the drawbacks lay?
As the decentralization in Ukraine is still in the process, let us explore why decentralization failed some places.
De jure decentralization, de facto centralization
While “decentralization” is often coming with the package of reforms backed by international donors, it is hard for governments to say “no” as funding from IGOs could be the alternative source for social system funding. Meanwhile, the decentralization in authoritarian states in the Middle East failed due to the desire to keep power in the hands of political elites.
The critical behavior to observe: how much control the central government still has over communities?
Legitimacy of new political elites
Georgian effort for decentralization failed institutionalization as a new political elite came to power. Despite the successful establishment of local school boards, the increasing involvement of parents and teachers into education decision-making which led to more autonomy, new government came after Rose Revolution in 2003 aimed to dislocate themselves from the “old” government, disrupting the process which began in the 1990s.
The question to ask: what preventive mechanisms exist for local communities to protect their self-governance?
Partial decentralization & exhausting self-agency
What if decentralization in education is a manipulated consensus which directed to administration and managerial functions and has little to do with the essence of education, its content, and curriculum, local decision-making? Some researchers pointing out that administrative decentralization (fiscal, managerial) helps central governments to mitigate conflicts. What happens in the local community should be resolved on the spot and the local governance to be blamed. However, the central government has an influence on what is taught at schools by accountability systems, curriculum approvals, etc.. In this situation, the societal expectation for decentralization and uniqueness of learning experience is high, however, real power remains outside of local control.
The question to be asked: what do we now are decentralized and what do we want to be in charge of?
References:
Anchan, J. P., Fullan, M., & Polyzoi, E. (Eds.). (2003). Change forces in post-communist Eastern Europe : Education in transition. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Niyozov, S. (2008) How NGOs React: Globalization and Education Reform in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Mongolia (Iveta Silova & Gita Steiner-Khamsi, eds., 2008), Curriculum Inquiry, 38:4, 477-482, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-873X.2008.00426.x
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