Decentralization of Education: Politics and Consensus

Shree Krishna Panthee

Abstract: This book is prepared by the World Bank in 1996 to share the best practices and experiences for policy makers and practitioners of education. Moreover, it also intends to help donor agencies and NGOs as well. Its purpose is to identify the political dimensions of decentralization. This book covers mainly the case studies of decentralization in some countries, causes of decentralization, justifying decentralization as political agenda, accomplishments of decentralization, importance of stakeholders & #039, consensus and finally the ways of building such consensus. As the reviewer, I believe that the decentralization of schools is a global phenomenon however, globally each country has adopted its own type of decentralization. After collapse of Soviet Union, the discourse on decentralization is found to be heightened. Up to now, the global experiences show that centralized systems of education is not working efficiently and effectively as compare to the decentralized systems of education.

Keywords: consensus, decentralization, deconcentration, devolution, transformation