POPULAR PARTICIPATION MOBILIZATION AND DECENTRALIZATION FOR EDUCATION FOR ALL
I. OPPORTUNITY AND CHALLENGE Because basic learning needs are complex and diverse, meeting them requires multisectoral strategies and action which are integral to overall development efforts. Many partners must join with the education authorities, teachers, and other educational personnel in developing basic education if it is to be seen, once again, as the responsibility of the entire society. This implies the active involvement of a wide range of partners- families, teachers, communities, private enterprises (including those involved in information and communication), government and nongovernmental organizations, institutions, etc. in planning, managing and evaluating the many forms of basic education. (World Declaration on Education for All, Framework of Action, Principles of Action Ao 11).
The 1990s are likely to be characterized as the decade in which a new global ethic for children began to emerge, An unprecedented period of activism in the international community in Support of human development is beginning to be seen as the landmark of the decade.
The World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand, March 1990) was the global platform for proclaiming the urgent need for action to redress the denial of basic education to intolerably large numbers of the world's children and adults. Access to basic education for all and achievement of a functional and sustainable level of learning and life skills by a large majority -- at least 80 per cent was the suggested target - were regarded as the criteria for universalization.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child that made free and compulsory primary education an obligation of the state and the right of all children came into effect in September 1990. Since then, over 150 countries have ratified the Convention, more than for any other human rights treaty.
The World Summit for Children, the first truly global summit meeting, established a range of social development goals including universal access to primary education and completion of the primary cycle by at least 80 per cent of those enrolled. Over a hundred countries have been re-examining their national priorities and strategies for basic education in the wake of the Jomtien Conference and the Summit for Children; most have prepared national programmes of action to accelerate progress. Regional forums of governments, several at the level of heads of state and government, have endorsed the global goals and some have adopted regional decade and mid-decade targets.
The World Summit for Social Development scheduled for 1995 will be another major occasion for world leaders to take stock of progress and constraints, to
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intensify the efforts to reach landmark social targets by the year 2000, and to maintain the momentum into the 21 st century.
The Education For All Summit of nine high population countries, representing over half of the global population, is in keeping with the new consensus and activism at the international level by national leaders on social and human development priorities. The preparatory process has already helped to energize national efforts in EFA and to draw increased international attention to the need for accelerating the pace of progress. The Declaration of Principles and the Framework for Action expected to be adopted by the leaders of the nine countries will be a powerful instrument for advocacy and mobilization in the hands of national leaders and all activists in the cause of education for all in each country and internationally.
The increased worldwide attention now being paid to education for all presents a new opportunity and poses the challenge for broadening and deepening people's participation, mobilization of the whole society and bringing authority and decision-making closer to communities and families in each country in support of education goals.
II. INTER-RELATED AND OVERLAPPING CONCEPTS The educational system should not be regarded as a branch of the bureaucracy. Instead, it should be a subsystem highly interactive with all other parts of the social whole, The point is to give pupils, parents and teachers responsibility over their own affairs, to the point of enabling them to administer the educational system on their own within the context of natural or contractual communities, This assumption of responsibility must necessarily embrace three
indispensable areas: participating In design and decision-making processes; regular, structured involvement in the processes of management and evaluation; and finally, financial accountability with regard to both Income and contributions (Ki-Zerbo, 1990, p. 86).
The terms participation, mobilization and decentralization have become common in current education and development parlance all over the world. They all refer to the same general category of needs. In the context of education, these needs are to define educational development in terms of people's real priorities and demands, to unleash the energies and resources of people and society to make education a concern and a task of the whole society, and to create conditions and institutional environments for people to articulate their goals and priorities in education and to make their contribution to educational development. These three terms together constitute the key elements of a framework for promoting and assessing progress in educational development.
People's participation is a sine qua non in education for all. By definition, education for all must engage people widely and actively as beneficiaries and contributors. But even more, participation, in its various dimensions, has come to be
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recognized as a basic principle of action, an overall development strategy, in national development efforts including educational development. It is both a means and an end of development. As a principle that guides action, participation derives its rationale from values and goals that are important in most societies, such as:
* accepting democratic practices and values as a way of organizing society;
* giving a prominent role to institutions of civil society in the nation's governance;
* giving people the chance to participate in events and processes that shape their life;
* liberating people's energy, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit;
* equitable access to opportunities of life including essential social services such as basic education.
Participation To participate literally means being part of something. But there are various ways and degrees of "being part of" or "taking part in": (1) use a particular service; (2) contribute resources, materials and/or labor; (3) attend; (4) be consulted on a particular issue; (5) get involved in the delivery of the service; (6) take part in the implementation of delegated powers; (7) take part in decision-making, On the other hand, it has been argued that "the participation issue is not so much a problem of degree or quantity but rather of the quality of such participation" (Coraggio, 1991:218). It is also stressed that participation is "not only an agreement to follow but an active decision to assume responsibility in considering the rationale, implications and potential outcomes" of any particular process (Bernard, 1990, in Shaeffer, 1992, p.8).
Participation, if understood as an empowering and formative experience, may enable people to: (a) gain knowledge, awareness and democratic experience, as well as self-confidence, self-reliance, pride and autonomy; (b) take action to solve their own problems; (c) gain control of their own lives; and (d) gain social and political power (Shaeffer, 1992).
In the context of basic education, therefore, participation is an expression of the overall development strategy of recognizing the critical role of people's collective action in the broad range of political, social and economic arenas.
Mobilization in the context of basic education refers to active involvement of all relevant sectors of society in promoting and supporting education, Social mobilization, therefore, is a manifestation of the principle of participation through organized and systematic actions.
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Social mobilization Social mobilization is a broad-scale movement to engage large numbers of people in action for achieving a specific development goal through self-reliant efforts. It is a planned process that seeks to facilitate change and development. It takes into account the felt needs of the people, embraces the critical principle of community involvement, and seeks to empower individuals for action, (Ling and Hewett, 1992, p.1).
The martial overtone of the term social mobilization is not accidental. It reflects a sense of urgency about overcoming a common problem or achieving a common purpose through expression of collective commitment of society, formulation of strategies to achieve results, and engagement of large numbers of people in coordinated and goal- oriented group actions. The spread of participatory democratic values and new forms of social organization such as popular organizations of women, youth and workers; cooperatives; religious and cultural organizations; professional associations; nongovernmental and voluntary organizations; and elected bodies of local government, has created new opportunities for social mobilization. At the same time, advances in communication technology - electronic and print media as well as new and traditional forms of cultural expression reaching large audiences - have expanded the potential reach of social mobilization to a degree unthinkable in the past.
Decentralization refers to the organization and structure of governance that make it possible for the participatory principle and its manifestation in action through social mobilization to be practised, The dominant connotation is of a shift of authority and decision-making from the central government and capital city to regions. districts, towns and villages that would allow participation, facilitate mobilization and promote efficiency. Along with the vertical shift to remedy over-centralization of political and economic structures, a redefining of roles and functions of governance at different levels is also necessary. It is not a matter of divesting central authorities of their responsibilities and obligations, but assigning authorities and tasks at levels where they can be handled most effectively, conforming to the principles of participation and requirements for effective social mobilization. For decentralization to function effectively, national leaders and the administrative and legislative organs of central governments, for example, must continue to define the overall objectives and priorities for educational development, ensure that adequate national resources are mobilized for and directed to human priorities, determine broad allocations of national resources among competing categories of needs, promote principles of universality and equity for all the people, and foster a political culture including adoption of legislative and administrative measures for decentralization.
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Decentralization Decentralization can take three forms: deconcentration (passing down administrative functions with authority to review and overrule retained at the central level), delegation (passing down authority and decision-making powers with discretion to review and overrule retained at the central level) and devolution (granting decision-making powers to local authorities and allowing them to take full responsibility without reference back to central government with sharing of authority protected by legislative or statutory measures). In many developing countries, decentralization has not gone much beyond the deconcentration level. Decentralization also has a horizontal dimension that is the need to (re)distribute power among institutions at the same level (UNDP 1993).
Speaking of decentralization in education means an attempt to re- structure the education system with three main objectives: a) improving the finance efficiency and quality of the system, b) redistributing political power, and promoting stability in the system (Prawda. 1993).
III. WHERE WE ARE - LESSONS FROM EXPERIENCE
The conventional educational mode/ The conventional educational mode, has been characterized by highly centralized structures and decision-making in all spheres legal, administrative, Curricular, pedagogical, organizational Typically educational policies and reforms have been designed by political and technical elites without systematic consultation the larger society, A small group of individuals often decides what the learning needs are for all and how they are to be satisfied.
Although the rhetoric of participation has become commonplace, participation in education is still narrow in conception and limited in practice. Learners and Communities are usually referred to as beneficiaries, and teachers classified as inputs, together with textbooks and other instructional Materials Parents remain outsiders, requested to participate through voluntary contributions -- cash or labour -- to the (otherwise impossible to maintain school system Students are passive in the classroom, teachers are passive executors of predetermined curricula, parents are passive receivers of complaint and results.
The tendency to consider education programmes as a strictly sectoral Ministry of Education bureaucracy-controlled activity persists in most countries. Basic education does not figure high enough on political and development agendas and there is not enough opportunity for public debate and consensus-building around
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educational priorities, targets, strategies and performance. The extraordinary outreach capacity of mass media and communications technology to inform and involve people in burning social issues is not being exploited. The organizational and administrative structures that would allow people to participate effectively are still evolving in many countries.
Popular or community participation is too often understood in economic terms - participation viewed as "cheap labour" or "cost- sharing"; and from a one-way perspective: what the community can do for the school rather than what the school can do for the community. Parents may even be allowed to have a say in organizational and administrative matters, but are not to "interfere with technical matters" - that is, with the nuts and bolts of their children's learning process - as attested to by restrictive private and public school regulations, and even some national education laws. Paradoxically enough, while school-related activities, especially at the pre-school and primary level, are considered a female domain in many countries (inasmuch as they are considered a simple extension of mothers' responsibilities and housework), the role of women in their children's education is not valued and women's education is grossly neglected.
Teachers have become increasingly alienated from their work, constrained by structures and practices that do not favour professional advancement, updating of skills, teamwork, and experience-sharing. Teachers are increasingly held responsible for their students' learning achievements, but are not given the professional autonomy that goes together with such a responsibility. Over and over again they are required to accommodate to policy changes and to implement educational reforms without proper information, much less participation. Given this background - over and above the important issue of inadequate remuneration - it is not difficult to understand teachers' skepticism about "innovation", and even opposition to proposals for decentralization and community participation.
Students, meanwhile, have very limited, if any, participation in decision-making on educational matters, including the most elementary ones (e.g. schedules, uniforms, etc). It is taken for granted that children and youth have nothing pertinent to contribute to their own education. Even strong advocates of participation in education often ignore learners as legitimate educational partners.
Social mobilization for education has often taken the form of one-shot, short-term campaigns, around a particular action or goal. While social mobilization has been given greater attention in literacy, adult education and the non-formal education spheres, less common are social mobilization efforts in the context of the regular school system and the basic learning needs of children.
Decentralization in different forms is a subject of great interest in most developing countries at present. The prevailing mood in favour of "small government" and of divesting government of inefficient public services and enterprises has
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influenced ideas and action in the sphere of education. In some situations, central authorities have loosened control by allowing the private sector - including commercial profit-making enterprises - to play a greater role in the provision of services. This can be a positive development when society's needs are met effectively and equitably through harnessing the capacities and resources of the private sector. But it can also lead to a dereliction of public responsibility if the consequence is increased inequity in access and participation.
Shifting responsibilities for social services including basic education to local levels has been prompted in part by the resource crunch faced by central governments. To the extent that this is a major motivation and the resource base at the local level remains meager, decentralization becomes a cover for governmental neglect of fundamental obligations to the public.