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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 9, Issue 3, March-2022
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
the aim of being more responsive to citizens at the grassroots, and to enhance their
participation in decision-making (Barr & Reid, 2014).
Relating the concept to education, it is assumed that in order to achieve higher performance in
public basic education, the local education office should be given the authority to recruit,
sanction, and reward teachers instead of maintaining power at the national office of the
country’s Educational Ministry. It is also believed that decentralising will improve on
collaboration between schools and major stakeholder which according to Sheppard and Brown
(2006) will lead to strategic resourcing for schools within the districts.
Again, through the regular monitoring of district monitoring teams or oversight committees
responsible for implementing decentralised function, challenges regarding the structural
deficits, and issue pertaining to teacher wages, shortages of teaching and learning materials
promotion, classroom teaching and assessment, and other work place conditions which are
relevant for motivating teachers are identified and resolved, thus, result in improved teaching
and learning in schools as outlined in (Leithwood, & Jantzi, 2008).
Although, education decentralisation efforts have been posting some positive results in some
developed countries, a number of studies conducted in less developed nations seem to question
the appropriateness of decentralisation in the Education system including (e.g. Sakyi, 2008;
Sakyi, Awoonor-Williams, & Adzei, 2011), as these studies indicate that several challenges have
bedeviled the implementation of decentralization and, thus, not had the expected positive
impacts in educational quality.
For two decades now the Government of Ghana has been embarking on a decentralization of
education management to districts as part of wider social and democratic governance reforms.
Although this process is legally supported by the Ghana Education Service Act, 1995 (Act 506)
which emphasizes a collaborative approach in which all stakeholders have spell-out roles and
responsibilities in the planning process, there remains yet a number of deficits with regards to
its implementation. Nolan and Hoover (2011) have hinted that there are delay in resource
allocation, lack of effective supervision and delay in most decisions on appointments,
promotions and sanctions (Ajarfor, 2014) as most decisions are still taken by the central
government in Accra without grassroots participation. This undermines effective teaching
which adversely affects the academic performance of students.
Prior studies have examined the implementation of various elements of decentralization in the
school system. Studied elements of decentralisation include school management teams (Ikoya,
2008), monitoring of secondary schools (Shah 2009), fiscal responsibility and management of
basic education to local governments (Zhao & Quiu, 2012). Other studies have examined child
safeguarding (Baginsky, Driscoll, & Manthorpe, 2015), the internal administrative structure,
the enrolment capacity, the criteria of admission and the quality assurance method in higher
education in China (Mok & Han, 2016), curriculum and pedagogy (Toh, Hung, Chua, He, &
Jamaludin, 2016). Other researchers including Hanushek, Link, and Woessmann (2013) have
sought to investigate the appropriateness of school autonomy in different economies. The few
Ghanaian research including Sakyi (2008) and Sakyi, Awoonor-Williams, and Adzei (2011) on
decentralization in education based on qualitative deigns have focused on themes such as
challenges in implementing decentralization policies in one or two districts thus making their
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Kyeremeh, A., & Kor, J. A. M. (2022). Decentralisation of Educational Management: Evidence from Ghanaian Basic Schools. Advances in Social
Sciences Research Journal, 9(3). 255-270.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.93.12013
finding was limited as the with regard to generalisation on a national level. Again, there is a
dearth of empirical exist which specifically examine the functions of the main body mandated
to implement the various aspects of educational management which have been decentralized
by the Ghana Education Service Act, 1995 (Act 506).
Evaluation of educational systems are necessary for Improvement and delivery. Addressing
these gaps will lead to the strategic realignment of structures and policies in order to encourage
participation, and, eventually, improve coverage and quality of education.
Hence this study based on the distributed leadership model sought to address the following
questions:
• To what extent are the district education oversight committees towards their roles
regarding the basic schools?
• What are the mitigating factors/challenges towards the implementation of
decentralization in public basic schools?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Theoretical Framework
Collegial and participative leadership were popular shared approaches in the late 1900s but
distributed leadership has become the normatively preferred leadership model in the 21st
century. Harris (2004: 13) indicates, “Distributed leadership concentrates on engaging
expertise wherever it exists within the organization rather than seeking this only through
formal position or role”. The approach which has gained popularity proposes that although
there is a positional leader who has the final responsibility for overseeing educational outcomes
Gronn (2010), these leaders can tap on the expertise of a group of other members within the
school community. An immediate advantage of the distributed leadership according to Hartley
(2010) is the burden of overworked Principal or School leaders is lessened. Evidence have
shown a connection between improved schools and distributed leadership. For example,
Glickman et al. (2001) posit that distributed leadership is a key feature of school which has
improved education outcomes over time. This statement is corroborated by the finding of
Hallinger and Heck (2010) which showed an association between the change in academic
capacity and distributed leadership.
The theory serves as a framework for this study as it explains how distribution of leadership
powers could help in improving school outcomes. The model usually discussed in relation to
the best leadership approaches within individual schools lacks empirical basis. This study
investigated how decentralized mechanisms in relation to educational management does affect
proximal and final outcomes of student, thus extends on Distributed leadership model by
providing empirical evidence to support suggested relationships.
Empirical Review
Decentralization and Educational Outcomes
The World Bank (2010), reports most countries funded have decentralized responsibilities to
at least one level of lower government. The decision by many countries to subscribe to the
decentralisation of schools, despite unpleasant outcomes in some countries, seem to be in line
with the proposition by the World Bank (2004) and previous calls on the issue. For instance,