Educational decentralisation in Zimbabwe and Malawi: A study of decisional location and process

Debates about decentralisation, involving questions such as who should make decisions about public schooling and who should pay for it [Caillods, F., 1999. Preface. In: McGinn, N., Welsh, T. (Eds.), Decentralization of Education: Why, When, What and How? UNESCO, Paris] have permeated and affected educational planning in the last 20 or so years. This paper reports on and draws lessons from two pieces of work: an empirical study on the locus of decentralised decision-making power among Zimbabwean school heads, teachers and parent school governors in the areas of school finances, human resources and curriculum; and on a review of one article on the process of educational decentralisation in Malawi. Cross-national studies are necessary in this age of the internationalisation of education. The paper reveals that the process of educational decentralisation, and stakeholders’ perceptions of the locus of decentralised decision-making power are contested issues. There is no automatic link between decentralisation and the improvement of quality. The level of clarity of the guiding policy (ies), the capacity of the stakeholders, and the availability of resources are important deciders of the success or failure of educational decentralisation.