Human Development 22872 175 405ONAL ___ January 2001 0 ° ,p Findings reports on ongoing operational, economic, and sector work carried out by the World Bank and its member governments in the Africa Region. It is published periodically by the Knowledge WIWOR L D BA N K and Leaming Center on behalf of the Region. The views expressed in Findings are those of the author/s and should not be attributed to the World Bank Group. Madagascar: A Developmental IVN ANID @Approach to Cmut-ad School Management O n ver the past seven years, the tual impact was negligible. With World r V Government of Madagascar Bank support, and prompted by the U ) has focused on involving communi- results of an education sector study, ties in controlling their own primary a team of innovatory decision-mak- Adolk schools. With the support of the ers initiated, in 1994, a pilot program World Bank, the Ministry of Educa- centered on community- and school- tion (MOE) has developed and imple- based approaches. The program mented principles, strategies and was initiated in two districts located procedures that move towards this in one of the six provinces, and later objective. Implementation is ad- expanded to 20 districts (out of 111 i _ dressed in the framework of the in- in total) in all six provinces. The posi- volvement of village communities not tive results prompted the govern- only in the rehabilitation, construc- ment to adopt, in 1997, the basic tion, and maintenance of primary principles of that approach and to schools, but also In their manage- generalize its implementation across ment and supervision. all sub-sectors as part of the National Plan for the Development of Educa- WW @Context tion. Since 1998, donors have adopted this approach which is now In the early 1990s, enrollment in pri- in use in more than half of all dis- mary education in Madagascar was tricts in the country. declining as a result of lack of invest- t _ ment, deteriorating quality and de- Decentralization and the moralization of parents and teach- continuing role of the state ers. Over 2,500 public primary The State has a primary role in the -| -- ~ mp schools were closed, mostly due to reduction of inequality the definition _ lack of teachers, and almost all of sadrsand the develon 13,500 schools needed major re- of a framework of policies and mea- pairs. Schools lacked educational material and professional support. sures which support the major ob- materials and professional support jectives of the country. Within this 5JJ Most of all, they lacked the supportcotx,hestrapliyfrr- of teir ommuitie. Beween1992context, the sectoral policy for pri- _~~~~m of their communities. Between 1992 mr dcto nMdgsa dn " " ~~and 1993, despite courageous cen- mr dcto nMdgsa dn _~~~n 193hept ouaeu e-tfies three major tasks: (a) the ur- tral decisions by the MOE, their ac- gency of improving access to primary school for all children; (b) the need ate - and only - locus of institutional "had no education" (sic) and who to improve the quality of learning, strength to lead the innovation. From could not possibly express an opin- teaching and training at all levels; this point, an attempt was made to ion about what was needed to make and, (c) the need to mobilize a part- include the entire administrative their school better; nership with parents and commu- structure at district and sub-district * the ability to respond to the needs. nities, beneficiaries, and the private levels, thereby empowering and pro- Many projects, initiatives or pro- sector. gressively involving the District Offic- grams have created enthusiasm and The major instrument which ers, the Sub-district Supervisors, the hope, but have failed to deliver. The Madagascar chose to achieve these School Heads, teachers and commu- innovators needed to follow through objectives was a community- and nities. A well-established system of and respond quickly - although not school-based program. The goal was Parent Teacher Associations was uti- fully and on all accounts - to local to involve the community in the tasks lized, dating back to the "ecole needs. A clear statement of what each of basic education; namely, to allow communale" which existed until the partner was expected or able to con- every child to acquire the basic tools early 1960s. tribute was required, along with a of reading, writing, speaking, under- This innovation was based on the clear presentation and discussion of standing, counting, and calculating strong belief that change would expectations; and, in order to integrate into society, and happen only if it were designed, * the ability to mediate conflicting to develop the ability for continued internalized and mastered by the needs or demands on limited re- education. The realization of this goal primary players. This was a major sources. implied an important and sustained departure from the strategic choices effort at changing knowledge, atti- made by other groups (e.g. NGOs or A "systemic" view or perspective. tudes and behavior, and even the way micro-projects) which selected a From the beginning, a clear strategic in which educational processes and number of key respondents and choice was made by the authorities partner involvement were conceived. schools, often outside the "formal" to work in all schools of a District, system. rather than in just a few schools. Principles of the program Needs are determined at the Thus, the approach reflected a de- school level. This new paradigrn was liberate effort on behalf of the gov- Collaboration between the Govern- based on respect for the values of the ernment to improve education at the ment of Madagascar and the Bank local community, broadly in line with systemic level. It signaled to the Dis- was based on five key guiding prin- national goals. There were clear ten- trict Officers that all schools in the ciples. sions between these two, which district were equally important, and needed to be sensitively worked that education was not a matter of The use of existing structures. Both through. This principle permeated choosing one school over another, the government and the Bank were many aspects of the innovation, in- but a matter of all schools and/or convinced that the only realistic cluding: communities being offered the means to secure Universal and Pri- chance to participate in the program. mary Education were to use social * initial visits to listen to the com- A working contract. There are at capital and existing networks of vil- munity about the problems encoun- least two main characteristics of lage communities in the construc- tered, their assessment of their own school-based contracts. First, all par- tion, maintenance, management and needs, and their preferred solutions; ties are expected to bring their ex- supervision of their own schools. * the development of attitudes - pertise (needs-based, listening mode, This strategy required the estab- mainly listening - and their impli- everybody has the right to express lishment of a task force within a pi- cations on behavior. At the beginning, opinions), their views (the image of lot regional directorate, which was various quarters criticized the very the school in one, two or three years), initially seen as the most appropri- validity of listening to peasants who their resources (commitnent to send children to school, labor, money), and test a message that was then used in The school improvement plan their commitment to action. Second, on-the-job training of district and further investment depended on ini- local staff. As a result, a brief pre- The school improvement plan's bot- tial actions by the local community. sentation was developed on the pro- tom-up approach included: (a) the For example, the first visit to the lo- cess of collaboration between the au- construction or rehabilitation of cal community resulted in an agree- thorities and each community, in- classrooms, latrines, water points, ment on a few, practical actions for cludingthe range offactorswhich can and teacher houses; (b) the provi- implementation by the community. be included in a school contract and sion of classroom furniture or equip- At the beginning of the second visit, the roles and responsibilities of the ment; (c) training or professional de- an assessment was made of achieve- ministry at each level. velopment for staff, including mem- ments of earlier commitments, and This first phase was followed by bers of the School Council, the Head a decision made on the pursuit of community mobilization and of train- Teacher, and teachers; (d) follow-up the process. ing, including meetings and work- of the implementation of the contract; A holistic approach toproblem-solv- shops, visits to schools, and ex- and (e) evaluation of the results, i.e. ing and management, coupled with changes on information and points improvements in enrollment and an experiential mode of learning. of view. It aimed at empowering par- learning of pupils. The local "champions" of the inno- ents, village leaders, and other re- The contract also specified the vation examined a wide range of de- sponsible locals to take responsibil- commitments of the local commu- cisions to be made in all dimensions ity for education in their school. nity to the school in the form of: (a) of management. For example, the Di- Experience shows that such meet- the provision of basic materials; (b) rector of the pilot Regional Office and ings focus on issues such as poor the payment of part of the labor costs, his team re-structured the Regional enrollment or attendance by pupils in kind or in money; and (c) partici- Office to set an example and to test and teachers, drop-out and repeti- pation in the management of the the feasibility of reassigning staff tion, lack of parental involvement, schools. Furthermore, it specified the where they were most needed, includ- accountability of teachers and local commitments of the Head Teacher ing in the schools themselves. The authorities, as well as other mem- and staff, such as to respect school program rapidly involved a broad bers of the administration, and poor schedules, to prepare the necessary range of decisions, including staffing, physical condition and educational tests, to mark work in a fair and ob- posting, assignments, supervision resources of the school. jective manner, and to ensure the and inspection of schools, teacher Each community was invited to set cleanliness and maintenance of the training, and provision and distri- up a representative School Council. school. bution of educational materials. Representatives included the Head Equally, it covered the commit- Teacher, all other teachers, parents, ments of the district and regional The process of information and village members. The role of su- authorities, such as to ensure a suf- and mobilization pervisors and advisors was to facili- ficient number of teachers of a given tate the mobilization of the School quality for the school, to provide con- Ruesearchindiscatolpesfhataceadem Council and then to help draw up a struction materials and technical as- sfunccss and schoolmperformae aore school contract. In creating such a sistance for the construction or re- ahus furnctioningtheidea of comtuport, contract, based on community needs habilitation of the classrooms, to ingthus strengthen the ideal ofmretur- and availability of resources, each vil- provide educational advisory and nity. Indispensableto this strategyi lage was encouraged to reorganize it- support services to the teachers, to npty.aIndispensable tothisuitystrarte - I self and to recognize the central and ensure a regular follow-up of the preparahdistribution of the iuni tarti local authorities' role in the trans- functioning of the school, and to pay ing withrdistributionly, oe iormional formation and improvement of their the teachers regularly and on time at and training. Initially, the regional school. a place which is nearest to the school. team visited a number of schools to In their task, the parties had the charged with undertaking a series of On the basis of this feedback, the support of the Ministry and its local at least flve visits to each school, in ministry prepares at the end of each staff. The services were incorporated order to: (a) mobilize and sensitize school year a critical review of the into a work plan for the district and the local community and co-ordinate strategy's effectiveness as well as a sub-districts. Such programs in- the preparation, the design and the program to update and improve it, cluded inter aia: (a) visits to sensi- finalisation of the school contract; (b) in order to improve the following tize the local community and to as- collect and harmonize the proposed year's program and approach. This sist in the establishment of the interventions, prioritize the requests review is accompanied by an estimate school council and school contract; for assistance in order to match them of the resources required for the next (b) on-the-job training for staff; (c) with the avallable budget and, if nec- year's program, includingboth invest- inspection and advisory visits, as well essary, arbitrate amongst communi- ment and recurrent expenditure, as as training associated with the pro- ties, revise the original contracts in well as human and material re- vision of textbooks and educational consultation with the school coun- sources needed. The review is shared support materials; and, (d) evalua- cils and proceed to the signature of with the donors in order to enlist tion visits to test the children's the contract; (c) support visits to the their support for the continuation of achievement and performance of the community during the beginning of the government's program. Head and teachers. the work and the preparation of the implementation schedule, as well as Approval, follow-up, the detailed planning of activities; (d) and evaluation ascertain the state of implementation of the contract and to supervise the The approval, implementation, fol- site; and finally (e) through evalua- low-up and evaluation of the school tion visits, collect statistics and criti- For more information, please contracts was carried out by the cal details to prepare reports for the e-mail Daniel Viens: ministry through the services of the ministry. Dviens@worldbank.org District Office staff. They were Findings Findings would also be of interest to: _ * Name Institution Letters, comments, and requests for publications not Address available at the World Bank Bookstore should be addressed to: Editor, Findings Operational Quality and Knowledge Services Africa Region, The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Room J-5-055 Washington, D.C. 20433 e-mail: pmohan@worldbank.org