Educational Policy and Management of Change

(EdPM 613)
By
Asfaw Keno (BSc; MA( EdPM); MA(RLDS), &
PhD Candidate in Educational Policy and
Leadership)
Based on
Haddad & Demskey, 1995; UNESCO, 2013 a; 2013b;
Fowler, 2014; Alexander, 2013; Bardach, 2012; Seyoum,
1996; Tekeste, 2006; Overseas Development Institute,
2011; Alemayehu & Laser, 2012; Fullan, 2001;2006;
Kotter, 1996; Bass & Riggo, 2006.
 Framework For Education Policy Analysis
• Educational Planning is actually a series of untidy and overlapping
events in which a variety of people and organizations with
diversified perspectives are actively involved - technically and
politically. It entails the processes through which issues are analyzed
and policies are generated, implemented, assessed and redesigned.
• Sector Analysis has predominantly focused on the content - the
'what' of educational development: issues, policies, strategies,
measures, outcomes, etc
• An analysis of the education sector implies an understanding of the
education policy process itself – the 'how' and 'when' of educational
development.
Framework For Education Policy Analysis = scheme or series of steps
through which sound and workable policies can be formulated, and
then, through effective planning, put into effect, evaluated and
redesigned.
 The Concepts Policy
• Policy is defined as: An explicit or implicit single
decision or group of decisions which may set out
directives for guiding future decisions, initiate or
retard action, or guide implementation of previous
decisions (Haddad & Demsky, 1995, p. 18).
• “[Policy] can be defined as substantive decisions,
commitments, and implementing actions by those
who have governance responsibilities . . . as
interpreted by various stakeholders” (emphasis in
the original) (Crosby & Bryson, 2005, p. 157).
 The Concept policy from Fowler(2014)
• Public policy is the “outputs of a political system, usually in the form of rules,
regulations, laws, ordinances, court decisions, administrative decisions, and
other forms. Public policy may be perceived as a pattern of activity applied . . .
consistently and repetitively. . . . [It is] a dynamic process” (Kruschke &
Jackson, 1987, p. 35).
• 3. “[A] public policy is . . . a series of intentionally coherent decisions or
activities taken or carried out by different public—and sometimes private—
actors . . . with a view to resolving in a targeted manner a problem that is
politically defined as collective in nature” (emphasis in the original) (Knoepfl,
Larrue, Varone, & Hill, 2007, p. 24)
• . 4. “Policy sometimes is formed from a compromise among political
participants . . . none of whom had quite in mind the problem to which the
agreed problem responds” (Lindblom & Woodhouse, 1993, p. 11).
• 5. Public policy “includes both official enactments of government and
something as informal as ‘practices.’ Also, policy may be viewed as the
inactions of government, not simply what the government does” (Cibulka,
1995, p. 106). 6. “Policy is a very ambiguous term. . . . In its simplest sense, a
 The Concept policy from Fowler(2014)
• : Public policy is the dynamic and value-laden process
through which a political system handles a public
problem. It includes a government’s expressed
intentions and official enactments, as well as its
consistent patterns of activity and inactivity.
• In this definition, government includes elected and
appointed public officials at the federal, state, and
local levels as well as the bodies or agencies within
which these officials work. Thus, school board
members, school administrators, and classroom
teachers in public schools are all part of government,
as are such individuals and groups as governors,
judges, and Congress.
 The Concepts Policy Making
• Policy making is the first step in any planning
cycle and planners must appreciate the
dynamics of policy formulation before they
can design implementation and evaluation
procedures effectively(Haddad & Demsky,
1995, p. 18).
 The Concepts Policy evaluation from
Fowler(2014)
• Policy Evaluation: Determining if the policy works
 Evaluation is “the systematic investigation of the quality
of programs, projects . . . or any of their
components . . . for purposes of decision making . . .
leading to improvement and/or accountability. . . .”
(Yarbrough, Shulha, Hopson, & Caruthers, 2011, p. xxv).
 A policy evaluation is a type of applied research in
which the practices and rigorous standards of all
research are used in a specific setting for a practical
purpose: determining to what extent a policy is
reaching its goals
 Basic steps in policy evaluation from
Fowler(2014)
1. Determine the goals of the policy
2. Select indicators
3. Select or develop data-collection instruments 4.
Collect data
5. Analyze and summarize data
6. Write evaluation report
7. Respond to evaluators’ recommendations
 The Concepts Policy Analysis from Alexander(2013)
• POLICY ANALYSIS AS PROBLEM ANALYSIS
• The Problem is the Beginning of Analysis.
• The policy analysis process does not begin with policies that
have already been in place; it begins with a recognition that a
fundamental condition needs to be changed.
• An important part of that recognition is being able to tell the
difference among conditions, policy problems, and policy
issues.
• The importance of starting with the problem cannot be
overstated and is an important step in making the world a
better place.
• For example, Dunn (2004) notes that the failure of many
policies lies in the misdiagnosis of the problem rather than in
mistakes made in finding the right solution.
Policy analysis begins by defining a problem
from Alexander(2013)
• A variety of policy researchers concur (Bardach, 2009; Patton
& Sawicki, 1993). Many researchers agree that starting with
a policy solution instead of the problem definition often
limits the alternatives that are considered and leads to
analysts displacing ends with a non rational focus on means.
• What does this mean for you as an education leader? You
will need to start your quest for change with a simple
identification of the condition that you would like to change.
• To do that effectively, you need to distinguish among
conditions, policy problems, and policy issues. Differences
Among Conditions, Policy Problems, and Policy Issues
 Differences Among Conditions, Policy Problems, and
Policy Issues from Alexander(2013)
• Conditions are basic descriptions of the world
that can be supported by empirical data. For
example, a basic description of a condition
may be that a large proportion of third graders
are not reading at grade level. This is a
condition that policymakers hope to address
with the adoption of the reauthorized No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001
 Policy problems from Alexander(2013
• All conditions that you choose to highlight and would like to do
something about are not policy problems, however. For conditions to
be transformed to policy problems , they must contain three basic
characteristics.
• First they must be shown to be negative.
• Second, they must be solvable using public resources.
• Third, they should be solved using public resources.
• If any of these elements are missing, the transformation of a
condition to a policy problem is not complete, and you should revisit
your identification of the policy problem.
• For example, the Wake County School Board in North Carolina
recently took steps to reverse a longstanding policy to promote racial
diversity in its schools. This suggests that education leaders in that
community no longer considered a lack of racial diversity in their
schools to be a policy problem. Perhaps they no longer considered
 Policy Issues from Alexander(2013)
• In the same way that not all conditions rise to the level of
policy problems, not all policy problems are policy issues.
• Policy issues are a special subcategory of policy problems.
• Only policy problems on which there is disagreement over
the most appropriate solution are policy issues .
• Only policy issues require the full steps of the policy
analysis process described herein.
• If there is already agreement on the most appropriate
way to resolve a policy problem, there is no need to use
resources to try to find out what the most appropriate
resolution is because you already know.
The relationship Between Condition, problem and Issue
from Alexander(2013)

condition

problem

issue
 Policy issues
controversial elements from Alexander(2013)
• A policy issue is, by definition, controversial.
An issue exists only if social groups disagree
about how government should approach a
given problem (Coplin & O’Leary, 1981).
• Most education policies are not policy issues
at all. For example, the policy goal of teaching
all children to read is not an issue today.
• Virtually everyone in the United States—liberal
and conservative, rich and poor, male and
female, white, African American, or Hispanic—
agrees that children need to learn to read
 Education policy issues
• Examples of education policy issues.
• Today a large number of education policy issues are under
debate. One especially controversial issue is merit pay for
teachers.
• Traditionally, teachers have been remunerated on a “single-
salary scale,” which bases their pay on the number of years of
experience and the level of professional education attained.
• However, many people believe that this approach neither
motivates good teachers to excel nor penalizes weak teachers.
• They argue therefore that teachers’ pay should be “linked” to
the quality of their work.
• Opponents of such plans argue that teacher quality is hard to
determine and that merit pay might encourage unhealthy
competition among teachers and be based on favoritism rather
than on true merit (Johnson & Papay, 2010; Ritter & Jensen,
 Types of Policy From Hadad and Demesky(1995)
• Issue-specific policies are short-term decisions
involving day-to-day management or, as the
term implies, a particular issue.
• A program policy is concerned with the design
of a program in a particular area, while a
multi-program policy decision deals with
competing program areas.
• Finally, strategic decisions deal with large-
scale policies and broad resource allocations
 Examples Of Strategic, Multi-program, Program And
Issue Specific Policies (Hadad & Demekey, 1995)
• Strategic: How can we provide basic education at a reasonable
cost to meet equity and efficiency objectives? Example: Should
we or do we need to introduce diversified education?
• Multi-programme: Should resources be allocated to primary
education or to rural training centres? Example: How should we
allocate resources between general education, vocational
education, and diversified education?
• Programme: How should training centers be designed and
provided across the country? Example: How and where should
we provide diversified education?
• Issue-specific: Should graduates of rural centers be allowed to
go into intermediate schools? Example: How should practical
subjects be taught in diversified schools?
Policies Differ In Scope, Complexity, Decision Environment, Range Of
Choices, And Decision Criteria(Hadad & Demekey, 1995).
Policies Differ In Scope, Complexity, Decision Environment, Range
Of Choices, And Decision Criteria(Hadad & Demekey, 1995).

• Strategic: How can we provide basic education at a reasonable

cost to meet equity and efficiency objectives? Example: Should
we or do we need to introduce diversified education?
• Multi-programme: Should resources be allocated to primary
education or to rural training centres? Example: How should
we allocate resources between general education, vocational
education, and diversified education?
• Programme: How should training centers be designed and
provided across the country? Example: How and where should
we provide diversified education?
• Issue-specific: Should graduates of rural centers be allowed to
go into intermediate schools? Example: How should practical
subjects be taught in diversified schools?
 The Policy Scope(Hadad & Demekey, 1995)
What Makes Broader Scope Policies Problematic?
Broader Scope Policy: More problematic
methodologically and politically on definition of
problem in conflictive societies; use of analytical
techniques and optimization; questions of proper
theoretical base, measurement, valuation and
aggregation; hard objective data vs. soft
subjective data; and technical analysis vs. public
participation.
 Policy Making(Hadad & Demekey, 1995)
• Two essential dimensions of policy making:
who does it (the actors) and how (the
process).
• the actor in policy making has been
considered unitary and rational; organizational
(public interest) model and the personalistic
(self-interest) model.
• The process element has fluctuated between
a synoptic (comprehensive) approach and an
incremental approach
 Lindblom And Cohen (1979) Distinguished Between The Synoptic And Incremental Methods (Hadad &
Demekey, 1995).

Synoptic method entails, one single central planning authority

for the whole of society, combining economic, political, and
social control into one integrated planning process that makes
interaction unnecessary.
It assumes: (a) that the problem at hand does not go beyond
man's cognitive capacities and
(b) there exist agreed criteria (rather than social conflict on
values) by which solutions can be judged and
(c) that the problem- solvers have adequate incentives to stay
with synoptic analysis until it is completed (rather than
'regress' to using incremental planning.)
• Complete analysis of the situation to develop a blueprint for
solving problems.
 Incremental Policy Making(Hadad & Demekey, 1995)
• Relies on interaction rather than on a complete analysis of the
situation to develop a blueprint for solving problems.
• Is built on the following assumptions:
(a) Policy options are based on highly uncertain and fluid knowledge,
and are in response to a dynamic situation (ever changing
problems, and evolving contexts);
(b) No 'correct' solution can therefore be found, or technically derived
from a diagnosis of the situation. Thus, no sweeping or drastic
reforms should be attempted;
(c) Only incremental and limited policy adjustments can be made; and
(d) Policy adjustments are expected to remedy an experienced
dissatisfaction with past policies, improving the existing situation or
relieving an urgent problem. Consequently, these adjustments
should be tentative - and in some cases temporary - and must be
revised as the dynamics of the situation evolve.
 The Organizational Process Model, And The Governmental Politics
Model(Hadad & Demekey, 1995)
• G . T. Allison (1971) developed two alternative models: (a) the
Organizational process model, and (b) the governmental politics model.
• Organizational process model assumes : 1. a complex government
consisting of a conglomerate of semi-feudal, loosely allied organizations,
each with a substantial life of its own. 2. Decisions are based on the output
of the several entities, functioning independently according to standard
patterns of behavior but partially co-ordinate by government leaders.
• The governmental politics model assumes: 1. it also assumes an
organizational approach to decision making; 2. the Governmental Politics
model plays up the part of individuals in the process. 3. Government
decisions are not made by a monolithic state based on rational choice, but
rather are negotiated by various leaders who sit on top of the organizations
involved in that particular decision-making process.4. Each leader is
compelled by his own conception of the problem as well as by the
imperatives of his organization and his own personal goals.
 A Consolidated Model For Policy Making(Hadad & Demekey, 1995)
• Neither of the two dimensions alone (process and actors) fully
captures the dynamics of policy making. They need to be
combined and restructured into a different configuration.
• The actor in policy making is placed on the horizontal-axis - at one
end of the spectrum is the societal/personalistic mode, wherein
decisions are reached by negotiation among a variety of interest
groups (including government ministries, teachers' unions, etc.),
driven by their own conception of the problem and individual
values. On the other end is the organizational/bureaucratic mode
wherein decisions are made within the organizational entity (i.e.
the military, the international community, etc.
• The process of policy making - from the incremental to the
synoptic approach - is placed on the vertical-axis. These two
dimensions generate a new topography.
Dimensions of Policy Analysis(Hadad & Demekey, 1995)
 Balanced Perspective Of Policy Making(Hadad &
Demekey, 1995)
• The rational model which is a composite of the synoptic method and the
organizational/ bureaucratic mode (in quadrant I) decision making at
this extreme is unitary, rational, centrally controlled, completely
technical and value maximizing.
• In the 3rd quadrant, a composite of the incremental method and the
societal/personalistic mode, policy making is a political activity
characterized by self-interest, political bargaining, value judgment and
multiple rationalities.
• Most policy making falls somewhere between these two extremes.
Analytic techniques carried on in ignorance of political, social and
bureaucratic realities do not go very far. Similarly, a pattern of vague and
unsystematic political decisions loaded with self-interest, patronage and
value judgments can lead to breakdown, if not to chaos.
• In sum, a balanced perspective of policy making places analytical
rationality within the context of political and institutional aspects of
policy making. is most appropriate for education.
 Reasons: Consolidated Balanced Model is Appropriate
• Ed sys linkages with the socio-economic structure. A policy change is not purely
technical but has socio political-economic dimensions. An attempt to modify the
system, which is perceived by one group or another as lowering the chances of their
children to progress socially or economically, will meet with strong opposition. A
reform for democratization is a political issue.
• The linkage of the education system with an economy, whereby the school is seen
as the solution to a wide range of economic problems. This belief is the source of
much of the impetus for policy changes.
• Internal structure of the educational system is an intricate network of
institutions interlocking horizontally and vertically. A policy decision in
any one component can have strong repercussions throughout the
system.
• Stakeholders support/ control externally, education seems to be
everyone's business and nearly everyone feels qualified to have an
opinion about it.
• Policy making, therefore, involves balancing a number of contradictory
demands, and soliciting support, or at least tolerance, from the many different
 Conceptual framework for policy analysis(Hadad & Demekey, 1995)

• Framework for education policy analysis covers the pre-policy decision , the
decision process itself, and the post-decision planning activities.
• Decision making is preceded by analytical and/or political activities
(analysis, generation of options, bargaining, etc.) and followed by
planning activities (implementation, assessment, and possible
redesigning).
• The Education Policy Framework consists of seven policy-planning
processes, the first four of which deal with policy making, the fifth with
planning and sixth and seventh with policy adjustment:
• (i) Analysis of the existing situation; (ii) The generation of policy options;
(iii) Evaluation of policy options; (iv) Making the policy decision; (v)
Planning of policy implementation; (vi) Policy impact assessment; (vii)
Subsequent policy cycles.
• An attempt to restrict policy analysis to certain elements or to disregard
one element results in an incomplete approach to policy analysis, and
leads to the historical controversy of the rational vs. the political, or the
 Classic Six stage model of the policy process (Alexander, 2013;
Fowler, 2014).
• Issue definition
• Agenda setting
• Policy formulation.
• Policy adoption
• Implementation
• Evaluation.
 Issue definition

• Issue definition is the start of the policy-making process as well as the

policy analytical process.
• A negative condition that has sufficient negative implications for the
community as a whole so that members care if it is not resolved is an
issue.
• The problem stream essentially captures how problems are defined.
Kingdon (1995) observes that indicators, focusing events, and feedback
bring problematic conditions to the attention of policymakers.
• Indicators are the data that describe the magnitude of the problem.
Focusing events are occurrences that help to transform a condition into
a problem in the mind of decision makers. Feedback provides
information on how the status of the condition has changed or
remained the same.
• For example, education leaders have long had concerns about the
equity of schooling offered to poor students, students with special
needs, and high achievers. There is also concern about the quality of
 Agenda setting
• Not all policy issues are going to be acted on by a government.
Kingdon (1995) notes that visible participants in the political
system, such as politicians, are more likely to define the issue that
make it to the agenda, while hidden participants (e.g., analysts) are
more likely to influence the solutions to these problems.
• Visible participants are so called because their influence on policy
making is public, assumed, and obvious because of their role as
elected leaders.
• Hidden participants are so described because they are less likely to
be known by the general population. Their impact on policy via
their influence on proposals and underlying scholarship is often less
publicized.
• Education leaders may be visible or hidden participants.
• Visible participants include elected leaders or leaders appointed at
high levels of government. For example, many governors have billed
themselves as education governors; two examples are former
governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas and former governor George W.
 Agenda setting …
• Examples of hidden participants are the practitioners responsible for
implementing the policy, scholars who have developed proposals to address
problematic conditions, and civil servants working behind the scenes.
• Leaders of grassroots organizations, unions, and various special interest groups
may be visible or hidden depending on the publicity that surrounds their
actions and analysis.
• Legislators are responsible for placing policy issues on the public agenda.
• Policy analysts can influence the agenda by informing the definition of a policy
issue adopted by policymakers.
• If an issue does not make it to the agenda, it will not have a policy generated
explicitly to resolve it. This stage in the policy-making process is analogous to
the need to make the case in the policy analysis process. However, getting an
issue onto the governmental agenda is not sufficient. It does not guarantee
that suitable alternatives for resolving the problematic condition will be
proposed.
• This stage in the policy-making process is analogous to the need to make the
 Policy Formulation

• In this phase of the political process, officials formulate

alternatives to address a problem.
• As noted by Dunn (2004) and Fowler (2009), these policies may
be in the form of executive orders, court decisions, and statutes.
• The formulation of policies captures in writing the required
approach proposed to resolve the issue being addressed.
• For you as an education leader, this stage in the policy-making
process encompasses the policy analytical tasks of establishing
your intrinsic values, thinking of alternatives, and weighing those
alternatives against the considerations that you deem important.
• In exploring options, it is essential for education leaders to
remember the condition that they would like to solve.
• Education leaders must continue to focus their efforts on solving
the problem rather than on gaining allegiance to a particular
strategy for solving that problem.
 Policy Adoption

• formal acceptance of those words by the appropriate

authorizing body.
• In the conduct of policy analysis, the likelihood of one
approach being supported or opposed is an integral part of
the policy analytical process and underlies the
recommendation that stems from the policy analysis process.
• That is, analysts need to gauge the feasibility of their
proposed solution being adopted. Their assessment plays a
crucial role in the recommendations made.
• In policy analysis, when education leaders make
recommendations and persuade relevant stakeholders that
their decision is the proper one, they inform the policy
adoption stage in the policy-making arena.
 Policy Implementation

• Policy implementation is the stage of the policy process

where proposed actions are finally realized.
• Dunn (2004) indicates, for example, that an adopted
policy is carried out by administrative units.
• Firestone (1989) notes that the rewards and
consequences for the actors in this stage of the process
are different from those for key players in the policy
adoption phase.
• This phase of policy making presents many rewards and
challenges to education leaders. At this stage, leaders are
better able to see if they made a difference in the
community and resolved the problem identified.
• The implementation and monitoring plans developed by
education leaders are an important analogue to the
 Policy Evaluation

• Policy evaluation is the stage of the policy-making process in which the

feedback loop is required for education leaders to assess if the policy change
that was implemented actually worked.
• This part of the process calls for a clear delineation of the goals and the
objectives of the policy in order to have a standard by which to determine
the policy’s effectiveness.
• Weiler (1990) asserts that policy evaluation is essentially political because
evaluation requires the explicit use of values in judging whether a program
was successful.
• Policy evaluation allows us to answer the question, “Did it work”? Did it
work? is the question that must ultimately be asked of any policy. As
important as policy evaluation is to both policy making and policy analysis
• , policy analysis is more than policy evaluation; the distinction is important.
Evaluation occurs toward the end of the policy analytical process and
examines ways in which proposed alternatives were effective, if at all.
• . Policy analysis goes beyond the assessment of policy proposals. At its best,
it assesses the policy problem that these solutions were designed to solve.
 Policy Making and Policy Analysis
Classical stage Balanced consolidated Policy analysis

1. Issue definition i)Analysis of the 1. Define the problem.

existing situation;
2.Agenda setting 2. Make the case.
3 Policy formulation. ii)The generation of 3. Establish your driving
policy options; values.
(iii) Evaluation of 4. Develop alternatives.
policy options; 5. Weigh the options.
6. Make recommendations.
4. Policy Adoption iv)Making the policy 7. Persuade your audience.
decision;
5. Implementation (v) Planning of policy 8. Implement the solution.
implementation; 9. Monitor outputs.
6. Evaluation. vi) Policy impact assessment; 10 Evaluate outcome
 The policy-making process
• The policy-making process generally encompasses six to eight
phases. Fowler (2009) identifies the six stages of the policy process
as issue definition, agenda setting, policy formulation, policy
adoption, policy implementation, and policy evaluation.
• Dunn (2004, p. 45 ) describes them more broadly and adds policy
adaptation, policy succession, and policy termination among the
stages completed during policy making. Dunn’s last three additions
differ somewhat from the rest of the process because I consider
them to be subcategories of policy evaluation. That is, based on
their assessment of particular programs and policies, policymakers
may decide to adapt existing policy action (adaptation), redirect the
goal of that action (succession), or cut the program altogether
(termination)
 Education Policy Framework

• The Education Policy Framework consists of

seven policy-planning processes, the first four of
which deal with policy making, the fifth with
planning and sixth and seventh with policy
adjustment:
• (i) Analysis of the existing situation; (ii) The
generation of policy options; (iii) Evaluation of
policy options; (iv) Making the policy decision; (v)
Planning of policy implementation; (vi) Policy
impact assessment; (vii) Subsequent policy cycles.
Conceptual Framework For Policy Analysis
Conceptual Framework For Policy Analysis
 (i) Analysis of the existing situation
Slides from pp. 44 to 153 deal with the first stage of the policy making stage.
A policy change is normally a response to a problem or set of problems in the
sector, and must, therefore, start with an appreciation of the educational
sector and its context. In addition to the analysis of the sector itself, policy
analysis should consider a number of aspects of the social context,
including political, economic, demographic, cultural, and social issues which
are likely to affect the decision making and even implementation processes
of the education sector.
1 Country background:
location, geography, population, culture, and social stratification patterns.
2. Political context
3. Economic context
4. Education sector
5. Dynamics of change
To these, UNESCO 2013 a & 2013b added: several points.
 Geography and demography
• Geographical features such as mountains, seas, lakes, rivers, roads
and climate and demographic characteristics (population structure,
distribution, growth, etc) can inform decisions not only about the
numbers and locations of schools, training and deployment of
teachers, production and dissemination of learning materials, etc.,
but also the investment priority and trade-offs within the education
system. Knowing the ethnic, religious and linguistic composition of
the population can help education policies to give due consideration
to different languages, beliefs, customs and practices of the various
groups within each country. Key geographic and demographic data
for each country are readily available from various national and
international sources, including national statistical offices, the United
Nations Population Division14 and the World Health Organizatin
 Analyzing demographic and Geographic situations
• Analyzing the linkages of education policies to geographic and demographic
contexts raises questions such as:
• Which main features of the country’s geography can affect education? In what
way? Which levels and aspects of education are affected by these features?
• How is the population distributed in relation to these geographic features? What
major demographic changes have occurred in recent years? What other changes
may occur in the future?
• What are the main demographic (sex and age), socio-economic, ethnic, religious
and linguistic characteristics of the population? Are there marginalized
population groups? What is their level of participation in education? What
obstacles do they face in terms of access to education?
• How well have existing national education policies taken into account and reflected
the country’s geographic and demographic characteristics? What are the
remaining geographic and demographic disparities and gaps in education?
• What is the current Human Development Index (HDI) ranking for the country? How
has it changed over the years? What are the main constituent factors pulling
down or pushing up the country’s HDI ranking?
 Political context:
• DM –processes,
• Comparative value of education;
• priorities of role of education in development for political
elites and for education sector elites;
• capacity of the state to do planning at the national level;
• the professional background of the bureaucrats;
• the institutional structure of the political sector;
• Political Parties their values and preferences
 Politics
• Policy is about politics. Policy-making in education must fit into overall
national development policies and the political context. An essential
task when analyzing national education policies is to first understand
the political and administrative mechanisms, where and how
decisions are made, who are the major players, what are their
strengths and weaknesses, and what are the possible future changes
in politics. An understanding of these factors will provide the basis for
assessing how education policies and policy-making are influenced by
the political context, and how education policy can proactively
influence the political context in return.
• The administrative arrangements for education, including the degree
of decentralization of policy-making can also have a profound effect
on education. Some national ministries are very centralized and
create and implement all policies. Other countries may have
decentralized many policy-making and planning responsibilities to
sub-national levels.
 Some Key Questions To Ask About The Political Context
May Include:
• What kinds of political and government institutional frameworks
exist? How decentralized is the political-administrative
structure?
• How are national development priorities defined, monitored and
adjusted? Where are these priorities enshrined (e.g. the
constitution, legal and regulatory frameworks; national and
sectoral development plans; ordinances; decrees; etc.)?
• How does the political system function? Is it stable? If not, what
are the implications?
• Who are the political elites (e.g. party members, high-ranking
officials, military top brass, business leaders, village/community
heads, etc.)? How do they work with and against each other?
What are their key areas of interest? How do they view
 The Economic Context
• The present macro-economic situation in general and the human
resources situation in particular.
• Assess what the economy requires from the education sector and what
the sector expects to face from the rest of the economy.
• Estimate the likely trends in the various sectors in the future and the
financial resources of the country in order, particularly in terms of general
infrastructure and financial resources.
• demographic shifts, urbanization, and migration, coupled with the likely
growth in various sectors of the economy, and their likely impact on labor
markets and consequently on needs for education and skill training.
• The level of economic development, economic infra-structure, range of
possible taxation by the government, which in turn will influence
educational expenditures.
• The economic growth rate for estimating the likely need for certain kinds
of skills but also for estimating the future amounts of slack resources
 Economy
• The structure and characteristics of the national economy
play an important role in influencing education policies.
Changing production and employment patterns in terms of
the share among agriculture-industry-service sectors are key
factors in human resource development and education
policies. Income levels can affect access to education and
learning outcomes.
• The economic climate can also determine the budget and
financial resources available to the education sector.
Education policy analysis must therefore closely keep
abreast of the many interactions between education and
the economy.
 Key Economic Questions that can be Asked May Include
• What are the main features of the current employment situation? What
effects does this have on education policies?
• How are the national employment patterns expected to change in the
coming years? How should education policies reflect such forecasted
employment changes?
• What is the rate of incidence of poverty and how has it changed? In what
way have education policies contributed to, or been influenced, by such
changes?
• What are the shares of the education budget across the different education
sub-sectors and as a percentage of total government budget and Gross
Domestic Product (GDP)?
• Is there a medium-term fiscal and expenditure framework that provides
multi-year projections against which the education sub-sectors can plan
long-term development programs and recurrent budgets?
Effectiveness of spending and transparency and accountability in spending
are key elements the “Finance” section in Part II).
 National Policy Context
• The national policy context Education is a key sector of
national development. To be effective, education policies
must be designed in conjunction with other sectors’
development policies. For example, early childhood care
and education (ECCE) involves education, health and
community development.
• TVET closely links education to the economy and job
market.
• Education policies must, in the first place, take into
account and reflect a country’s geographic, demographic,
economic, social, cultural and political contexts.
 National development priorities

• Each country has its own national development priorities enshrined in

its constitution, policies, strategies and plans.
• In order to analyze a country’s priorities, one can ask the following
questions:
• What are the key official documents and frameworks that define the
country’s policy directions and development priorities?
• What are these major national development priorities, policies and
strategies? How do they respond to current and expected future
needs of the country? What are the gaps and issues?
• How are these policies and strategies developed? What is the degree
of participation of the various stakeholders in defining these policies
and strategies?
• What is the place given to human resource development and
education in the national development policies and strategies?
• Is there a strategic framework that governs budgetary prioritization
(e.g. Medium Term Expenditure Framework)? Does this prioritization
match the nominal prioritization in the policy or plan?
 Balanced Development

• Do the policies, strategies and plans provide for

balanced development across the education sector?
Are there any neglected or non-prioritized areas or
aspects that may emerge as potential problems or
bottlenecks?
• What have been the roles of the various actors and
stakeholders in education policymaking and
planning? Have these processes been participatory
and consultative?
 Society and culture

• The effectiveness of education, itself a major social service,

is often affected by the social structure, which is a
combination of such factors as income classes; castes;
ethnic, linguistic and religious groups; and socially-deprived,
marginalized and vulnerable populations.
• Some of these social groups may maintain different
attitudes and values towards the utility of education, its
priorities and the way in which it is delivered.
• Traditional cultural views may also exert an influence on
schooling in terms of access and participation. Such views
are often tied to the contents and methods of education
including the language used in teaching and learning.
• Education policy analysis must therefore look into the many
 Society and culture
• Key questions that may be asked in this regard include:
• What are the problems and issues regarding education for
disadvantaged social groups?
• What kinds of cultural values and behaviors have been
negatively or positively influencing participation in education?
What is the scale of such cultural influence?
In what way have past and present education policies tried to
address these social and cultural issues and needs?
• To what extent has education contributed to social mobility and
reduction of social disparities?
• What kind of proactive social and education policies will be
needed to address the remaining social disparities and cultural
biases related to education.
 Sector
• A sector comprises, for the most part, the producing or operating units
in the economy that share a common function or output. The agriculture
sector includes all the farms in the country, … the education sector all
the schools and colleges, and so on.
• Each sector, in turn, can be broken down into subsectors-for example,
agriculture into food grains, livestock, tree crops, cotton, and sugar
subsectors; education into primary, general secondary, and vocational
training subsectors.
• Sectors can be subdivided in many ways, depending on the purpose;
irrigation, credit, research, and extension can also be considered
subsectors of agriculture.
• Sectors are usually nationwide, and each is usually assisted and
regulated by a common set of government agencies and policies.
• But sectors have no legal existence and do not maintain consolidated
accounts for themselves-these are attributes of primary entities such as
farms, firms, and schools.
 (ii) The generation of policy options;
• The systemic mode
• The incremental mode
• The ad hoc mode
• The importation mode
 Systemic Mode
• The systemic mode is characterized by three operations: generation
of data, formulation and prioritization of options, and refining
options.
• Data are usually derived from two sources: sector analysis, and the
existing body of professional knowledge (conventional wisdom,
research synthesis, comparative indicators, etc.).
• Formation of options under this mode is a fairly complicated process
of induction, to anticipate all possible policy outcomes by thinking
through all possible contingency, large number of options can be
generated to fit the different 'givens' of the sector and its context. It
then proceeds to identify optimal or at least efficient options.
However, a variety of intellectual, political, social and professional
constraints limit the range of policy options. Moreover, options may
be given different weights and priorities depending on the perceived
importance of the sectoral issues, the relative strength of the interest
groups, and the possible combination of different options.
 Incremental mode
• Once a problem within the educational system is recognized, then
a solution is frequently forced upon the system. This is especially
likely to occur when there is a public debate about a problem.
Given widespread interest and discussion, the educational system
is forced to do something to maintain its legitimacy.
• The sense of urgency necessitates a quick response. Since the
problem is likely to be located in one particular segment of the
system, then the issue is how to formulate a policy to adapt the
system to the response.
• This is sometimes called the 'acting out' approach whereby the
policymaker seeks to adjust present difficulties rather than to
anticipate future ones, thereby promoting incremental
improvement.
 Ad Hoc Mode
• Sometimes the problem is outside the educational
system. It may not even be a problem but instead
the emergence of a new elite or a major political
event which requires that the educational system
make some adjustments or changes. Here the policy
may have no rational basis within the education
sector.
 Importation Mode
• There are many innovations and fashions in
educational systems around the world. These can
be the source of the policy options considered.
• Foreign specialists, operating as consultants for
international agencies, can provide the stimulus
for this mode.
• However, a certain policy adopted elsewhere can
be imported successfully only if it meets the
needs of particular groups in the society, i.e. if
there is an importer.
 (iii) Evaluation of policy options;
• Policy options can be evaluated only if alternative
scenarios are developed to allow estimations of the likely
implications of the options considered.
The 'imaginary' situation that would be created if a policy
option were implemented is compared with the present
situation, and the scenario of transition from the existing
to the imaginary case is evaluated in terms of desirability,
affordability, and feasibility.
Desirability:
• A f f o rd a b i l i t y
• Feasibility
 Desirability, Affordability & Feasibility
• Desirability: This involves three dimensions: (1) The
impact of the option on the various interest groups
or stakeholders: who would benefit? who might feel
threatened? how might the potential losers be
compensated? what would make the option
desirable to all stakeholders? (2)compatibility with
the dominant ideology and targets of economic
growth articulated in national development plans;
and (3) in some cases, the impact of a policy option
on political development and the stability.
Affordability: Social Political, Economic , Private And Opportunity Costs

The fiscal costs of the change as well as the social and political
costs need to be evaluated. The difficulty of making these
estimations lies in the ability to predict future trends, including
economic growth. This is especially important because
educational expenditures are more vulnerable to changes in
economic situations and political objectives than some other
kinds of public expenditure. Therefore, alternative economic
scenarios need to be considered. Further, private costs (will a
reform require consumers to share the costs, and if so what
happens to the poorer groups?), opportunity costs (are there
other measures which might benefit the education system, but
would have to be foregone to pay for the current proposal?) and
political costs (if an option favors one group over another, is the
government willing to pay the political cost?) should also be
 Feasibility: HR, Fiscal Resource, Institutional Culture, Time
Overruns
• the availability of human resources for implementing the change.
• Fiscal resources are easy to compute. More difficult is the estimate
of what level of training is required of teachers (the more
sophisticated the program and/or technology involved, the more
highly trained the personnel need to be) and whether there are
enough personnel to implement the policy option.
• Equally important is the presence of the institutional culture (norms,
procedures, environment) necessary to attract, retain, and effectively
utilize trained personnel in transforming policies into plans and
implemented program.
• Another element in the calculus of feasibility is time. Most studies of
education projects indicate that there are frequent time overruns in
implementation. More realistic estimates of time need to be made
and can only be done by the careful assessment of the
implementation capabilities and experiences.
 (iv) Making the policy decision
• (1) How was the decision made - did it go through all the stages
of
• policy analysis?
• (2) How radical a departure is the decision from current policy?
• (3) How consistent is this decision with policies of other sectors?
• (4) Is the policy diffusely articulated or is it stated in a manner
• which is easily measurable?
• (5) Does the policy seem operational or is its implementation
• implausible?
 Policy Making
• Policy analysis includes looking into how a policy has been
developed and the extent to which policies have been based
on sound analysis and research evidence.
• Equally important is the scope of consultations and dialogue
with relevant stakeholders during the policy development
process.
• For instance, a potential policy on school-based
management should first be discussed with the key
constituencies, such as school heads and administrative
personnel, local community leaders, teachers, teacher
trainers, teacher unions and other relevant partners, to
gather inputs and build consensus on what the priorities,
gaps, issues, possible remedies and future directions
 Key issues
• Evidence-based policy-making: Founding policy action on solid and reliable
evidences is crucial not only for ensuring that policies are effective and efficient, but
also for ensuring that they are acceptable and implementable at the practical level.
Yet, what constitutes sound evidence can be debatable, particularly where there
are multiple sources and disagreement regarding interpretation of key data and
information.
• Policy analysis must therefore pay close attention to verifying the degree to which a
policy has incorporated clear and unambiguous assessment and research evidence
about the issues and needs within the country’s context, and about existing
implementation capacity.
• Consistency among different policies, plans and strategies: A country may have
various policies, plans and strategies developed by different departments and
supported by a number of donor programs. Policy analysis must examine the
consistency of these official documents and identify any conflicting priorities, and
check whether there are any duplications (e.g. between the EFA National Action
Plan and National Education Sector Plans.
• Balanced development: Policies, plans and strategies should define clear
priorities, so that the country’s limited resources are directed towards achieving the
country’s main objectives. One such priority in many countries is universal primary
education, which has major support from donor
 Guiding Questions
• Guiding questions
• Evidence-based policy-making
• To what extent are recent education policies based on
information and research evidence?
• What kinds of information and research data are available
to support the policies?
• How is this information and data produced? How can they
be obtained and used?
• How reliable are the information and data sources?
• Do policy and information gaps still exist? How can
evidence-based policy-making be improved in the future?
What actions need to be taken?
 Consistency Among Policies And Plans
• Have systematic efforts been made or mechanisms implemented
to ensure consistency among the various pieces of education-
related legislation, and the various policies, plans and strategies?
If yes, how well did that work? If no, why not?
• In what way are the education policies and plans:
° Consistent with overall national development priorities and
strategies?
° Realistic in the sense that the aspirations are achievable (being
consistent with existing capacity, human resources, structures
and finance)?
° To what degree are the existing legislation, policies, strategies and
plans consistent with each other? What are the remaining
inconsistencies, especially in terms of policy goals and
implementation strategies?
 Stakeholders
• Have they allowed all relevant stakeholders to voice their
concerns? If not, why not?
• What kinds of mechanisms and communication channels have
been used for promoting participatory and consultative
education policy-making and monitoring?
Resources
• National education legislation and accompanying regulations
• National education sector plans
• UNDAF
• Education sector analysis documents by agencies and partners.
• Studies and research on specific areas of education policy
undertaken by government, think tanks, academics and
development partners.
 (v) Planning of policy implementation;
During implementation, the following is the rule rather than the
exception:
• (a) circumstances related to implementation constraints cause policy
modifications to take place;
• (b) feedback obtained during implementation causes reassessment of
aspects of the policy decision and subsequent modifications by
policymakers; and
• (c) the mere translation of abstract policy intentions into concrete
implementation causes re-assessment and re-design. T h e s e
changes occur with great frequency because, unfortunately,
implementation problems are often greatly under-estimated during
the stage of policy planning
 Policy Implementation( Fowler, 2014)
• many official policies are never implemented at all, and many
others are implemented only partially or incorrectly.
Implementation can never be taken for granted.
• Of all the stages of the policy process, implementation is the
one with which education leaders can least avoid
involvement. Conceivably, they could work for years without
contacting a member of the state legislature or paying
attention to issue definition or agenda setting, but they
cannot work for even one year in a leadership position
without being required to implement a policy. Indeed, to a
great extent, their jobs can be summarized in two words:
policy implementation.
 THE RESEARCH ON
IMPLEMENTATION( Fowler, 2013)
• Defining Implementation Implementation is
“organizational activities directed toward the
carrying out of an adopted policy by administrative
bureaucracies at the national, state, and local
levels.” (Clemons & McBeth, 2009, p. 79).
• The major actors in the implementation arena are
the implementers. Formal implementers are
government officials who have the legal authority
to see that a new policy is put into effect.
 Intermediaries as implementers
• Intermediaries are implementers to whom the formal
implementers delegate the responsibility to help with
implementation. They are all the people and groups who
operate between the formal implementers and the point at
which the policy has an impact on the target population,
usually students. When the USDOE implements a policy, the
intermediaries include SDEs, school boards, district
administrators, and—preeminently—classroom teachers.
During the implementation of a policy that originated at the
state level, the professional employees of local districts
(both administrators and teachers) are the intermediaries
 Successful Implementation
• Successful implementation depends on developing and
maintaining both the will and the capacity of the
intermediaries. The individuals and agencies who must
cooperate in order to implement a policy must have reasons for
doing so—in other words, they must be willing. Motivation can
be encouraged in many ways, but formal implementers should
never take it for granted. Moreover, motivation, although
necessary for good implementation, is not sufficient. All the will
in the world cannot overcome lack of capacity or inability to do
what the policy requires. As with will, formal implementers
must constantly keep in mind the capacity of the intermediaries
(McLaughlin, 1987; Spillane, Reiser, & Reimer, 2002).
 Progress in implementation knowledge
• In the preface to their 1971 case study Implementing
Organizational Innovations, authors Gross, Giacquinta, and
Bernstein observed that “the implementation phase of the
process of planned organizational change . . . has received little
attention.
• However, more than forty years later, in the preface to the fourth
edition of The New Meaning of Educational Change, Fullan (2007)
could assert: “[T]he knowledge base of change is becoming more
profound and accessible, and . . . it is absolutely indispensable to
leading [school reform]” (p. xiii). In the intervening decades, then,
researchers produced much new knowledge about how to
implement policies in education settings.
• Today we can say, without exaggeration, that of all the stages of
the policy process, implementation is the second best
understood, after policy evaluation.
 Three generations
• The implementation research can be divided
into three generations. The first generation
began to appear in print in the early 1970s;
the second, in the late 1970s; and the third,
about 1990. As with the generations of a
family, who are born at different times but
continue to live side by side for decades, all
three generations of implementation research
are very much alive today
 First-Generation Research—The
• First-Generation Research—The Difficulty of Implementation OVERVIEW.
First-generation implementation research focuses on the difficulty— in
some cases the impossibility—of policy implementation. Researchers
attribute the extreme difficulty of implementation to various causes. For
example, after synthesizing several studies of Title I of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), Jerome Murphy (1971)
concluded that politics and federal bureaucracy hindered the
implementation of compensatory education programs. He found that the
USDOE was woefully understaffed and, even if it had employed enough
personnel to oversee implementation, agency workers probably would
not have supported the goals of compensatory education for ideological
reasons. His major conclusion was pessimistic: “The federal system . . . not
only permits but encourages the evasion and dilution of federal reform,
making it nearly impossible for the federal administrator to impose
program priorities” (p. 35)
 first-generation studies
• Other first-generation studies focused on cultural barriers rather than
political ones. In his influential book The Culture of the School and the
Problem of Change, first published in 1971 and reissued in 1996,
Seymour Sarason argued that most education reforms fail because
reformers do not take school culture into account. They devise new
policies as if they will be implemented in a vacuum rather than in an
institutional setting with more than a century of cultural traditions. One
of Sarason’s examples of misguided reform was the New Math of the
1950s and 1960s. Developed in universities (whose institutional culture
differs markedly from that of schools), the New Math curricula were
inconsistent with many of the most fundamental features of school life.
The failure of this reform was predictable. Sarason’s thesis inspired
many later researchers to study how culture interacts with
implementation efforts, posing difficulties.
 LESSONS FROM THE FIRST GENERATION

• . The major lesson that first-generation research teaches is that

implementation is difficult. Before the early studies of
implementation appeared, many people assumed—like Truman’s
caricature of Ike—that when people receive authoritative policy
directives, they naturally follow them. Nothing could be further
from the truth. The fact that a government body has come up
with a new policy does not mean that it will be followed. The
implementers may not want to follow it, or they may not be able
to. Moreover, change is hard and the status quo is comfortable.
Policies are implemented only if the formal implementers and
the intermediaries are willing and able to work hard to put them
in place.
 Lesson from first generation
• First-generation research also suggests why policy implementations often fail. Indeed, the 1971
account of Cambire School contains in embryonic form all the major reasons that later studies
confirmed. First, implementers frequently do not understand what they are supposed to do. Too
often, education policy changes are introduced at a short in-service session at the beginning of
the school year. A pep talk by a consultant precedes the distribution of glossy materials to a
room full of apprehensive teachers and principals. This approach leaves the intermediary
implementers confused.
• A second problem revealed by the first generation of implementation research is that
intermediary implementers often lack the knowledge and skills necessary to implement a policy.
The effective operation of an open classroom does not happen by chance. It requires a high level
of planning and organizational ability; yet, no one thought to teach these skills to the Cambire
teachers.
• Third, first-generation implementation research underscores the critical importance of resources
in implementation. The two key resources are materials and time.
• Time is as important as are materials, and it, too, is a cost factor. At Cambire, teachers were
asked to take on many new tasks simultaneously. They were also required to do a great deal of
additional paperwork. The effect was to increase greatly the length of their workday without
increasing their salaries. Not surprisingly, then, by the third month of implementation, many of
them were visibly “exhausted and short tempered” (Gross et al., 1971, p. 180
• Second-Generation Research—Analyses of
Failure and Success OVERVIEW. Second-
generation research studies both successful
and unsuccessful implementations, attempting
to determine why some policies are fully
implemented and others are not.
 LESSONS FROM THE SECOND GENERATION

• . Like first-generation implementation research, the research of the second generation

suggests that implementation is difficult. Many policies—perhaps most—are never
really implemented. Among those policies that are not implemented, a watered-down
version is often put in place. Sometimes nothing changes at all. This means that the
people responsible for an implementation can never take it for granted that those under
them will put a policy into effect simply because they are supposed to. Unlike first-
generation research, however, the research of the second generation suggests that
implementation is possible. Although in successful implementations a process of
“mutual adaptation” occurs, which changes both the design of the policy and the
behavior of the implementers, the core and the spirit of the new policy do take effect
(McLaughlin, 1976). Success requires hard work and pressure. It may cause some
implementers to burn out. But success can and does happen. Most important,
secondgeneration research suggests why some implementations succeed whereas
others fail. Using carefully constructed quantitative and qualitative research designs,
secondgeneration researchers have teased out many of the common characteristics of
strong and weak implementation. As a result, making concrete recommendations to
school leaders about how to plan and carry out a policy implementation is now possible.
• Third-Generation Research—Implementing Complex Policies
OVERVIEW. Beginning about 1990, proposed educational
reforms became considerably more ambitious than they had
been in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s (Honig, 2006). It is
relatively easy to implement such reforms as increasing the
number of mathematics courses needed for high school
graduation, mandating that teachers participate in more
professional development, or requiring students to take state
proficiency tests. The compensatory education reforms of the
1960s and 1970s were hard to implement because they were
redistributive policies. However, the substance of those
reforms was not complex.
• LESSONS FROM THE THIRD GENERATION. The third generation of
implementation research deepens and extends our understanding of aspects
of implementation that first- and second-generation researchers first
identified. Perhaps most important of all, it contributes important information
about implementers as learners. Earlier research revealed that teachers and
administrators did not always understand the policies they were expected to
implement, but many first- and second-generation studies also implied that
grassroots implementers were simply resistant, entrenched in the status quo,
or incompetent. While resistance, entrenchment in the status quo, and sheer
incompetence can certainly be found in public schools, the research on
implementers as learners suggests ways to increase the likelihood that
teachers and principals will fully grasp the nature of the changes required of
them. Of course, as indicated by second-generation research, ongoing
professional development is essential; however, that professional
development should be shaped by an understanding of cognitive psychology..
• Implementers should be shown how the proposed reform resembles their current practice, as well 216
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S4carliSle Publishing Services as how it differs from it. Ideally, workshops and seminars should also
model the new pedagogy that the implementers are expected to learn. Because new beliefs, norms,
and practices cannot be learned overnight, reformers should plan to provide extensive and ongoing
professional development over a long period of time. Third-generation research also suggests the key
importance of providing a strong social infrastructure for implementation. Historically, both teaching
and building administration have been constructed as individualistic professions to be practiced largely
in isolation. A “sink-or-swim” attitude prevailed; teachers and principals either succeeded or failed on
their own. Mentors, coaches, and support networks were unheard of. In contrast to the individualistic
norms of American public education, third-generation research indicates that people who are
implementing new policies or participating in the scaling up of a policy need strong social support.
They need opportunities to discuss new ideas among themselves; they need opportunities to observe
other educators who are already implementing the policy; they need assistance from facilitators and
mentors. They also benefit from access to a support network. The development of such an
infrastructure is costly. It implies providing teachers and principals with such amenities as joint
planning periods, additional time for professional development, and funds to attend relevant
conferences and workshops. Such resources are not always easy to find, but they are probably part of
the inherent cost of bringing about meaningful change in American education
 Guidline for implementation
• general guidelines for implementing new policies. It
describes the process chronologically,
• starting with mobilization for implementation, and
moves on
• to implementation proper,
• concluding with the institutionalization of the new
policy.
• A fundamental assumption is that the school leaders
and other major implementers either support or
accept the policy.
• Mobilizing for Implementation Mobilization is probably the
most crucial step in policy implementation; serious errors
here almost always doom a project to failure. This section is
thus unusually long in relation to the other two sections,
reflecting the author’s conviction that investing time and
energy in mobilization is important. Therefore, leaders who
hope to bring about a lasting change should pay careful
attention to each step of mobilization: policy adoption,
planning, and the gathering of resources. They should also
understand that mobilization is not a short phase; Huberman
and Miles (1984) found that mobilization typically lasted
fourteen to seventeen months
• ADOPTING A NEW POLICY. Although many new policies are adopted outside school districts
and then passed down to them for implementation, 217 Policy Implementation: Getting
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Publishing Services new policies are often adopted at the district or even building level. For
example, a central office staff may decide to recommend to the school board that the
district’s junior high schools be transformed into middle schools, or a principal and the
faculty may decide to establish a peer tutoring program. Other policies are initiated at the
state or federal level, but are voluntary for schools and districts. Most policies based on
inducements fall into this category. For example, a school or district might apply to its SDE
for a grant to improve its graduation rate. In all such cases, a local adoption process must
occur, and it should be more than a decision by a small group of people who have the
authority to impose their ideas on others. A misguided or faulty adoption process
undermines the entire implementation. In fact, poor approaches to policy adoption are a
common cause of implementation failure. Therefore, school leaders who are considering
adopting a policy should be sure that they can answer three key questions in the
affirmative. If they cannot, they should alter or abandon their plans for policy change. The
remainder of this discussion is organized around these key questions.
• Motives for Adopting a New Policy. The first, and most important,
question is: Do we have good reasons for adopting a new policy?
The research on implementation suggests that there are both
good and bad reasons for adopting policies. The worst reason for
adopting a policy is that a few leaders want to build their
reputations as innovators in order to advance their careers.
Typically, when a policy is adopted as part of a career-building
scheme, the key leaders receive job offers in the middle of
implementation and leave. When that happens, the
implementation falls apart, leaving disillusionment in its wake.
Even when the hoped-for jobs never materialize, such
implementations are usually poorly planned and consist of more
image than substance (Berman & McLaughlin, 1978; Fullan, 2001).
 Determining whether policy is appropriate
for a specific context
• • Is the proposed policy consistent with the school’s or
district’s vision statement or philosophy? • Is it
consistent with the school’s or district’s assessed needs?
• Is it consistent with the school’s or district’s priorities?
• Is it consistent with the level of available and
potentially available resources? • Is it consistent with the
values of the community? • Does evidence exist that it
has been effective with student populations such as the
school’s or district’s in terms of: —age? —racial or ethnic
background? —gender composition? —socioeconomic
class? —English language proficiency? —life experience?
• Appropriateness of the New Policy. The second
question leaders should consider before adopting a
new policy is: Is this policy appropriate for our
school or district? Finding new ideas about how to
do things in schools is not hard. Every education
journal, every education conference, and many
politicians’ speeches abound with suggestions.
What is hard is determining which of these many
possible policy changes are suitable for the specific
context within which one works (Fullan, 2007).
• Adequate Support. The third question leaders should ask themselves is: Does the policy
we are considering have sufficient support among key stakeholders? Policy
implementations are as political as policy formulation and adoption in a legislative
arena; this means that a policy can be derailed by unwilling stakeholders as quickly as it
can be killed in a hostile committee. Therefore, assessing the level of support the
proposed policy enjoys is important (Berman & McLaughlin, 1978; Fullan, 2007). Above
all, considering the level of support among the major implementers is essential. If
members of a central office staff advocate adopting a new policy, they must make sure
that the principals and teachers who must implement the new policy accept it.
Principals play an unusually important role in implementation; ideally, they should
strongly support any new policy they must implement. The support of teachers is not
quite as crucial, because they often fall in line behind a principal who is convinced of
the value of change. Even so, they are likely to resist any new policy to which they
strongly object even if their principal supports it. Therefore, ensuring that the new
policy is at least acceptable to most of them is important. Berman and McLaughlin
(1978) found that top-down implementations “generally met with indifference or
resistance at the school level” (p. 15).
 (vi) Policy impact assessment;
• Policy impact assessment is carried out using the same criteria
employed during the policy evaluation stage. The assessment
process revolves around the following questions: What have
been the actual
• impacts of the policies in question? Are these impacts desirable
given the changes that were hoped for? Are the changes
affordable? Did costs prevent their full implementation? Did
cost over-runs make it unthinkable to implement them over a
longer term or on a wider basis? Can the policy be lived with
politically and socially? Are the impacts feasible? Were full
impacts accomplished? Would exceptional efforts be required
to replicate these impacts in other circumstances?
 Policy Evaluation
• Evaluation is an integral part of the professional lives of all
educators. Teachers regularly evaluate students; principals
regularly evaluate teachers; and, increasingly, administrators
themselves are subjected to regular evaluation. Broader forms of
institutional evaluation are also common. Accrediting teams visit
schools and districts, observing, interviewing, and collecting data.
Many states have established indicator systems in order to gather
information from school districts in dozens of performance areas,
analyzing and comparing these figures, and then issuing official
reports on their findings. In some cases, state departments of
education (SDEs) even use evaluation results to categorize
districts, perhaps labeling them excellent, effective, or deficient
and attaching rewards and sanctions to those labels.
• Like every other stage of the policy process, evaluation is difficult, in
large part because it is political; the major reason is that it threatens
people.
• Evaluation is “the systematic investigation of the quality of programs,
projects . . . or any of their components . . . for purposes of decision
making . . . leading to improvement and/or accountability. . . .”
(Yarbrough, Shulha, Hopson, & Caruthers, 2011, p. xxv).
• A policy evaluation is a type of applied research in which the practices
and rigorous standards of all research are used in a specific setting for a
practical purpose: determining to what extent a policy is reaching its
goals.
• Policies are often first put into effect through projects. For example,
when the federal government adopted compensatory education as a
national policy, it funded short-term Head Start and Title I projects in
many school districts. When projects are institutionalized, they become
• The Evaluation Process Whether a large national organization
evaluates a policy in fifty states or a building principal evaluates a
program in a single school does not matter: All policy evaluations
follow the same general procedures. Basis steps for policy
evaluation are:
• 1. Determine the goals of the policy
• 2. Select indicators
• 3. Select or develop data-collection instruments
• 4. Collect data
• 5. Analyze and summarize data
• 6. Write evaluation report
• 7. Respond to evaluators ’recommendations
• The Program Evaluation Standards: A Guide for
Evaluators and Evaluation Users. The thirty
standards are grouped under five broad
categories, which serve as general criteria: (1)
utility, (2) feasibility, (3) propriety, (4) accuracy,
and (5) evaluation accountability (Yarbrough et
al., 2011). This section, drawing heavily on The
Program Evaluation Standards, discusses each
of these five criteria (Yarbrough et al., 2011).
 M&E
• Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is an integral part of the policy
cycle, consisting of compiling and analysing information that
enables actors to learn from each other’s experiences and which
indicates how to make improvements in policy and in practices (see
section on “Education policy cycle”). M&E is used in various ways
depending on the nature of a programme and the purpose of an
evaluation. There are three main M&E classifications in use, relating
to who is conducting the M&E, why it is being conducted and when
it is being conducted.
• Who: The first classification can be made depending on who is
conducting the evaluation. M&E can be internal (if it is carried out
by the persons belonging to the same institution as those managing
the programme); or self-evaluation (as a form of internal evaluation
done by those who implement the programme); or external (when
the evaluation is carried out by those outside the institution).
• Why: The second classification pertains to the purpose of evaluation. M&E can be
formative (because the main objective of evaluation is to correct the course taken by a
policy); summative (since it leads to conclusions about the value of the policy so that
lessons can be learnt for the future); or ex-post (conducted a certain time after the
completion of a program in order to evaluate the impact and sustainability of the
program.)
• When: The third classification relates to when evaluation is conducted.
• Monitoring: Not an evaluation per se, it is a process whereby the activities are regularly
observed and analyzed, mainly focusing on efficiency (use of resources).
• Review: As for monitoring, it is performed by those who are responsible for the activities.
It is carried out less frequently than monitoring and focuses on effectiveness by
assessing whether the activities have delivered the expected outputs.
• Evaluation: Evaluation is an assessment of the outcomes, the impact of the program and
its sustainability, in order to learn lessons and apply them in future programs.
• Another form of evaluation is assessment of student learning outcomes consisting of
assessing learning achievements in order to provide information that can be used to
improve the curriculum and teaching/learning practices, and to document learning
achievements or failures.
 (vii) Subsequent policy cycles
• The next policy cycle begins here.
 Policy Analysis
Ten Steps in Policy Analysis
1. Define the problem.
2. Make the case.
3. Establish your driving values.
4. Develop alternatives.
5. Weigh the options.
6. Make recommendations.
7. Persuade your audience.
8. Implement the solution.
9. Monitor outputs.
10 Evaluate outcome
 1.DEFINE THE PROBLEM
• At the heart of the problem statement is a description of the condition
and the use of data organized into meaningful evidence to support that
there is a problem.
• Organize the discussion into a description of the condition, a discussion
of the consequences of not solving the condition, and a review of the
underlying factors causing the problem.
• By organizing the statement of the problem using these three
components, you, as an educational leader, can go a long way in
providing a clear definition of the problem.
• Your checklist for this step includes responding to the following
questions: • Did you include a descriptive statement of the condition,
with accompanying evidence?
• Did you discuss the consequences of not solving the condition, also with
accompanying evidence?
• Did you highlight the factors that led to the existence of the problem?
• Do the factors that you highlight have support in the literature as being
 2.MAKE THE CASE
• Policy analysis requires evidence-based strategies.
• Decision makers may rely on their gut, but your case is more convincing if you point
to the facts.
• This step is largely about the process of assembling evidence, including the
gathering of data and their ultimate transformation into persuasive proof. Your
checklist for this step includes responding to the following questions:
• • What data source are you relying on: people or documents, or both?
• • Did you use quantitative or qualitative data? Which type does your audience find
more credible?
• • In assembling data for monitoring, did you include explicit indicators that allow
you to know if and how the phenomenon that you describe has changed over
time?
• • In assembling evidence for prescriptions, did you document specific outputs
regularly? Did that documentation reveal patterns, associations, and possible
causation?
• • In assembling evidence for evaluating, did you document the changes associated
with the policy?
• Did these changes occur in the desired direction? Can these changes be linked to
 3.ESTABLISH YOUR DRIVING VALUES
• Reflect on the values that will help you choose among the various policy
options available.
• The groups and individuals involved in the decision process influence the
values that one ultimately uses to select among different policy alternatives.
• The political process and community mores determine whose values count
and who participates.
• Once the desired vision for society has been established, this vision is
explicitly reflected in the criteria used to choose among different policy
options.
• Criteria are concrete, working definitions of the values driving the analysis.
In selecting appropriate policy options, you will likely ask yourself these five
questions:
• Does it work?
• Is it fair?
• Can we afford it?
• Will people support it?
• Who will implement it?
 4.DEVELOP ALTERNATIVES
• Develop strategies to identify policy options and modify existing
solutions to broaden the alternatives that are available.
• In essence, you are seeking actions to change the condition that you
found problematic. You can start from scratch or reinvent the old,
making it something new. Here are the questions you need to ask
yourself:
• • How do the options identified address the underlying causes of the
policy issue?
• • What are the implications of the options identified for the success
of children?
• • Will the changes have an impact on the production process,
governance structure, educational outputs, or individual behaviors?
• • Who will be responsible for overseeing the change in action in
your proposed alternative?
• • How does the proposed funding differ from the status quo?
• • Will the options under consideration promote flexibility for
implementers?
 5.Weigh The Options
• Consider the merits of doing something different and ensure that it is
compatible with the context that you face. You must create measures of each
criterion so that decision makers and other stakeholders have a clear idea of
what a “good outcome” looks like. From the start, you should think about the
impact on key populations if the policy you propose does not work in the way
that you imagine. Here are the questions you should ask yourself:
• • What are the criteria that will undergird my choice?
• • Why is it important to include these criteria?
• • How will I know if I have more or less of a particular criterion?
• • What will “more effectiveness” look like? What measures allow me to
know?
• • What will “more equity” look like? What measures allow me to know?
• • What will “more economical” look like? What measures allow me to know?
• • What will “more political feasibility” look like? What measures allow me to
know?
• • What will “a greater ability to be implemented” look like? What measures
allow me to know?
 6.Make Recommendations
• You must determine how to choose among several options. Because
alternatives do not usually dominate all criteria, you must address trade-
offs. An objective, right answer does not exist, but you can still present
coherent and incoherent arguments. You must be consistent within the
ethical framework that you establish. Ask yourself these questions to test
the robustness of your recommendation:
• • Does the literature and professional experience support a rival claim
regarding the causal relationship between the outcomes desired and the
actions prescribed?
• • How many informed researchers and stakeholders agree with your
assessment regarding the likely costs and effectiveness of the proposed
policy? Is there general agreement in the field?
• • Have you considered stakeholder needs?
• • Are other actions more responsive to and appropriate for the policy
issue identified?
• • Are you clear about the ethical considerations that drive your decision?
• • Is the recommended action consistent with your stated ethical
 7.PERSUADE YOUR AUDIENCE
• Before you can move to the next step—implementing a policy
—you must persuade relevant decision makers about its
suitability. Knowing your audience and constructing strong
justifications for the claims made are important persuasive
tools. Tailor your presentation to fit the needs of the relevant
decision makers. For your analysis to be useful, its conclusions
must be clear. Here is a list of key questions to ask yourself:
• • Am I timely in the preparation and presentation of the
materials?
• • Are the major findings of the presentation clear?
• • Is the presentation engaging?
• • Is the conclusion clear and succinct?
• • Are policy and research implications highlighted?
 8.IMPLEMENT THE SOLUTION
• Your implementation plan essentially answers the questions of
what, who, how, and when. It should include an overview of the
tasks that need to be done, who will be responsible for doing
them, and the timeframe in which the tasks will be completed.
The following questions will help you check the utility of your
implementation plan:
• • Is there a direct connection between the implementation plan
and the problem defined?
• • Is the plan clear about its goals and objectives?
• • Do the tasks that must be completed present a clear pathway
to the goal and objectives described?
• • Have I identified who will be responsible for completing each
assigned task?
• • Is the timeframe for completion of the project noted and
justified?
 9.Monitor Outputs
• Monitoring is not a one-shot deal. It offers recurring
information on what happened and informs analytical
decisions on how it happened and why. It connects the
actions outlined in the implementation plan with policy
objectives. Monitoring describes and explains policy
actions; it does not judge its impact. Here are some
important questions to ask yourself:
• What data should I track to illustrate the workings of the
policy?
• How do the selected data help to illustrate compliance and
performance of implementers and other stakeholders?
• Who should track the required data?
• How often should I or others track these data?
 10.Evaluate Outcomes
Evaluation focuses on the achievement of goals and objectives. Stakeholders must
find your evaluative framework relevant and credible. Devote adequate resources
to the evaluation process so that you can make plausible links among policy
objectives, policy outcomes, and the conclusions that you draw. Evaluations serve
two main analytical purposes: formative and summative. Formative evaluations
produce ongoing information that can help implementers of the program improve
performance. Summative evaluations occur at the end of a program’s life cycle,
when enough time has passed to determine whether a program worked. In
developing your evaluation plan, ask yourself these questions:
• Do I have an explicit statement of policy goals and objectives?
• Did I include specific policy actions that will achieve those ends?
• Am I simply describing outcomes?
• Does my research method allow me to assess the success of the policy?
• How did I account for the political dimensions of the analytical process?
• What data will my evaluation produce?
• Will I produce developmental feedback? What makes this feedback credible? •
What will lead people to believe my summative assessment?
 Definition of a sector Analysis and its Objectives
• Sector analysis, broadly defined, is concerned with the
examination and assessment of the resources, needs, problems,
and opportunities in individual sectors of the economy,
• OBJECTIVES OF SECTOR ANALYSIS
* Assisting consideration of economy wide policies and strategies
* Enabling judgments to be made on sector development policies
and strategies that will enhance the contribution of the sector
to the country's economic development
* Determining investment priorities in the sector as a crucial step
toward identifying specific projects and any additional pre
investment studies required
* Evaluating the capacity of principal institutions in the sector to
implement desired policies, programs, and projects.
 Why carry out Sector analysis?

• To gain an overview of the sector as a whole;

• Every country possesses at least some data on which to base sector
work and as some people are familiar with each sector;
• Because officials are too busy to provide-or to organize the
provision of-the kind of analysis that lies at the heart of sector work;
• Because regular officers are not trained in framing questions
carefully, collecting and interpreting data, and arriving at
conclusions and recommendations to promote sector development;
• Because economic questions are complex, since everything is related
to everything else, to avoid poor policies or ill-considered
investments; for resolving questions of choice and priority and of
interconnections among projects.
 Purposes of Sector Analysis
• A basic purpose of sector analysis is to bridge the gap between the
macroeconomics of country-level policies and investment programs
and the microeconomics of individual projects.
• It promotes "top down" and "bottom up" activity in several ways.
• It analyzes the effects of general policy variables: exchange rate, tax
structure, wage policies, and interest rates on the sector, and on
projects within the sector and also the effect of policies and problems
in larger sectors such as agriculture, industry.
• sector analysis provides estimates of output and employment
potential and investment requirements for the sector as a whole;
assesses the development potential and the relative advantages of
different projects and programs within a sector; helps to ensure that
individual projects are selected and designed on the basis of a sector's
needs and priorities,
 Purposes of Sector Analysis
• Existence of policy and institutional changes necessary
for performance at the project, or microeconomic level
• An important contribution of sector analysis is to
determine the impact of a sector on the development of
other sectors and to ensure consistency in policy and
investment recommendations from one to another;
• sector analysis also points to governments intersect oral
relations, constraints, and opportunities that previously
were either not perceived or not fully appreciated.
 Sectoral Issues
• there are many sectoral issues including: “…pricing
of marketable outputs, targeting of beneficiaries,
acquisition of technology, intrasectoral allocation of
investments…”( Baum & Tolbert, 1985, p. 73).
• Other issues: institutional and decision-making
structures, manpower and training needs, sector
investment plans, incentives for resource allocation,
technology policy, shadow prices for project
evaluation, statistical requirements, and so
on”(Baum & Tolbert, p. 76).
 Sector Analysis Questions:
• Many types of questions may be addressed in special sector studies. Is it
worthwhile to revive a declining sugar industry and, if so, how can this
best be done?
• What is the role of small- and medium-scale industry, and what can be
done to assist it?
• How can cost recovery in irrigation projects be increased?
• What are the priority investment needs of the road transport sector for
the next ten years?
• How is the structure of agricultural prices, taxation, and subsidies
affecting the sector's performance as well as the national budget? What
can be done to minimize oil imports in the future-what policies, what
investments, what new government programs should be pursued?
• What is the state of vocational and technical training, and what needs to
be done to expand its output and improve its quality?
• What should the country do to achieve its objective of slowing
population growth?
 Sector Analysis Report
• Must be brief (or at least with a brief
summary) and concise: be selective, focusing
on specific issues;
• Concentrate on the analysis of important
issues, be analytic rather than descriptive; be
issue-oriented with just sufficient background
and convey the main findings and provide
specific recommendations.
 Education Sector Analysis
• These issues may be explored under six categories: (i)
access to educational opportunities; (ii) equity in the
distribution of educational services; (iii) structure of the
education system; (iv) internal efficiency; (v) external
efficiency; and (vi) institutional arrangements for the
management of the sector.
• Educational system changes over time.
• A historical and evolutionary perspective on the
dynamics of policies across time allows the analyst a
better sense of why a particular policy is being advocated
at the moment. By studying the past, one also learns the
likely speed with which educational policies can be
implemented.
 Policy Analysis from UNESCO 2011
• Volume 1:This volume of the handbook also provides
guiding questions for conducting policy analysis.
• Volume 2: of the handbook provides a methodological
approach together with practical tools to document and
organize information for education policy analysis, using a
set of matrices.
• By systematically gathering relevant information, issues
and insights and inputting these into the matrices, the
matrix-chain analysis process facilitates the detection of
policy gaps and niches that can help to identify strategic
areas for UNESCO’s country cooperation strategy, and for
mobilizing government commitments and support from
development partners.
• Understanding the context: The education sector
does not function in isolation but regularly
interacts with other sectors in the country as well
as regionally an internationally. Reforms in the
education sector can affect other sectors.
• Education policy reform often responds to
identified needs, and is also influenced by global
and regional education development agenda
 Analytical dimensions
• Analytical dimensions: The education sector
and its sub-sectors can be analyzed according
to various key aspects or dimensions that are
specific to education. Among them, access,
quality and management of education are
often used as analytical dimensions to review
education policies.
 Access and equity
• Key concerns in education policy analysis are about whether or
not:
• There are adequate education facilities available in the country.
• Everyone can easily access such education opportunities.
• Everyone can fully participate in and equally benefit from
education.
• The degree to which existing education policies and plans address
these concerns and related disparities is an important part of
education policy analysis.
• Availability of education is the extent to which the education
facilities and materials are available in a country.
• This may include whether or not the government and/or private
organizations in the country provides school buildings, teachers,
text books, paper, pencils and other education facilities and
materials
 Participation In Education
• Participation in education is about to what extent the
population fully takes part in and makes use of available
education services, ideally throughout the duration of such
services until completion of the education level concerned. It
is not infrequent that some people cannot fully and effectively
participate in and complete education. Commonly used
indicators include completion rates and graduation rates, as
well as student flow rates such as promotion, repetition and
drop-out rates. Additional indicators of survival, retention,
cohort completion rates, etc. can be calculated based on
these flow rates. And the internal efficiency of an education
system can be measured in terms of the number of years
taken by a child to complete a particular cycle or level of
education (e.g. primary, secondary, etc.).
 Education Access
• Education affects access to education and participation in education.
Analysis of equity examines whether education services are provided
equally to all groups, and involves paying particular attention to the
actual access and participation by sub-groups.
• Analyzing equity often involves disaggregating data by: gender (for
girls and boys; and for men and women); administrative area (region,
districts, etc.); geographical location (urban, rural and remote areas);
socio-cultural groupings (social strata, ethnic and linguistic minority
groups, etc.); income percentiles; education level (e.g. primary,
secondary, TVET, higher education); and by type of providers (public,
semi-public, private or community schools, etc.).
• It is also important to take into consideration any changes over time,
such as past, present and future trend.
 The Right to Education and The Provision of Education.

• Key issues
• Key issues related to educational access and equity include
the right to education, the access/ quality dichotomy, as
well as measurement.
• The right to education and the provision of education: The
right to education has been recognized in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and numerous national policies
and international conventions. But universal access to and
anticipation in education continue to be major challenges in
many countries. At the same time, the optimum level of
education and learning that should be accomplished by the
entire population is subject to continuing debate.
 Access and Quality
• Access and quality: With the aim of increasing access to
education, many national education policies and plans
allocate resources primarily to building more schools and
hiring more teachers in order to expand coverage. But
while this can increase the accessibility of education,
participation in education can fall short of expectations if
schools and teachers do not meet basic quality standards.
A difficult issue facing most countries is how to improve
both access to education and the quality of education
(which affects participation) when resources are limited.
Education policy analysis should look into how this issue
has been considered at the policy level, and what the
lessons learned are.
 Reliability And Comparability
• Measurement: The reliability and comparability of indicators depends on the
availability and quality of the underlying data. A vital task in education policy
analysis is to verify whether student-level data have been collected from all
schools throughout the country’s territory. It is equally important that all
such data are available disaggregated by the subgroups mentioned above
(gender, administrative area, geographical location, socio-cultural groupings,
education level and type of providers).
• Guiding questions
• The right to education and provision of education
• • Is the right to education recognized and mentioned in the legislation,
policies and public discourse in the country?
• • Does the government provide free and compulsory basic education to all?
Up to which grade?
• • What are the main obstacles to ensuring the right to education is upheld in
the country? How have these obstacles been addressed in existing education
policies, strategies and plans? What are the remaining gaps and issues?
• • Learning from past experiences, how should future education policies and
plans pursue efforts to uphold citizens’ right to education?
 Access and Quality
• In what way have existing education policies and plans addressed the issue of
balancing resource allocation between increasing access and improving quality?
• What alternative solutions and innovations have been adopted in terms of
providing access to good quality education for disadvantaged population
groups? What have been the implementation experiences and lessons learned?
• How should upcoming policies and plans balance access and quality for different
levels and types of education?
• Measurement Are education statistics and indicators (e.g. intake rates, enrolment
ratios, repetition rates, drop-out rates and completion rates) disaggregated by
gender, location, etc? If yes, for what kinds of disaggregation are data available?
If no, why not?
• How have provision of education, access to education and participation in
education evolved over time? Has this changed in terms of level of education,
gender participation and other criteria (e.g. geographical location, socio-
cultural, family income groupings)?
• How best should education coverage, access and participation be measured in
the future? What other data needs to be collected? How can this be achieved?
Possible Indicators Access and Coverage

• Gross admission rates

• Admission rates by age
• Gross enrolment rates
• Net enrolment rates
• Enrolment rates by age
• Transition rates
 Equity
• Breakdown of data on main indicators:
• Demographic variables (age, sex)
• Geographic area
• Social groups
 Indicators of Internal efficiency
• promotion rates
• Transition rates
• Repetition rates
• Dropout rates
• Wastage ratios (Survival/completion rates)
• Average length of study per graduate
 Output Indicators
• Achievement scores from standardized
assessment test
• Pass rates in national examination
• Attitude and social behavior of school leavers
 Input Indicators : Teachers, Textbooks and materials, and curriculum

 Teachers:
• Pupils per teacher
• Level and type of qualification
• Level of pedagogical training
• Specialization
• Sex and age  Status
• Length of service
• Distribution by teaching load
• Teachers teaching in multi grade class
• Teachers teaching in double shift
• Teacher absenteeism
 Textbooks and materials:
• Textbooks per pupil
• Teacher guides per teacher or per school
 Input Indicators
 Curriculum:
• Curriculum goals and objective
• Teaching learning methods
• Number of teaching hours set aside for core subject
• Number of subjects taught per class compared to the
official number
• Percentage of time devoted by teachers for preparing
lessons
• Type of materials used for school buildings
• Conditions of school buildings
• Averages surface area of school
• Averages surface area by pupils
• Proportion of schools with electricity, drinking water, toilets
 Process Indicators
• Utilization of classrooms, laboratories etc.
• Use of experimental learning
• Learning in small groups
• Amount and type of homework done and corrected per
semester
• Absenteeism of teachers
• Absenteeism of pupils
• Actual pupil-teacher contact hours by subject
• Frequency of supervisory visits per teacher
• Availability and location of teacher resource centers
• Frequency of tests
 indicators of Outcomes
• Structure of employment by:
• Sector
• Occupational group
• Employment status Education and training profile of the employed by:
• Sector
• Employment status
• Occupational group
• Self-employment (need and recent action)
• Response of the education system to the country’s social, economic
and ecological development needs:
• Relevance of curricula content to the country’s actual social, health,
environmental and other conditions
• Observed statistical impact of the level of formal education attained
on Socio-demographic behavior such as fertility rates, nutrition etc
 Indicators of Cost and Financing

• Expenditure and resource allocation:

• Public expenditure on education as a percentage public budget
• Recurrent expenditure on education as percentage of total public expenditure
• Public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP
• Expenditure(absolute and percentage by level and type of education
• Breakdown of education budget by the type of expenditure: staff, materials and
equipment, maintenance
• Total real expenditure on education by level and type
• Sources of funding:
• Proportion of contribution of central government, regional/local administration,
external aid
• Paternal expenditure on education by level and type of education
• Amount and proportion of contribution of enterprise
• Cost and resource utilization:
• Unit cost by level and type of education and training  Efficiency of cost control
 Teacher utilization: actual work load, classroom contact hours
 Indicators of Educational Management
 Strategic function:
 Linkage between education budget and management functions and goals
of education plans and programs 
 Adequacy of structures, human and other resources
 Degree of coherence and coordination of regulations structures
supporting the different management function and tasks
 Management function:
 Effectiveness of accountability mechanisms
 Cost effectiveness of existing administrative procedure
 Human, financial and material resources, organization Structure and
legal and political context characterize the school, local, woreda, regional,
levels educational management
 Information and operational:
 Appropriateness of information systems and other management tools
 Degree of motivation of various actors: teachers, school heads, teacher
trainers, supervisors, administrators different levels and departments
 Guiding Questions
• Education processes: curriculum and pedagogy
• Has there been a recent review of the national
curriculum? What were the findings and
recommendations?
• How is the national curriculum developed, updated and
renewed in the country?
• How are the curricular contents decided? Does the
curriculum development process involve all relevant
stakeholders?
• Does the curriculum allow enough flexibility to
incorporate local content at the sub national or school
levels, to meet the diverse learning needs of learners?
 Education Results Chain

• When assessing the quality of education there are many issues

to consider. Often they have to be addressed by adopting a
holistic approach, as illustrated in Figure 6. Some issues include:
• • Improving the quality of teachers: Teachers can constitute 80
to 90 per cent of total recurrent education expenditure. They
are a major asset and are the main driving force in education.
Teachers play a key role in improving the quality of education.
• Therefore, improving the training and motivation of teachers
can make a decisive difference in stimulating and improving
teaching and learning. [N.B. There are many issues surrounding
teacher retention, remuneration and professional development
policies that will be discussed in the “Teacher policies” section
of this document.] Making the curriculum more relevant:
Curriculum is at the heart of education.
• Curriculum
A curriculum translates expected learning outcomes into courses of studies
and teaching-learning processes. It determines the kinds of learning
materials and teaching aids to be designed, produced and used by teachers
and learners. It also guides the teachers to impart learning in an organized
manner, so as to help learners to achieve the desired learning outcomes.
• Has there been a recent review of the national curriculum? What were the
findings and recommendations? How is the national curriculum developed,
updated and renewed in the country? How are the curricular contents
decided? Does the curriculum development process involve all relevant
stakeholders? • Does the curriculum allow enough flexibility to incorporate
local content at the sub national or school levels, to meet the diverse
learning needs of learners? Are there provisions for bilingual or multilingual
education? • Do the teaching and learning materials reflect the curriculum?
How frequently are curricular materials reviewed and updated?
• What teaching-learning methods are most commonly used? Rote learning?
Competency based? In what ways do they hinder or facilitate student
learning? Are teachers properly trained in using participatory and
interactive teaching methods?
Measuring and improving learning outcomes.
• Assessments of learning achievement are used as a proxy
to measure the salient outcomes of education. While most
countries continue to use examinations (e.g. entrance
exams and graduation exams), others have begun
organizing national assessments of learning achievement
and have begun participating in international assessment
surveys such as the OECD’s Program for International
Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
• Such international standardized tests enable comparison
across countries. It should be noted that such tests have
limitations in assessing non-cognitive skills, such as values
and behavior
 Education outcomes: learning achievement
• How is student learning achievement monitored in the country?
Does the country organize national assessments of learning achievement?
Is there continuous monitoring of student learning? What is the balance
between formative and summative evaluations of student learning? How are
the results of assessments used for policy and learning improvement?
• Does the country participate in international assessments such as PISA and
TIMSS? How do the results compare with other countries and over time?
• Does the country have national (and sub-national) examinations? At which
grade(s)? What are the main findings and issues? In what way have these
exams and findings been used to inform or shape policies and/or to improve
learning inputs, processes and achievement?
• Do students from any particular population group(s) under-perform in such
examinations? If yes, why? Is the government taking any specific measure to
address such under-performance? What are the results and impact of such
measures?
• Is there regular measurement of performance indicators? For students and
schools?
 Input, process, Output, and Outcome

Input Process
Curriculum OUTCOME
Cognitive • Pedagogy Cognitive
skills (learning OUTPUT
• Language skills (learning
achievement) Graduate
of achievement)
• Non-cognitive s
Instruction • Non-cognitive
skills (eg. •
• Class size skills (eg.
social skills, Dropouts
• Teaching/ social skills,
values) Learning values)
• Occupational hours • Occupational
skills skills
 Measuring and Improving Learning Outcomes

• Assessments of learning achievement are used as a proxy to

measure the salient outcomes of education. While most
countries continue to use examinations (e.g. entrance exams
and graduation exams), others have begun organizing
national assessments of learning achievement and have
begun participating in international assessment surveys such
as the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment
(PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS). Such international standardized tests enable
comparison across countries. It should be noted that such
tests have limitations in assessing non-cognitive skills, such as
values and behavior.
 Relevance, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Impact And
Sustainability
• Result chain and assessment methodology: When conducting an
evaluation, we can analyze education systems or policies in terms of
relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability:
° Relevance: Does a policy or a program respond to the identified needs
(hypothetical) or have the results of the program addressed them (real)?
° Effectiveness: Are the desired outputs being achieved? Is the policy or
project delivering the results it set out to deliver (objectives vs.
outputs and outcomes)?
° Efficiency: Are we using the available resources wisely and well in terms
of the outputs that have been achieved (resources vs. outputs)?
° Impact: Have the wider goals been achieved? What changes have
occurred for individuals and/or communities?
° Sustainability: Will the impact be sustainable? How? Will any structures
and processes so established be sustained? How?
 Guiding questions in M & E
• Accountability • Has an effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism been
established? Which institutions are responsible for which aspects of evaluation?
How do they co-ordinate and co-operate for information sharing, policy design
and implementation? • Does the data and information system provide timely and
relevant statistics and indicators for informed policy formulation and evaluation?
What are the gaps and bottlenecks for using data in education management,
especially programme M&E? • In countries that depend on external aid, is SWAp
in place for joint review and evaluation? What are the issues and challenges?
Result chain and assessment methodology • Is there an institution responsible for
assessment of learning achievement? How effective is its operation? How are the
results of assessments (examinations, national or international learning surveys)
used to change and improve policy? • Is there an agreed M&E framework for the
education sector? If so, how was it developed? How often is such an M&E
exercise carried out? • How often are policy and plan reviews/evaluations
conducted? Is there a mechanism overseeing the use and sharing of the results
of evaluations for policy change and programme implementation? What
improvements are needed? Does the country participate in international
assessments and are these being used to inform the policy debate and make
 Education Sub sectors- ECCE
• Early childhood refers to the period between birth and 5 to 8 years of age, depending on
the country, and takes into account the transition period from early childhood to primary
education. Key Issues in ECCE
• Access to high quality ECCE services: Enrolment ratios in pre-primary education differ
greatly between countries. There are also differences within countries, with ECCE services
usually concentrated in urban areas. There is an urgent need for countries to ensure all
young children have equal opportunities to participate in comprehensive ECCE
programmes.
• Training and professional development of ECCE practitioners: A critical issue facing ECCE in
many countries is that many of the teachers and care-givers are not qualified nor
adequately trained to foster young children’s optimal holistic development and learning.
To increase enrolment in ECCE and improve quality, ECCE practitioners need to be well-
trained and provided with opportunities for refresher training and ongoing professional
development. Moreover, countries need to regulate and monitor the status, service
quality, working conditions, compensation and opportunities for professional
development of ECCE personnel in order to attract and retain high-quality practitioners.
• Governance and policy co-ordination: Multiple ministries/departments and non-state
providers are involved in ECCE. Private providers play an important role in expanding
access to ECCE in many countries, even in the wealthiest countries. Intersect oral policy
co-ordination is essential to avoid fragmentation, overlaps and diffusion of efforts.
 Guiding Questions To ECCE
What laws, policies and regulatory frameworks exist in relation to the
rights, protection, well-being and education of young children, and
the obligations of the State?
• Who are the providers of ECCE services? What are their capacities
for providing ECCE services? What additional ECCE capacity is
needed and for which geographical regions and population groups?
• What are the causes of low participation in ECCE besides limited
capacity?
• Are there ECCE curriculum guidelines or pedagogical guidelines in
the country?
If so, what is the coverage in terms of age groups and developmental
areas?
• Are children over-burdened with heavy academic requirements and
examinations at an early age to the detriment of their holistic
growth?
 Guiding Questions To ECCE …
Training and professional development of ECCE practitioners
• What types of training or preparation programes for ECCE practitioners exist
in the country? Who provides and funds them?
• What is the minimum requirement for qualified ECCE practitioners? What is
the percentage of qualified ECCE practitioners for the country as a whole
and by geographical areas?
• What is the status and the working conditions of ECCE practitioners
compared to other sub-sectors?
Governance and policy co-ordination
• What types of ECCE programs do young children tend to participate in? Are
they funded and managed publicly or privately? What are the levels of
participation in these different program?
• What is the division of responsibility for ECCE policy and service provision
among the relevant ministries, departments and other government
agencies? What mechanisms are in place to co-ordinate the sectors and
ministries related to ECCE (e.g. lead ministry, inter-ministerial committee
 What is an indicator?
• An indicator can be a number, an observation or a signal that gives
us a reliable and unbiased understanding about an object, a
situation, a phenomenon, a happening, a motion, a development
process, etc.
• It can be a simple number, a percentage, a ratio or rate, a ‘yes’ or
‘no’ answer, a piece of data, or a score.
• Broadly speaking, indicators indicate.
• Indicators enhance our understanding of situations and issues by
transforming raw data into meaningful information.
• Indicators can help us to identify problems and issues, and to
define targets and strategies, policies and plans to reach those
targets.
• When used to set benchmarks, indicators can serve as a guide to
monitor progress toward achieving a goal.
 Indicators in Education
• Indicators can help us to make rational and informed decisions
about how to reach the targets on time, to decide how to
solve problems, and to evaluate progress and outcomes.
• Indicators can, therefore, act as “measuring rods” for
comparing situations over time and between different
localities, population groups, levels of education or sexes.
• Indicators can provide a more objective basis for measuring
progress towards targets, and are essential for any monitoring
system.
• The concept of using indicators in the education system was
clearly articulated by Oakes (1986) who said, “An education
indicator tells something about the performance or health of
the education system.”
• This concept applies equally well to a school or the
management of education in a local area.
 Classification of Indicators

• Four approaches to classifying education indicators

including:
• quantitative and qualitative measurement
• monitoring and evaluation of education as a system
• aspects of education
• measurement scale
 Quantitative and qualitative indicators Quantitative indicators
• Quantitative and qualitative indicators
• Quantitative indicators describe objects and phenomena using only numbers.
• Qualitative indicators can use symbols, verbal, visual, textual as well as
numerical information to depict a state, or an observation.
• Quantitative and qualitative indicators may complement each other to help
develop a more complete understanding of the object or phenomena we are
studying.
• Many qualitative observations can also be expressed in quantitative terms. For
example, student performance may be measured by the scores they obtained
in a test or examination. Evaluative statements like ‘Very satisfactory’,
’Satisfactory’ and ‘Not satisfactory at all’ can be scored respectively 3, 2 and 1
in surveys or evaluations.
• These numerical scores describe a qualitative observation, but may also be
used to quantitatively compare performance and calculate summary indicators
such as average scores. But not all objects or phenomena can be expressed
using numbers, like feelings, sentiments or nuances.
 Monitoring and evaluation of education as a system

For purposes of monitoring education and EFA, education

indicators can be broadly classified into:
• input indicators
• process indicators
• output/outcome indicators
• impact indicators
Input and process indicators are used for monitoring whether
appropriate education policies have been issued, and adequate
resource inputs have been allocated and implemented.
Output, outcome and impact indicators are used to evaluate the
results, effectiveness and impact of education policies and their
implementation
 Input and Process indicators
• . In an education system, input indicators focus on the human, financial and
material resources that have been assembled and channeled into
educational activities.
• Such resource inputs are used to organize the provision of educational
services in order to create intermediate outputs such as classes and learning
activities.
• Examples of education input indicators include the percentage of
government budget allocated to education, pupil-teacher ratios, pupil-
classroom ratios, percentage of pupils without textbooks, etc.
• In an education system, process indicators show how the resource inputs
discussed above have been utilized to deliver educational services.
• These indicators show what actually happened in the classroom and during
teaching/learning processes.
• Students’ attendance rate at school, average number of class hours they
participated in as a percentage of official class hours, and the frequency of
use of teaching/learning materials are some examples of process indicators.
• Other process indicators may include repetition rates and dropout
 Outcome indicators
• Outcome indicators measure how effectively education
policies and strategies were implemented by measuring
actual progress against the goals and targets that were set
in education plans.
• Outcome indicators may also be used to evaluate the
degree of access to educational services and the degree of
satisfaction with the services received. Examples of
outcome indicators include intake rates, enrolment ratios,
completion rates and the GPI.
• At the end of the school year, the percentages of students
who successfully completed their studies, and of those
who have acquired defined knowledge and competencies,
indicate the main output of education.
 Impact indicators
• Impact indicators show the effects of education on the
well being of individuals, families, communities, the
nation and society as a whole.
• Literacy rate is an example of an impact indicator
because it shows the proportion of the population who
have learnt to read, write and comprehend written text
and who can continue to learn using written words.
• Other impact indicators include those that measure
the effect of increased knowledge and skills, emotional
development, and the impact of changes in students’
values, attitude and behaviour on their family,
community, society and nation.
 Indicators by aspects of education
• A third way to organize education indicators is by re-grouping
them according to the key aspects of education, such as:
• • School characteristics, environment and facilities
• • Access and participation
• • Retention and progress within the education system
• • Teaching and learning resources
• • Teaching-learning processes
• • Quality of education
• • Equity
• • Learning achievement and outcomes
• • Impact of Education.
 Indicators by aspects of education
• In this approach, the key concern is to monitor the
efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of education
services
The key questions can include:
• Do all children have access to education?
• Are all students able to actively participate in education?
• Do all students benefit from good quality education?
• Are all students treated with equality?
• Is the management of education efficient and effective? •
Are the outcomes of education relevant and satisfactory
 Measurement scales

• There are typically four scales of measurement:

• Nominal scale
• Ordinal scale
• Interval scale
• Ratio
• The nominal scale distinguishes objects and phenomena by
naming each one. A typical example is to distinguish the gender
of students by ‘male’ or ‘female’, or the type of school ownership
with the options of ‘government school’, ‘private school’ or
‘community school’.
• Ordinal scales are used for ranking and comparisons. However, an
ordinal scale only shows the order of items but does not display
the degree of difference between them. If, for example, you are
asked to rank your preference for apples, oranges and pears, you
may put these fruits in an order of preference, but cannot clearly
indicate the degree to which you prefer one fruit to another.
 An interval scale
• An interval scale can help to visualize the degree of
difference between items. The interval scale indicator
includes intervals of measurement so that finer comparisons
can be made
• . A test score is, for example, an interval scale indicator.
• While using the interval scale, there is an underlying
assumption that intervals are equally divided. If student A
receives a test score of 10 out of 100, and student B receives
that of 50, can it be said that student B understands the
subject five times better than student A? The answer is ‘Not
really.’ because the measurement of students’
understanding of one topic depends on the structure,
contents and design of the test, and the students’ conditions
when taking tests. Care must therefore be taken when
analysing interval scale indicators.
 A ratio scale indicator

• A ratio scale indicator can help to solve this comparison

problem. With ratio scale indicators, the degree of
different between different items can be shown. For
example, if the height of student A is 100 cm and the
height of student B is 150 cm, then we can say that
student A’s height is 66 per cent of student B’s height. In
this example, the ratio scale offers a clearer
understanding about the degree of difference between
one item and another. Other typical ratio scale
indicators include pupil-teacher ratios, intake rates and
enrolment ratios.
 The importance of using indicators
• Purpose of education indicators
• Different stakeholders in a national education system can use education indicators
for different purposes.
• Understanding these purposes helps us to better select and use the right
indicators.
• There are six main purposes for using indicators in the education system: 1. To
describe the conditions and performance of schools and of the education system.
• 2. To set targets, benchmarks and standards for measuring or assessing progress
towards achievement of education goals;
• 3. To monitor and compare progress in implementing education plans among
geographical areas and target populations, and to signal shortfalls, gaps,
imbalances and disparities;
• 4. To identify and highlight issues, problems and possible solutions for better
management of the education system;
• 5. To provide information about causes and factors affecting achievement of the
desired educational outcomes, and to enable decision-makers to realistically plan
and manage changes;
• 6. To inform stakeholders about the school and the education system in order to
 Indicators for ECCE
1. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in ECCE programmes
2. Percentage of new entrants to primary Grade 1 who have
attended some form of organized ECCE programme
3. Enrolment in private ECCE centres as a percentage of total
enrolment in ECCE programmes
4. Percentage of trained teachers in ECCE programmes
5. Public expenditure on ECCE programmes as a percentage of
total public expenditure on education
6. Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) in ECCE programmes including pre-
primary education
7. Pupil/Teacher Ratio (PTR) (childrencaregiver ratio)
 Primary Education: Key Issues And Guiding Questions
• During their primary education, children are expected to gain core knowledge, values,
attitudes and skills, including skill in basic literacy, numeracy and critical thinking. Primary
education typically covers the first five or six years of formal schooling, and has an official
entry age of 5 to 7 years old, although there can be considerable variation from country to
country.
• Basic education includes primary education and is generally defined as the first nine years of
education (including two to four years of lower secondary). Education policies and plans
increasingly aim at universal basic education.
• ■ Key issues
• Access, participation and quality, Equity, meeting diverse issues and bridging primary and
higher levels of education.
• Equity: Although access to primary education has improved significantly in most countries,
there are still remaining pockets of marginalized groups who do not attend pre-primary and
primary schools. School fees, hidden costs (such as transportation and uniform costs),
violence in school or on the way to school, and increased incidence of child labour among
lower socio-economic groups are the main barriers to participation in education. Socio-
cultural biases with regard to gender continue to affect access to education for girls, while
disability, prejudice against cultural and linguistic minorities, social status (e.g. caste),
remoteness, and nomadism are among other factors that hamper access to education for
 Primary Education: Key Issues And Guiding Questions
• • Meeting diverse learning needs: The diversity of learning needs among
students, particularly in culturally diverse countries, can be addressed by
making education adaptable and relevant, delivered by well-trained
teachers with appropriate materials. It is necessary to have a system that
can evolve with the changing needs of society and is equipped to meet
the individual needs of specific groups or individuals. The focus should
be on competency-based curricula, which include flexible teaching
learning strategies as well as innovative and child-oriented assessments.
• Bridging primary and higher levels of education: While primary
education has received substantial attention from governments and
development partners in the past decade, in view of the aim to achieve
the EFA goals and MDGs by 2015, education levels beyond primary are
often overlooked. Building a system that provides sufficient support and
encouragement to students to continue their studies to secondary and
higher education is crucial. Therefore primary education survival and
transition to lower secondary education is a critical issue.
 Primary Education: Key Issues And Guiding Questions
• Equitable access
• • How many students will complete primary education annually
in the coming years?
• How many additional secondary school places will be needed to
enrol them?
• • Does the country aim to universalize secondary education
(lower-secondary or upper secondary or both)? What policies
and strategies exist to increase enrolment for marginalized
populations such as girls, people in remote areas, the poor, etc.?
• • Do the entrance exams and entry requirements favor certain
student groups?
• • Is there a policy to encourage and regulate private provision of
secondary education?
• What impact can increased privatization have on access and
quality?
 Primary Education: Key Issues And Guiding Questions
• Curriculum orientation
• • To what extent is the curriculum relevant to the needs of the country and able to equip
pupils with sufficient knowledge, life skills and practical skills for the labor market? What
are the plans to review and reform the secondary school curriculum in the coming years?
• • Are present secondary schools adequately preparing young people to pursue higher
education or to join the world of work?
• Management of teachers and high quality teaching
• • What are the minimum requirements to become a secondary teacher? How does this
compare to the primary level?
• • Are there sufficient numbers of subject teachers to teach at the secondary level?
• • What policies are in place to train, recruit and deploy them, taking into account
specialization requirements and shortages of certain subject teachers in specific
geographical areas? Who manages teacher recruitment and performance assurance? Is it
the central government, provincial/state government, district government, or school?
What are the critical issues?
• High stake examinations
• • How competitive are the national examinations? Are they used for selecting students for
higher levels and into different tracks (e.g. general vs. vocational) of education?
• What kind of evidence is there about the effects of these high-stake examinations on
teaching-learning and school organization?
 Indicators for Primary Education
A 8. Gross Intake Rate (GIR)
B 9. Net Intake Rate (NIR)
C 10. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)
D 11. Net Enrolment Ratio (NER)
E. 12. Percentage of repeaters
F. 13. Repetition Rate (RR) by grade
G 14. Promotion Rate (PR) by grade
H. 15. Dropout Rate (DR) by grade
I. 16. Cohort Survival Rate to Grade 5
J 17. Primary Cohort Completion Rate
•
 Indicators for Primary Education
J. 18. Transition Rate (TR) from primary to secondary
education
K. 19. Percentage of trained teachers in primary education
L. 20. Pupil/Teacher Ratio (PTR) in primary education
M. 21. Public expenditure on primary education as a
percentage of total public expenditure on education
N. 22. Percentage of schools offering complete primary
education
K. 23. Percentage of primary schools offering instruction in
mother tongue
P. 24. Percentage distribution of primary school students by
duration of travel between home and school
 Secondary Sub-sector
• Secondary education Secondary education is the educational stage between
primary education and higher education.
• The main function of secondary education is to broaden young people’s
knowledge and skills and to consolidate their values and attitudes in
preparation for higher education and the world of work.
• Depending on the country, the number of years corresponding to secondary
education can range between three and eight years, but in most countries it
lasts for six or seven years.
• It is often divided into two levels: lower secondary and upper secondary. In an
increasing number of countries, basic education includes lower secondary (or
even upper secondary) and it has become compulsory in some countries.
• At upper secondary level, streams (e.g. science and arts) and tracks (technical
and vocational vs. general academic) are often introduced.
• Some countries have different types of secondary schools for the various
tracks and these are administered under different ministries, and are
sometimes managed by private and civil society organizations, including
religious bodies such as churches, mosques and temples
 Key issues In Secondary School sub-sector
• Equity: Many countries today have universal or almost universal primary education.
Consequently, there is increasing demand for secondary education, as more and more
are children completing primary school. Ensuring equitable access to secondary
education has become a major issue, in particular for marginalized groups such as girls
and people in rural and remote areas.
• Secondary education is typically more costly than primary education and it is not
always provided free of charge
• Curriculum coherence and relevance: In most countries the general secondary
education curriculum has been oriented towards preparing students for higher
education.
• Realigning the curriculum towards life skills and labour market skills can result in
better outcomes for students in terms of school participation and finding
employment. Many challenges exist in this process of realignment, however.
• Management of teachers and high quality teaching: Teaching at secondary level
demands a higher level of knowledge and requires pedagogical skills specific to teaching
different subjects.
• Management of teachers at secondary level thus needs to take into account subject
specializations. Teacher shortage issues can therefore be more complex than in
primary education.
• Another issue is that some secondary school teachers do not meet the minimum
• • High stake examinations: Public examinations at the
national and sub-national levels are widely used for
measuring education quality and as a mechanism for
selecting students to enter higher levels of education.
• Such high-stake public examinations have many
negative consequences, however, such as teaching for
exams and excessive rote learning, which deviate
from the original goals of secondary education (as
described in the first paragraph of this section).
 Secondary level technical and vocational schools

• Many countries have developed technical and

vocational schools at the secondary level to
provide options and opportunities for pupils to
gain practical knowledge and skills required for
the world of work.
• It is being argued by some specialists, however,
that vocational programmes should be
introduced at the secondary or post-secondary
levels (see the section on “Technical and
Vocational Education and Training” for more
details).
 Guiding Questions for Secondary sub-sector
• Guiding questions Equitable access
• • How many students will complete primary education annually in the coming
years? How many additional secondary school places will be needed to enrol
them?
• • Does the country aim to universalize secondary education (lower-secondary or
uppersecondary or both)? What policies and strategies exist to increase
enrolment for marginalized populations such as girls, people in remote areas, the
poor, etc.?
• • Do the entrance exams and entry requirements favour certain student groups?
• • Is there a policy to encourage and regulate private provision of secondary
education? What impact can increased privatization have on access and quality?
Curriculum orientation
• • To what extent is the curriculum relevant to the needs of the country and able
to equip pupils with sufficient knowledge, life skills and practical skills for the
labour market? What are the plans to review and reform the secondary school
curriculum in the coming years?
• • Are present secondary schools adequately preparing young people to pursue
higher education or to join the world of work? Management of teachers and high
 Guiding Questions for Secondary sub-sector
• • Are national learning assessments conducted for secondary school students
in the country? If so, at what intervals and how are they used to improve
secondary education? Secondary level technical and vocational schools
• • What are the policies and plans regarding technical and vocational tracks in
secondary education?
• • What is the share of technical and vocational students at secondary level?
What have been the recent enrolment trends in technical and vocational
secondary education compared to general secondary education?
• • How are students selected for technical and vocational tracks? Are the
policies and regulations flexible enough to allow students to move between
academic and vocational tracks?
• • What are the main issues facing the technical and vocational track in
secondary education? What can be done to address these issues?
• • Are national learning assessments conducted for secondary school students
in the country?
• If so, at what intervals and how are they used to improve secondary
education?
 Guiding Questions for TVET
• Secondary level technical and vocational schools
• • What are the policies and plans regarding technical and vocational
tracks in secondary education?
• • What is the share of technical and vocational students at
secondary level? What have been the recent enrolment trends in
technical and vocational secondary education compared to general
secondary education?
• • How are students selected for technical and vocational tracks? Are
the policies and regulations flexible enough to allow students to
move between academic and vocational tracks?
• • What are the main issues facing the technical and vocational track
in secondary education? What can be done to address these issues?
 Higher Education
• Higher education includes all types of studies, training or research
at the post-secondary and tertiary levels, provided by universities
or other recognized higher educational institutions (HEIs). Despite
the diversity of higher education systems across countries, one
may distinguish four broad categories of higher education: diploma
programmes, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and doctorates.
Higher education plays a key role in contributing to national
development through the training of human resources with
advanced knowledge and skills, the ability to produce and
disseminate knowledge, and the capacity to engage in scientific
and technological research.
• Higher education produces leaders, thinkers and scientists. As
world economies increasingly become knowledge intensive,
knowledge, skills, innovative ideas and scientific thinking are
becoming vital, and it is only through higher education that high-
quality human capital is developed.
 ■ Key issues
• With increasing need for more advanced knowledge and skills in the globalized
economy, more and more people are seeking higher education. The following are
some key issues:
• Equity: To meet the growing demand for higher education, significant changes are
needed. Reforms could include diversifying institutions and financing, relaxing
entrance requirements and using various learning channels.
• Quality: As higher education expands its coverage, there is growing concern about
its quality. Improving the quality of higher education can be achieved by instituting
quality assurance and accreditation of higher education institutions, improving
governance and management of higher education institutions, revising and
updating curricula, and improving teaching and learning methods and materials.
• Financing: Financing of the rapidly expanding higher education sector has become
more diversified in recent years. Most national governments can no longer finance
the higher education sector on their own. In some cases, this has increased the
financial burden on families, thus affecting equity of access to higher education
and excluding the poor.
Internationalization and cross-border higher education: Cross-border collaboration
among higher education institutions is steadily increasing. More and more
students attend higher education institutions abroad. Strengthening co-operation
and complementarities is needed to facilitate such movements in higher
 Guiding Questions: Access And Equity

• What have been the changes in the pattern of enrolment in

higher education?
• What kinds of disparities are there in higher education by
region, sex, minority groups, or among the poor?
• What kinds of policies and strategies are there to address these
disparities?
• What financial and educational support is offered to students
from poor and marginalized communities?
• What are the different types and coverage of higher education
institutions catering to different types of learners?
• What are the roles of the private sector in higher education?
What, if any, are the regulatory frameworks for: (a) the
development of non-public higher education institutions; and
(b) the contribution of the private sector to higher education
financing and management?
 Quality Of Higher Education

• How is the quality of the faculty members/professors? What kinds of

faculty development are provided?
• What are the regulatory and quality assurance mechanisms that
promote success in higher education?
• What are the differentiated roles among the higher education
institutions and networks? Are the higher education programs
relevant to societal needs and community development? Is the higher
education system meeting labor market demands?
• What reforms in university governance and management have been
implemented recently to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
higher education institutions?
• Financing of higher education
• How is higher education financed? What is the share of public funding
in higher education financing? Is the financing of higher education
diversified?
• What is the role of the private sector, non-public and/or civil society
 Quality of Higher Education …
• What kinds of student fellowships, scholarships and loan schemes
are there to support talented students who do not have the means
to finance their education?
• Does the funding ensure sufficient financial stability in higher
education to ensure quality and orderly development?
• What kinds of public-private partnerships exist between higher
education institutions and businesses in terms of financing,
research, internships and placement opportunities?
Internationalization and cross-border higher education
• What types of cross-border higher education are found in the
country? What are the mechanisms to regulate the quality of cross-
border higher education?
• What are the student inflow and outflow rates in the country? What
efforts are being made by HEIs in internationalizing their education
programs?
 Logical Flow of Policy Analysis
Using Matrices, UNESCO 2011 vol ii
• The analytical and programming process proposes the following steps
(see Figure 1):
• Step 1 Review the national development context and its implications for
education.
• Step 2 I identify achievements, challenges, issues and needs in education.
• Step 3 Analyze past and present national education policies, strategies
and plans and government actions taken, so as to assess how they
address the identified challenges, issues and needs.
• Step 4 Take stock of the interventions of international development
partners (IDPs) in education.
• Step 5 Review UNESCO’s past and present support to education in the
country.
• Step 6 I identify, select and define areas for UNESCO priority support in
the future.
 Education Sector Management

• Education sector management is about ensuring that policies

and plans are implemented efficiently and effectively. It
covers institutional management (planning, formulation and
implementation of policies), process management
(programmes and projects for service delivery), resource
management (especially human and financial resources), and
performance management (monitoring, evaluation and
quality control).
• Public management focuses on the measurement of results
regarding outputs. Public governance focuses on the way
institutions interact in order to achieve a higher level of
desired results. Therefore, the way agreements are reached
and decisions are made, and the processes by which different
stakeholders interact, are also seen as outputs or outcomes.
 Key Issues in Education Sector Management
• Provision of education services: Inadequate provision of services is a
visible sign of either lack of resources or improper management of the
functioning of the education system. Inequitable provision of education,
inaccessibility to education services, low quality of services, and in-
affordability of services
• Capacity to lead and to manage the education sector: Insufficient
management capacity can be a major bottleneck in policy
implementation. As defined by the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), capacity resides within individuals, as well as in
organizations (institutions) and within the enabling environment. These
different levels of education management form an integrated system.
• Transparency and accountability: It is not infrequent that parents and
those in the community complain about the lack of information and
transparency in education policy-making and management, both at the
national and local school levels. When transparency and accountability
is lacking, mismanagement can occur.
 Guiding questions

• Provision of education services

• • What is the current management structure of the education
sector? How is that changing and what are the main reasons
for those changes? What is the current level of
decentralization of education management and governance?
How are human and financial resources for the education
sector managed? Who is managing what?
• • How do the institutions and actors function and interact
with each other in delivering education services
• • How adequate are the education services in terms of
coverage, quality and affordability? What are the bottlenecks?
In what way can government policies, legislation and
management be strengthened to address these bottlenecks?
 Capacity to lead and to manage the education sector

• • To what extent do the actors at different levels of the

education administration, including down to the school
level, have the capacity to function as per the management
duties they are supposed to perform?
• • How is the ministry of education structured and staffed?
Does this structure and staffing allow effective provision of
education services? What is the gap, if any, in terms of
management capacity of the education ministry and those
concerned with education service delivery?
• • Where it is needed, is there a clear strategy to strengthen
management capacity? Is there a comprehensive capacity
development plan? Is it adequately resourced? What areas
and strategies of capacity development require urgent
support?
 Transparency and Accountability

• How is information on education sector performance

disseminated and used? What kind of information is disseminated
to whom, when and how, at each level of the education
administration?
• In what ways do local schools inform and involve local community
stakeholders in school management?
• How transparent are the procedures for financial and human
resource management? Are there any policies and measures in
place to improve transparency and accountability? • Is there an
accountability system in place? What mechanisms are in place to
hold public officials and service providers answerable for
processes and outcomes? What sanctions are imposed if any
specified outcomes and outputs are not delivered? How can this
system be best made to work for all types of providers at all
 Financing of education
• Financing can be understood as both a policy instrument in
the pursuit of education development goals and also as a
policy in itself as part of wider sector policy. It concerns the
way financial resources are mobilized, allocated and used
toward provision of education services. should look
simultaneously at three dimensions: availability and sources;
allocation; and utilization.
• A distinction should be made between the country’s budget
and the actual expenditure. The budget is the amount of
money that is planned and approved for doing something,
while the actual amount spent is expenditure. In a perfectly
planned and executed budgeting process, the budget and
actual expenditure would be exactly the same. In reality,
there is often a difference between what was budgeted for
and what has actually been spent, which is called “budget
variance.”
 Key Issues In Education Financing
• Sufficient resources: This concerns whether or not the amount of
funding for education is sufficient for implementing the country’s
education policies. Funding gaps continue to exist and resources are
always scarce. Therefore innovative ways to mobilize additional funds
for financing education are needed.
• Equity in resource allocation: A key concern in education finance has
been to ensure that resource allocation is equitable, predictable and
sustainable. Various methods and mechanisms have been used to
ensure that resources are allocated appropriately between education
levels and functions, and to those who need them most, such as poor
and vulnerable population groups.
• Efficiency in resource utilization: The way financial resources are used by
the actors within the education system, and whether such utilization is
cost effective are key issues in education finance. Cost-effectiveness in
education is mainly concerned with how the resources have been
utilized to improve access, quality, learning outcomes and management.
 Guiding Questions in Education Finance
• Sufficiency of resources: • How has public education expenditure evolved
to meet the international recommendation of 6 per cent of national
GDP? How does the government finance the education sector and what
do they finance? Is the government budget for education predictable and
sustainable?
• Do existing education policies and plans provide information on multi-year
financial resource requirements for education development? How have
such requirements been determined? How credible is the information?
• How are financial and human resources distributed across the education
sub-sectors?
• Is there a funding gap? If so, how does the government plan to bridge the
gap? To what extent are external donors, the non-government sector and
local communities financing education in the country?
• Equity in resource allocation • What is the share of the education budget
for the education sub-sectors? How does the percentage of funding for
basic education compare to other education subsectors? Is there a policy
to offset possible imbalances of resource allocations among education
 Guiding Questions in Education Finance …
What and how much are parents/households expected to contribute to the
schooling of their children? How do parent/household contributions to the
schooling of their children compare to their income level? Are fees and
other costs hindering access to education? What specific measures have
been introduced to address the financial burden for the poor (such as
scholarships and loan schemes) and how effective have they been?
• To what extent are public resources distributed equitably for education,
especially for disadvantaged groups? What equity measures are in place to
support poor households?
Efficiency in resource utilization • How are the resources for education
utilized? In what way has each sub-sectors’ share of budget been spent to
improve access and participation, quality, learning achievement,
management, and specific priorities of each sub-sector?
• Is there wastage in public expenditure on education? What kind of misuse of
resources has been observed? To what extent is the government aware of
the shortcomings in resource utilization? How does the government
address these shortcomings?
• Education policy analysis involves examining the sub-sectors according to five
key analytical dimensions:
• 1. access and equity
• 2. quality
• 3. sector management
• 4. finance
• 5. monitoring and evaluation
Analysis also requires examining the sub-sectors in terms of six key cross-cutting
issues:
1. teacher policies:
2. Gender
3 . sustainable development
4. HIV and AID S
5. information and communication technology (ICT)
 Matrix 1: Country context and implications for education

Contextual Factors Sect EC 1’ 2’ HE TV N

or CE ET F
wid E
e
Geography and Demography (e.g. terrain;
roads; waterways; remote areas /districts/I
ands, climactic zones; deserts/jungles;
population pyramid; gender; age-groups;
ethnic groups; urban/rural; migration; etc.)
Social and Cultural Contexts (e.g. social
structure; regional/community/family
patterns; welfare; social exclusion; mobility;
changes; quality of life; ethnicity;
languages; religions; customs; cultural
practices; events, phenomena; etc.)
Economy (e.g. economic growth; main
productive/ service sectors; changes in
 Matrix 2: Achievement, Issues And Needs In Education. Education
Analytical dimension Sector- ECCE 1’ 2’ HE TVE NFE
wide T

Access/equity
Quality
Sector Management
Finance
Monitoring and Evaluation
Cross-cutting Issues
Teacher Policies
Gender
Sustainable Development
ICT
Statistics and Information
Management
 plans

Matrix 3 : National education policies, strategies and plans

Sector- ECCE 1’ 2’ HE TVET NFE
wide

Analytical dimension
Quality
Sector Management
Finance
Monitoring and Evaluation
Cross-cutting Issues
Teacher Policies
Gender
Sustainable Development
ICT
 Matrix 4: International development partner intervention areas. Education
I DPS intervention area

Sector- ECCE 1’ 2’ HE TVE NFE

wide T

Analytical dimension
Quality
Sector Management
Finance
Monitoring and Evaluation
Cross-cutting Issues
Teacher Policies
Gender
Sustainable Development
ICT
 Matrix 5: UNESCO’s past and present intervention areas. Education
I DPS intervention area

Sector- ECCE 1’ 2’ HE TVE NFE

wide T

Analytical dimension
Quality
Sector Management
Finance
Monitoring and Evaluation
Cross-cutting Issues
Teacher Policies
Gender
Sustainable Development
ICT
 Matrix 6: program Result Matrix
National education UNESCO proposed UNESCO output Partners (names Indicative
outcome actions Partners (names and roles) costs (USD)
) D)
Outcome 1: Describe the Formulate State one or Estimate
State a country priority actions concrete more the financial
outcome that the FO to be carried outputs key beneficiaries resources
proposes to support out by expected as AND partner required to
for its achievement UNESCO within result institutions carry
(the timeline could be: the of the UNESCO affected out the
either the current year new biennium action and, if by the action(s), action(s)
to synchronizes with in possible, the as in terms of
UNESCO Medium- order to corresponding well as their core
Term Strategy or other achieve the targets of the roles. resources
targets or timelines development national Include (Regular
you deem relevant in outcome education international Programme),
light of national plans of the national plans multilateral Additional.
and development education and/or
partner program, plan(s). bilateral agencies
e.g. UNDAF). This description to partner or
could coordinate with
include for
information carrying out the
 Dynamics of Change
• An assessment of forces for or against change in the event that policy
changes need to be made.
• One key socio-political factor to analyze, therefore, is the presence and
relative strength of interest groups.
• providers of education, most notably, teachers, and the consumers, most
notably, parents, students and employers.
• They can be a powerful force in supporting or opposing any educational
change; but are fragmented and divided into different cultural or
occupational, or socio-economic groups.
• Can organize themselves into forceful street demonstrations, as have
some university students, can effect policy changes .
• Those interest groups identified as anti-reform, planners need to
determine how well organized they are, how much power they have in
society, and how willing they are to exercise their power.
• A separate interest group comprises the officials who administer an
education system. Recognize that these are not necessarily identical with
 EFA and the MDGs
• Global priorities: EFA and the MDGs Education for All (EFA) is an international
commitment to provide high quality basic education for all children, youth and
adults. It was first launched in 1990 and was reconfirmed in April 2000
together with six specific education goals to be reached by 2015. In September
2000, a new set of eight development goals, the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs), was announced, with specific targets for the year 2015.
• The MDGs and the EFA goals provide important international development
frameworks against which progress at the global, regional and national levels is
measured and compared. Most countries have included these goals in their
development policies and monitoring systems.
Since 2000 the MDGs and the EFA goals have driven national policies and
development in many countries, and have been a basis for mobilizing
resources for education.
The MDGs cover the topics of poverty, education, health, equality, environment
and
partnership. Significantly, education is key to achieving all of the MDGs. The EFA
 International conventions related to education
• In addition to the global initiatives such as MDGs and EFA,
there is a wide range of international agreements that also
help shape country-level thinking on education policy and
reforms.
• The international agreements include:
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26
(1948)
• The Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960)
• The International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of
Racial Discrimination (1965)
• The Convention on Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (1979)
• The Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989)
 The Conventions Include:

• The Agreement on the Importation of Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Materials, with Annexes A to E and Protocol annexed
(1976).
• The Convention on Technical and Vocational Education (1979).
• The Regional Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas
and Degrees in Higher Education in Asia and the Pacific (1983).
• When analyzing national education policies and their
implementation, it is useful to verify the extent to which these
international and regional conventions and agreements are
respected and implemented, and what remedies can be
introduced in case of deficiencies.
• A critical review can be made of how these official documents take
into account and address the contextual issues, what are the
remaining gaps, and whether adjustments and new priorities can
be introduced in the light of ongoing and forthcoming contextual
changes
 Donor co-ordination and aid effectiveness
• With the donor community becoming increasingly diversified (e.g. emerging
donors, private sector donors) there are greater risks of fragmented,
uncoordinated and ineffective support to education in a country. Such
fragmentation often drains already limited in-country human resources to
cater to the requests from each donor (meetings, missions, monitoring,
evaluation, etc.). In this context, the global community reached an
agreement in the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness regarding the
central themes that should underpin all development cooperation. This was
reinforced and updated in the 2008 Accra Agenda for Action (see Table 1)
• Core statements of the 2005 Paris Declaration and the 2008 Accra Agenda
for Act
• Ownership: Country ownership is key. When they have ownership, country
governments will take stronger leadership of their own development policies
and will engage with their parliaments and citizens in shaping those policies.
• Harmonization: Building more effective and inclusive partnerships.
• Achieving development results – and openly accounting for them – must be
at the heart of all we do. More than ever, citizens and taxpayers of all
countries expect to see tangible results of development efforts.
 donors
• Are donor interventions divided geographically,
thematically or by education subsector? How have
any such divisions been defined or decided?
• What national capacity development is being carried
out and/or planned by the major development
partners? How are the priority areas and modalities
of capacity development determined? Has there
been any effort to combine these contributions into
a comprehensive, joint capacity development plan?
What are the obstacles to any such effort?
 When mapping and analyzing donor’s interventions, useful questions to ask,
especially from an aid effectiveness perspective:

•What is the status of donor harmonization and alignment in the country?

• What donor co-ordination mechanisms are in place? Which agency is the
lead agency for education? How was it selected and agreed upon? How
does it exercise its role?
• What role does the government play in donor co-ordination on education?
How does UNESCO participate in these exercises?
• Who are the major development partners (multilateral and bilateral
agencies, NGOs, etc.) supporting education in the country? What are the
priority areas of their interventions, funding resources, the extent and
duration of their involvement, and the aid modalities used? Do their
interventions use national institutional mechanisms and processes, or are
they run by distinct administrations with parallel processes? What are the
pros and cons of the different aid modalities deployed?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the NGOs and CSOs supporting
education? How do they influence and co-operate with respect to national
education priorities and aid effectiveness?
 Part II: Understanding Education Systems

• The education system can therefore be analyzed along

four dimensions, as shown in Figure 5:
• (1) sub-sectors
• (2) formal, non-formal and informal channels
• (3) analytical dimensions such as access, quality and
management
• (4) cross-cutting themes, such as gender, teachers, use
of information and communication technology (ICT),
education for sustainable development, education
about HIV and AIDS, and so forth.
4. Historical Development of Education Policy in Ethiopia

• 4.1. Traditional Education in Ethiopia

• 4.2. Introduction of Modern education in
Ethiopia
• 4.3. Education policy during the imperial
period: Menlik II, Zewuditu, Haile Selase I
• 4.5. Education policy during the dergue regime

• 4.6. Current education and training policy

 Historical Development of Education Policy in Ethiopia

• 4.1 Education in traditional Ethiopia

• The Orthodox Church and the mosque were
the two major institutions that were responsible for
the dissemination of religious education.
There was no popular or public education either for
boys and girls.
• The church enabled the country to develop her
own written script which made her the only
country in Subsaharan Africa to have a written
script of her own. however, it remained for so long
the 'Land of the Thumb Print' (NLCCC, 1984:3).
 Traditional Education
• Until the early 1900s, formal education was confined to a
system of religious instruction organized and presented under
the aegis of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Church schools
prepared individuals for the clergy and for other religious
duties and positions. In the process, these schools also
provided religious education to the children of the nobility and
to the sons of limited numbers of tenant farmers and servants
associated with elite families. Such schools mainly served the
Amhara and Tigray inhabitants of the Ethiopian highlands.
Misguided policies caused very few children to receive an
education. As a result, Ethiopia did not meet the Educational
standards of other African countries in the early 1900s.
 Church Education in Detail
• What were the objectives, contents and
modes of delivery of church education?
• How long doest it take to complete?
• What can graduates do afterwards?
 Modern Education in Ethiopia
• The first public school to provide a western style education was
the Ecole Imperiale Menelik II, which was opened in October
1908 under the guidance of Hanna Salib and a number of Copt
teachers. By 1924, Pankhurst notes that "no fewer than 3,000
students had passed through the school", and states that in 1935
the school had 150 pupils. That same year, Emperor Menelik II
established a primary school in Harar.
• In 1925 the government adopted a plan to expand secular
education, but ten years later there were only 8,000 students
enrolled in twenty public schools. A few students also studied
abroad on government scholarships; Pankhurst provides
minimum numbers for several countries: at least 20 studied in
Lebanon, 19 in Egypt, 12 in Sudan, 63 in France, 25 in England, 8
in the United States, 10 in Switzerland, 10 in Italy, and smaller
numbers in Germany, Belgium and Spain.
 Introduction of modern education
• modem education was introduced by the government at the
turn of the twentieth century. its introduction was not at all
welcomed with enthusiasm by the clergy as well as by the
aristocracy. There was a fear that it could serve as a vehicle for
the penetration of alien religion as well as for the introduction
of sinister ideas to rock the statu quo.
• school for girls was established by Empress Menen in 1931, the
number of students was not more than a token.
• At the outbreak of the Italo-Ethiopian war, in 1935, the total
numberof pupils in the entire country did not exceed five
thousand, and those sent abroad for further study numbered .
about two hundred (pankhurst, 1962:272-72).
 Modern Education Under Imperial Regimes

• A modest attempt was made by Emperor Menelik II

(1889-1913) to open the first school in his palace
(Teshome, 1979: 28; Pankhrust, 1968: 676). It was
primarily for the sons of the nobility, and the
fundamental principle that dictated the development
of its curriculum was political interest. The education
policy makers (the Emperor, aristocracy and foreign
advisors) were interested in the prevailing
international order, modernizing Ethiopia and the
training of interpreters communication (Zewdie, 2000:
105). In this respect, the aims of education were to
contribute to maintaining Ethiopia’s sovereignty.
 Education Under Imperial Regimes..
• Emperor Menelik II strongly believed that the
building of Ethiopia as a modern state, as well as
the strengthening of existing political power,
necessitated the introduction of modern
education. It was believed that the country‟s
independence could be linked to an educated
populace that was fluent in foreign languages.
Consequently, the curriculum included such
languages as French, Italian, English, Arabic and
Amharic (Birhanu and Demeke, 1995).
 Education Under Imperial Regimes…
• Observing the shortcomings of traditional schools
to meet the demands of the international political
atmosphere, and feeling a need to advance the
nation, Menelik II opened the first modern school at
Addis Ababa in 1908 (Teshome, 1979: 28;
Pankhurst, 1968: 676).
• It was opened with the objective of educating the
young to ensure peace in the country,
reconstructing the country, and enabling Ethiopia to
exist as a great nation among the comity of nations
(Pankhurst, 1976). It was also aimed at producing
administrators, interpreters and technicians.
 Egypt touch
• Shortly after establishing the school, the Emperor became aware of its
inadequacies and decided to import teachers from abroad. However, this
idea was strongly resisted by the church, particularly by Abune Matewos,
a church leader who was recruited from the Egyptian Coptic church. The
reasons for the opposition of the church to recruiting foreign teachers
remain unclear till date. Perhaps, it was based on fears that foreigners
might corrupt the church's traditions.
• To overcome this opposition from Matewos, the Emperor adopted the
policy of recruiting teachers from Egypt. In 1906, ten Egyptian teachers
were appointed to the newly established schools in different parts of the
country (Seyoum, 1996). Following the establishment of that first school
in the capital, attempts were made by the government, foreign
communities and missionaries to establish modern schools across the
country. For instance, a French community school was opened in the
capital in 1908 and another one by Alliance Francaise in 1912. This period
was also known for the expansion of non-governmental schools in the
country. Between 1906 and 1935, one hundred private schools were
• Female education, however, was in a very poor state.
Many assumed that “an educated woman would not
look after the house; and the husband of the educated
woman cannot live long” (Bender, 1976: 103). With
such beliefs, it was difficult for the community at large
to send their daughters to school. It could thus be
inferred that during the reign of Menelik II, the role of
females was relegated to child-rearing and household
chores. As a result, women were disadvantaged as
regards equal opportunity in education.
 From Egypt to French
• Between 1908 and 1935, the aim of education was
to master different languages. As a result, the
curriculum was mostly composed of such language
courses as French, Italian, Geez, Arabic and Amharic.
Additionally, some courses in religion, mathematics,
law and calligraphy were offered (Adane, 1993).
Although Menelik II valued vocational curricula and
promoted the growth and development of science
and technology, a stronger emphasis was placed on
languages (Pankhurst, 1974).
 Education Under Imperial Regimes French Touch

• The Ethiopian education system and its

curricular components (objectives of
education, contents or courses to be taught,
organization of a school and its management,
and the method of evaluation) were primarily
influenced by the French education system.
The selection and organization of content
were determined by the headmasters and
teachers from France, and French was used in
Ethiopia as medium of instruction up to 1935.
 Empress Zewditu Menelik
• Though criticized for being conservative and devoting much of her time to
religious purposes, Empress Zewditu Menelik (the daughter and immediate
successor of Emperor Menelik II) is credited for launching universal
education to all school-age children (identified by the Empress as ages 7-
21) in the Amharic language. Her education proclamation in 1929 stated:
• All those who do not send their sons and daughters to school so that they
can learn writing and reading skills which are necessary to identify the
good and evils and develop fear of God and the king, will be punished 50
Birr. The money solicited from punishment will be given to the church for
the feeding and clothing of the poor. . . All God fathers should advice their
religious followers ….to send their children to school and if they refuse to
do so they have to report to local authorities as they have violated the
proclamation. . .All church leaders in the rural areas apart from their
religious preaching should teach reading and writing (Ayalew, 2000; 159)
Education Under Imperial Regimes
• Empress Zewditu also understood the relevance
of vocational education, which enabled
youngsters to secure money for livelihood. To this
point the proclamation stated, “…after learning
writing and reading to secure money for his life,
the child has to learn one of the handicrafts
available in our country” (Ayalew, 2000; 159).
This idea was radical at the time, as leatherwork,
smithing and clay making were considered low
caste jobs
 Education Under Imperial Regimes Emperor Haile Selassie I

• Another important event in the expansion of

modern education was the advent of the late
Emperor Haile Selassie I, as Regent and Heir to
the throne in 1916. He was a graduate of the
first school established in Menelik II‟s palace.
He was credited for establishing the first
printing press which greatly helped the
expansion of modern education through well-
organized textbooks, newspapers and other
educational materials and works.
 Education Under Imperial Regimes Emperor Haile Selassie I

• Emperor Haile Selassie opened a new school in his name and

empowered the different land lords (the notable owners of lands) to do
the same in various provinces of the country. Consequently, the
aristocracy expanded modern schools in different parts of the country.
The schools were typically named after those who established them to
show their political influences. Teferi Mekonen School focused on the
teaching of religion, mathematics, law and calligraphy as a continuation
of Menelik II School. It was also during this period that the first school
for girls was established by Empress Menen in 1931. This seems to be
the first attempt to practice gender equity in education by giving the
girls an equal educational opportunity. The education system from its
inception until the occupation by Italian Fascists (1935) was criticized for
being “too European” and unable to respond to the actual needs of
Ethiopian society.
 Education Under Imperial Regimes

• The Ethiopian curriculum was also criticized for the lack of

emphasis on vocational education. Not until the 1930s, few
schools prepared pupils for technical and professional
works through courses related to production. One of such
schools was Lycee Haile Selassie, which offered courses in
mathematics, physics, chemistry, civil engineering,
veterinary science, and modern languages. Another modern
school was Menen Girls‟ School, which offered courses in
dressmaking, drawing, home management and physical
training. After colonization, many African leaders and
authorities perceived a need for competent wives skilled in
modern house management needed to welcome their
European visitors at home. Similarly, at the outset, Menen
School focused on providing courses that train girls to be
good wives. Later, this school included courses in science
and mathematics
 Ethiopian Education under Italian Occupation
• At the outbreak of the Italo-Ethiopian war, in 1935, the total number of pupils in the entire
country did not exceed five thousand, and those sent abroad for further study numbered
(pankhurst, 1962:272-72).
• The modest attempt that was initiated by Emperor Menelik, and embraied by Emperor
Haileselassie, to modernize the country through Western education was thus disrupted by
the Italian occupation. The occupation was short lived;however, it did a lot of harm.
• During the Italian occupation, schools were either closed or used for military camps and the
educated few were either eliminated or joined the guerrilla fighters of the country.
• The only school that was opened in the country was that of the Catholic Mission, which
emphasized religion, the Italian language and subservience to the Mussolini regime. Notable
improvement of the education system was lacking in this period. The major aim of education
was to create citizens that would be loyal to Italy. The content of education focused on
reading, writing and simple arithmetic, semi-vocational skill training and internalizing fascist
values to promote loyalty to the regime. Moreover, they suggested that local administration
languages (Amharic, Oromipha, and Tigrigna) replace the unified national languages of
Ethiopia, which were used for classroom instruction.
• The few existing schools were closed down and the few educated Ethiopians were liquidated.
In general, Fascist Italy's educational policy aimed at providing native education that makes
Ethiopians merely loyal servants of their Fascist Italian masters. By the time the five-year
occupation ended the enrollment of Ethiopian pupils dwindled to about 1500 (Teshome,
1979:50).
 Education under Italian Occupation
• After their conquest of Ethiopia, the Italians acted quickly to reorganize
the educational system in Ethiopia. An ordinance issued 24 July 1936
reiterated the principle that the newly conquered country, as in the older
colonies, would have two different types of educational institutions,
namely "Italian type schools" and schools for "colonial subjects." The
existing Tafari Makonnen School was converted into two "Italian type"
schools, the Liceo-Ginnasio Vittorio Emanuele III and the Istituto Tecnico
Benito Mussolini, both reserved for European children, while the prewar
Empress Menen School for girls was converted into the Regina Elena
military hospital. Many other existing schools were converted to Italian-
only schools, while new schools created for the native population, in the
words of Patrick Roberts, were "not schools in reality, but have been
established for propaganda purposes." Although the Italian government
boasted in 1939 that there were thirteen primary schools in the province
of Shewa staffed by over sixty teachers and having an enrollment of
1481, actual attendance fluctuated greatly, as the official statement
admitted that many students were said to be absent from class in order
to follow Italian lorries, or to spend their time "idly in their tukuls."
Education under Italian Occupation
• During the occupation, Ethiopian teachers who knew the local
languages were employed under the supervision of priests and
nuns, with an emphasis on the socialization of the Italian
ideology. However, in practice, all instructions in government-
operated schools were primarily in Italian. Textbooks were
written in Italian and focused on Italian history. Policies opposed
equal opportunity for schooling and implemented rigid
discrimination in the schools, with different schools used for
Italians and Ethiopians. Education for Ethiopian nationals was
restricted up to grade 4, while Italians were provided schooling
similar to students of their home country. During this period,
there was neither uniform and standardized curriculum nor a
standardized assessment method in the schools.
 Reconstruction period 1942-1955
• Following the Italian defeat, the country started to build up
the sector, but the system faced shortages of teachers,
textbooks, and facilities. The government recruited foreign
teachers for primary and secondary schools to offset the
teacher shortage. By 1952 a total of 60,000 students were
enrolled in 400 primary schools, eleven secondary schools,
and three institutions offering college-level courses.
• In the 1960s, 310 mission and privately operated schools
with an enrollment of 52,000 supplemented the country's
public school system. While reforms have been made in the
aims of education, the actual structure of the Ethiopian
school system has remained unchanged from that
established in the 1950s.
 Reconstruction period 1942-1955 ; Birtish
influenced
• The liberation of the country in 1942 ushered into a period of
reconstruction that lasted to the mid-fifties.
The government, during this period, seemed to have painfully and
embarrassingly realized that the defeat of the country at the hands
of Fascist Italy was partly due to its backwardness.
Schools started mushrooming in some urban centers of the country.
The British, influence felt in the organization of the educational
system. the structure of the educational system had a British touch.
It constituted of a three tiery stem (4+4+4) four years of primary,
followed by another four years of intermediate culminating in four
years of secondary.
An expatriate educator at that time observed that there was nothing
Ethiopian in the classroom except the children. It is true that modem
education in Ethiopia is imported and alien.
 Reconstruction period 1942-1955 British influenced

• Great Britain, which assisted Ethiopia in

becoming liberated from Italian aggression, was
interested in the education system of Ethiopia.
Accordingly, Mr. E.R.J. Hussey, who had wide
experience in Africa, was appointed as an
Advisor in the Ministry of Education in 1942.
From 1942 to 1954 the Ethiopian education
system was highly influenced by the British
advisors. These advisors greatly influenced the
structure of Ethiopian education, the medium
of instruction, and the evaluation system
(Zewdie, 2000).
 Reconstruction period 1942-1955 :British influenced
• The first formal written curriculum was published in 1947/48.
• It was developed by committees consisting of Ethiopians and foreigners of
varying nationalities. It was in 1947 that the first official elementary school
curriculum for grades 1-6, which covered a wide range of subjects, was
published. It was later improved in 1949, and was extended to include grades 7
and 8. The secondary school curriculum was issued in the same year (Tesfaye
and Taylor, 1976).
• In 1947, the first 10 Year Education Plan was drafted, and a 6-6-4 system (six
years of primary school, six years of junior secondary education, four years of
senior secondary education) was introduced.
• The subjects offered at this level were Amharic, English, science, art, geography,
history, arithmetic, music, handicraft, and physical education. Amharic was the
medium of instruction in grades one and two. In grades three and four, English
was used as a medium of instruction for teaching of art, science, physical
training, handicraft, music, geography, history, and arithmetic. In grade five and
six, all subjects with the exception of Amharic were taught in English. (Ayalew,
1964).
 The American influence starting from 1955

• By 1955 the total student enrollment had reached the 95,000

mark(Bjenkan, 1972: 169). By this time, the British influence in
Ethiopiawaned and the Americans started to shape Ethiopian
educational policy.
• At the same time, the government set up what was known as the
Long Tenn Planning Committee. The Committee, interlia,
advocated that educational objectives be geared towards the
speedy promotion of universal fundamental education, as well as
the relevance of the curriculum to the needs of the student in the
country's First (1957-62) and Second (1962-67) Fivc –year
Development Plan, emphasis was put on improving the quality of
education as well as gearing education to the training of skilled
manpower. However, as the assessment of the two Five-year
Development Plan reveals, the achievement was far below of what
was expected.
 Changes Under American Advice
For instance, in 1963/64 an attempt to change the grade
structure from the two tier System (8+4)to 6+2+4 System
was introduced. This combination meant that a student had
to go through six years of primary education, and two years
of junior high school education and four years of senior high
School education.
The change was not fundamental as sUch butwas given an
American touch. Furthermore, another notable step had
been taken in 1963 to make Amharic the medium of
instruction at the primary school level. In fact, one scholar.
(Tekeste, 1990:8)has characterized it as "the most significant
reform of the decade".
 Outstanding Criticisms On Imperial Education System
• a. It was elitist and as such only a selected few could get the opportunity for
higher education.
• b. Its curriculum remained highly academic-oriented despite some attempts to
orient it towards technical-vocational education. Consequently, it gave rise to
the problem o[the educated - unemployed.
• For example, according to Desta'( I 979: 71) assessment, by 1974 up to 25
percent of secondary school graduates were unemployed.
• c. It was wasteful. For only six percent of pupils who began first grade could
enter an institution of higher learning.
• d. It did not provide equal access to all. It was urban and male biased. For
instance, in 1974, 70 out of 124 Secondary schools were located in Addis Ababa
Shoa Province and Asmara (CSO, 1987: 107). Besides, the enrollment rate of girl
in 1974 at primary and secondary levels, was 32 and 29 percent respectively.
• e. There was little that was Ethiopian in the curriculum. This was particularly
voiced by conservative elements of the clergy and the aristocracy.
• f. I ts administration was characterized by a bloated bureaucracy that stifled
local initiative and efficiency.
the United Nations-sponsored Conference
• I n May 1961, Ethiopia hosted the United Nations-sponsored Conference of African
States on the Development of Education. Among other things, the conference
highlighted Ethiopia's educational deficiencies. The Ethiopian education system,
especially in primary and secondary education, was ranked the bottom among African
nations. There were school and teacher shortages, a high dropout rate, and low
overall attendance rates; especially among females, non-Christians, rural and pastoral
children. Embarrassed by this record, the Ministry of Education developed a new
education policy, which was in effect until 1974. Designed in conjunction with the
objectives of the government's second and third five-year development plans,
extending from 1962 to 1973, the policy gave precedence to the establishment of
technical training schools, although academic education also was expanded.
• Curriculum revisions introduced a mix of academic and nonacademic subjects. But
Amharic became the language of instruction for the entire primary cycle, which
handicapped any child who had a different primary language.at the UNESCO
sponsored Addis Ababa Conference of African States. To provide universal primary
education by 1980. Ethiopia's prospect to achieve this target by 1980 was found to be
dismal. Its record by 1961, compared to other African states, wac; the lowest. Except
Niger, Ethiopia had the lowest percentage. It had 3.3 percent of the primary school
age population and 0.5 percent of the secondary level school age population
(Berjekan, 1972: 122). This was indeed a stinging indictment against the Imperial
 The Ethiopian Education sector review
• I t was, in October 1971, the government initiated, a comprehensive study of
the education sector. The Education Sector Review (ESR), was indeed one of
the boldest attempts at educational reform taken by the old regime.
• The Education Sector Review was the fIrst of its kind in being a
comprehensive attempt at educational reform. The objectives that it
envisaged were all laudable. They ranged from the provision of basic
education to all; to the development of scientific outlook, to equality of
access to education; to the creation of an integrated society and to narrowing
down the generations gap. But one could question here whether or not a
feudal monarchy could have been committed to carrying out such lofty goals
that are enshrined in democratic values such as equality. They seem to stand
in contradiction to the status quo and unpalatable to it.
• The Imperial regime initiated the Education Sector Reyiew almost two years
prior to the outbreak of the 1974 Revolution. In fact, by the time it was to be
implemented, the Revolution was about to erupt, and the Education Sector
Review became one of the precursors of the Revolution. It appears in that it
came at a time when the country was ripe for a sweeping revolution rather
than for a sectorial reform in education.
 Objectives of ESR
recommended objectives in the Education Sector Review (MOE, 1972: .II16 -111-6):
•  To foster a rational and scientific outlook on life; to cultivate objectivity, intellectual curiosity,
tolerance and broad mindedness;
•  To replace the traditional negative attitude towards manual work by a positive one;
•  To increase the earning capacity of the individual by providing the relevant skills and knowledge;
to make people economically self-reliant;
•  To cultivate the desire for life-long education; when formal schooling has been completed;
•  To provide scientific, technical and vocational education, particularly at secondary level, in
keeping with the needs of the Ethiopian society and economy;
•  To Ethiopianize the content of education; to make Amharic the medium of instruction at the
higher level, and to give practical orientation to instruction at all levels;
•  To create an integrated society by drawing upon the diverse cultural and linguistic elements and
creating the condition for the formation of a truly national culture;
•  To reduce the generation gap between the educated young and the traditionally-oriented old; to
bridge the gap between school and society;
•  To prepare the nation's youth to live in a world community;
•  To equalize access to education among all parts of the country;
•  To provide universal access to education as rapidly as possible.

• To meet these objectives, a 4-4-4 system with the proposal for basic formation education (i.e., 4+2
 Critics to ESR
• The ESR criticized the education system's focus on preparing students
for the next level of academic study and on the completion of rigid
qualifying examinations. Also criticized was the government's lack of
concern for the young people who dropped out before learning
marketable skills, a situation that contributed to unemployment. The
report stated that, by contrast, "The recommended system would
provide a self-contained program at each level that would be terminal
for most students." The report was not published until February 1974,
which gave time for rumors to generate opposition among students,
parents, and the teachers' union to the ESR recommendations. Most
resented what they considered the removal of education from its elite
position. Many teachers also feared salary reductions. Strikes and
widespread disturbances ensued, and the education crisis became a
contributing factor in the imperial regime's fall later that yea
 Socialist Education in Ethiopia
• The outbreak of the 1974 revolution was, however, a death blow to the
ESR. One of the immediate measures taken by the revolutionary regime
was to address the issue of Primary education. Accordingly. in a policy
directive issued on December 20th, 1974 it was proclaimed that,
"under the banner of education for all, citizens shall have the right to
free fundamental education (PMAC, 1974).“
• On the basis of this declaration, the Ministry of Education took a step
to reconcile its educational priorities so as to advance, " universal
primary education within the shortest period of time commensurate
with available resources" (MOE, 1977:1).
• This measure, therefore, set down the trend for the prompts an and
expansion of primary education during the Derg regime. Furthermore,
the educational system was to be overhauled with socialist overtone.
 Dergue’s educational policy
• Dergue’s educational policy was envisaged in the 1976
program of the National Democratic Revolution (NOR) It was
the comprehensive guideline to government action. Referring
to the education sector, it states:
• "There will be an educational programme that will provide
free education, step by step, to the broad masses. Such a
programme will aim at intensifying the struggle against
feudalism, imperialism and bureaucratic capitalism. All
necessary measures to eliminate illiteracy will be undertaken.
All necessary encouragement will be given for the
development of science, technology, the arts and literature.
All necessary effort will be made to free the diversified
cultures of Ethiopia from imperialist cultural domination and
from their own reactionary characteristics ... (PMAC, 1977:4),"
 Dergue’s Educational policy …
• The above policy statement was later condensed into slogans:
education for production; education for scientific inquiry, and
education for socialist consciousness.
Moreover, new educational proclamations were issued.
Proclamation No. 54 of 1975 was issued to provide for the
public ownership of private schools. Another proclamation No.
103 of 1976 gave administration and control of schools to the
people.
Above all, quite a vigorous national campaign was launched in
1979 against illiteracy. By July 1990, which marked the
Eleventh Anniversary of the Literacy Campaign, a 75.3 percent
national literarcy rate was reported.
 ERGESE

• the quality of education, due to various factors including: the

meager educational resources, very low educational budget and
there was a need for reform.
• Thus in 1983, the Ministry of Education responded by launching of
a project known as the Evaluative Research on the General
Education System of Ethiopia (ERGESE)., the ERGESE study was
completed by 1986. However, since the government had already
launched by 1984 its Ten Year National Perspective Plan (1984-
1994), the study was quietly shelved. The Ten Year Plan envisaged,
among other things, to promote polytechnic education, as well as
respect for work; to make the curriculum relevant; to intensify the
eradication of illiteracy; to strengthen Amharic as the medium of
instruction at primary level; to improve teacher education, to
upgrade the teaching profession, and to provide education to the
physically and mentally 'handicapped (pMGSE 1985:436-39).
Though an attempt had begun to implement some aspects of these
objectives by 1991 with the collapse of the regime the Ten Year Plan
Education and training policy under EPRDF
• Read the following four materials and write a summary of
what you learn about the Education and training policy of the
current government of Ethiopia.

1. MOE(1994). FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

GOVERNMENT OF ETHIOPIAEDUCATION AND TRAINING
POLICY
2. ODI(2011).Ethiopia’s progress in education: A rapid and
equitable expansion of access
3. Tekeste (2006). Education in Ethiopia From Crisis to the Brink
of Collapse.
4. Tirussew, Amare, Jeilu, Tassew, Akliluand Berhannu
(2018).Ethiopian Education Development Roadmap(2018-30)
 Education policy under EPRDF
• The ruling political cum military party (Ethiopian Peoples
Revolutionary DemocraticFront, EPRDF) that came to power in
1991 reconfigured Ethiopia as a federal state. According to the
constitution that came into effect in 1994, Ethiopia is composed of
nations and nationalities that freely and voluntarily adhere to it.
• All member nations have the right to opt out of the federation. At
present Ethiopia is made up of nine federal states and two
chartered cities. A new era dawned on Ethiopia – that of the
federal system of governance equipped with an appropriate
educational policy that became operational in 1994. The
educational policy of thenew government is thus the third policy
in the history of the country since 1945. Themajor feature of the
new educational policy that became operational in 1994 is the
introduction of ethnic languages as mediums of education for
primary education.
 Four General Objectives of Education policy under EPRDF

• 2.1.1. Develop the physical and mental potential and the

problem-solving capacity of individuals by expanding education
and in particular by providing basic education for all.
• 2.1.2. Bring up citizens who can take care of and utilize
resources wisely, who are trained in various skills, by raising
the private and social benefits of education.
• 2.1.3. Bring up citizens who respect human rights, stand for the
well-being of people, as well as for equality, justice and peace,
endowed with democratic culture and discipline. Bring up
citizen who differentiate harmful practices from useful ones,
who seek and stand for truth, appreciate aesthetics and show
positive attitude towards the development and dissemination
of science and technology in society.
• 2.1.4. Cultivate the cognitive, creative, productive and
appreciative potential of citizens by appropriately relating
education to environment and societal needs.
 Education policy under EPRDF15 Specific objectives
• 2.2.1. To promote relevant and appropriate education and training
through formal and non-formal programmers.
• 2.2.2. To develop and enrich students' inquisitive ability and raise their
creativity and interest in aesthetic.
• 2.2.3. To enable both the handicapped and the gifted learn in
accordance with their potential and needs.
• 2.2.4. To provide basic education and integrated knowledge at various
levels of vocational training.
• 2.2.5. To satisfy the country's need for skilled manpower by providing
training in various skills and at different levels
• 2.2.6. To make education, training and research be appropriately
integrated with development by focusing on research.
• 2.2.7. To provide secular education
• 2.2.8. To make education a supportive tool for developing traditional
technology, and for utilizing modern technology.
 Education policy under EPRDF15 Specific objectives…
• 2.2.9. To provide education that promotes democratic culture, tolerance and
peaceful resolutions of differences and that raises the sense of discharging
societal responsibi1ity.
• 2.2.10. To provide education that can produce citizens who stand for
democratic unity, liberty, equality, dignity and justice, and who are endowed
with moral values.
• 2.2.11. To provide education that promote the culture of respect for work,
positive work habits and high regard for workmanship.
• 2.2.12. To recognize the rights of nations/nationalities to learn in their
language, while at the same time providing one language for national and
another one for international communication.
• 2.2.13. To gear education towards reorienting society's attitude and value
pertaining to the role and contribution of women in development.
• 2.2.14. To provide education that can produce citizens who possess national
and international outlook on the environment, protect natural resources and
historical heritages of the country.
• 2.2.15. To provide education that can produce citizens who have developed
 Ethiopian Education and Training Policy under EPRDF has
got Nine Overall Strategies
• 3.1. Curriculum
• 3.2. Educational Structure
• 3.3. Educational Measurement and Examination
• 3.4. Teachers
• 3.5. Languages and Education
3.6. Nexus Between Education, Training, Research and
Development
• 3.7. Educational Support Inputs
• 3.8. Educational Organization and Management 3.9.
Educational Finance
 3.1. Curriculum
• 3.1.1. The preparation of curriculum will be based on the stated
objectives of education, ensuring that the re1evant standard and the
expected profile of students are achieved.
• 3.1.2. Create a mechanism by which teachers, professionals from
major organizations of development, and beneficiaries participate in
the preparation implementation and evaluation of the curriculum.
• 3.1.3. Ensure that the curriculum developed and textbooks prepared
at central and regional levels, are based on sound pedagogical and
psychological principles and are up to inter-national standard, giving
due attention to concrete local conditions and gender issues.
• 3.1.4. Create a mechanism for an integrated educational research,
and overall periodic evaluation of the educational system, whereby a
wide-ranging of participation is ensured to foster appropriate
relation among the various levels of education, training, research,
development and societal needs, maintaining the required standards
 3.2. Educational Structure

• 3.2.1. Kindergarten will focus on all round development of the child in

preparation for formal schoo1ing.
• 3.2.2. Primary education will be of eight years duration, offering basic and
general primary education to prepare students for further general education
and training.
• 3.2.3. Secondary education will be of four years duration, consisting of
two years of general secondary education which will enable students
identify their interests for further education, for specific training and for
the world of work. General education will be completed at the first cycle
(grade 10). The second cycle of secondary education and training
willenable students to choose subjects or areas of training which will
prepare them adequately for higher education and for the world of work.
• 3.2.4. Higher education at diploma, first degree and graduate levels, will be
research oriented, enabling students become problem-solving professional
leaders in their fields of study and in overall societal needs.
• 3.2.5. Non-formal education will be provided beginning and integrated
with basic education and at all levels of formal education.
 3.2. Educational Structure
• 3.2.6. Basic education will focus on literacy, numeracy, environment,
agriculture, crafts, home science, health services and civics.
• 3.2.7. Non-formal education will be concrete in its content, focusing on
enabling the learners develop problem-solving attitudes and abilities.
• 3.2.8. Parallel to general education, diversified technical and vocational
training will be provided for those who leave school from any level of
education.
• 3.2.8.1. Training will be provided in agriculture, crafts, construction, basic
book keeping in the form of apprenticeship for those with the appropriate
age and leaving primary school.
• 3.2.8.2. Technical and vocational training in agriculture, industrial arts,
construction, commerce and home science will be provided after primary
education for those who may not continue general education.
• 3.2.8.3. Technical training will be provided for those who complete grade ten
for the development of middle level manpower.
• 3.2.8.4. Special education and training will be provided for people with
 3.3. Educational Measurement and Examination

• 3.3.1. Continuous assessment in academic and practical subjects, including

aptitude tests will be conducted to ascertain the formation of all round
profile of students at all levels.
• 3.3.2. National examinations will be conducted at grade eight and ten to
certify completion of primary and general secondary education
respectively.
• 3.3.3. In order to- get promoted from one level to the next, students will
be required to have a minimum of fifty percent achievement
• 3.3.4. Students will be officially certified at the completion of the various
levels of education.
• 3.3.5. Official certification will also be given to those who complete
technical and vocational training programmers.
• 3.3.6. After the second cycle of secondary education, students will be
required to sit for examinations of relevant institutions for admission.
• 3.3.7. A national organization of educational measurement and
examination wi11 be established to provide central professional guidance
 3.4. Teachers

• 3.4.1. Ascertain that teacher trainees have the ability, diligence,

professional interest, and physical and mental fitness appropriate for
the profession.
• 3.4.2. Create a mechanism by which employers, training institutions
and the Teachers Association participate in the recruitment of
trainees
• 3.4.3. Teacher education and training components will emphasize
basic knowledge pro-fessional code of ethics, Methodology and
practical trainings.
• 3.4.4. Teachers will be certified before assigned to teach at any level
of education.
• 3.4.5. Teachers. Starting from kindergarten to higher education, will
be required to have the necessary teaching qualification and
competency in the media of instruction, through pro-service and in-
service training.
• 3.4.6. The criteria for the professional development of teachers will
be continuous education and training, professional ethics and
 3.4. Teachers …
• 3.4.7. A professional career structure will be developed in
respect to professional development of teachers.
• 3.4.8. Teacher training institutions, including higher education,
will function autonomously with the necessary authority,
responsibility and accountability.
• 3.4.9. Teacher training institutions of all levels will be required
to gear their programmers towards the appropriate educational
level for which they train teachers.
• 3.4.10. Special attention will be given to the participation of
women in the recruitment, training and assignment of teachers.
• 3.4.11. Teacher training for special education will be provided in
regular teacher training programmers.
• 3.4.12. Various steps will be taken to promote incentives to
motivate teachers specially to those assigned in hardship areas
 3.5. Languages and Education

• 3.5.1. Cognizant of the pedagogical advantage of the child in learning in

mother tongue and the rights of nationalities to promote the use of their
languages, primary education will be given in nationality languages.
• 3.5.2. Making the necessary preparation, nations and nationalities can
either learn in their own language or can choose from among those
selected on the basis of national and countrywide distribution.
• 3.5.3. The language of teacher training for kindergarten and primary
education will be the nationality language used in the area.
• 3.5.4. Amharic shall be taught as a language of countrywide
communication.
• 3.5.5. English will be the medium of instruction for secondary and higher
education.
• 3.5.6. Students can choose and learn at least one nationality language
and one foreign language for cultural and international relations.
• 3.5.7. English will be taught as a subject starting from grade one.
• 3.5.8. The necessary steps will be taken to strengthen language teaching
 3.6. Nexus Between Education, Training, Research and
Development
• 3.6.1. The participation of students in technical and higher education programmers,
in gaining the necessary field experience before graduation will be facilitated.
• 3.6.2. The participation of teachers and researchers in getting the necessary field
experience in various development and service institutions and professionals of such
institutions in teaching will be facilitated.
• 3.6.3. Coordinated curriculum development will be ensured so that students and
trainees will acquire the necessary Entrepreneurial and productive attitudes and
skills.
• 3.6.4. Governmental and nongovernmental organizations can establish training
programmers according to their needs.
• 3.6.5. An appropriate organizational mechanism will be created to streamline and
accredit technical and vocational training and coordinate the necessary certification.
• 3.6.6. Non-formal education and training programmers will be organized by the
various development and social institutions in coordination with the Ministry of
Education.
• 3.6.7. Traditional education will be improved and developed by being integrated with
modern education.
• 3.6.8. Research of practical societal impact will be given priority and the necessary
 3.7. Educational Support Inputs

• 3.7.1. In order to promote the quality relevance and expansion of education, due
attention will be given to the supply, distribution and utilization of educational
materials, educational technology and facilities.
• 3.7.2. Mechanisms of manpower training and maintenance, proper utilization of
educational support inputs will be developed to ensure relevance and standards.
• 3.7.3. A mechanism for coordinated production and distribution of educational
support inputs at the institutional, woreda, zonal, regional and central levels will be
created to strengthen the teaching-learning process, research and various other
educational activities, in accordance with the curricular needs and standards of the
various levels and types of education.
• 3.7.4. Due attention will be given to popular participation, in the production,
distribution, utilization, upkeep, care and safety of educational materials,
educational technology and facilities.
• 3.7.5. The participation of various organizations and individuals will be enhanced in
the production, supply and distribution of educational support inputs.
• 3.7.6. Special attention will be given in the preparation and utilization of support
input for special education.
• 3.7.7. Special attention will be given to women and to those students who did not
get educational opportunities in the preparation, distribution and use of educational
 3.8. Educational Organization and Management

• 3.8.1. Clear guidelines, stating the rights and duties of all involved in
education, will be issued to ensure participatory and proper professional
relations in their activities.
• 3.8.2. Educational management will be decentralized to create the necessary
condition to expand, enrich and improve the relevance, quality, accessibility
and equity of education and training.
• 3.8.3. Educational management will be democratic, professional,
coordinated, efficient and effective, and will encourage the participation of
women.
• 3.8.4. Educational institutions will be autonomous in their internal
administration and in the designing and implementing of education and
training programmers, with an overall coordination and democratic
leadership by boards or committees, consisting of members from the
community (society), development and research institutions, teachers and
students.
• 3.8.5. The management of teachers and other educational personnel will be
organized, on the basis of professional principles Including professional code
of ethics salary working conditions incentives, professional growth and
 3.9. Educational Finance

• 3.9.1. The priority for government financial support will be up to the

completion of general secondary education and related training (grade
10) with increased cost- sharing at higher levels of education and
training.
• 3.9.2. Mechanisms will be created for students to cover their
educational expenses through service or payment after graduation.
• 3.9.3. Scholarship will be given to deserving (outstanding) students.
• 3.9.4. Special financial assistance will be given to those who have been
deprived of educational opportunities, and steps will be taken to raise
the educational participation of deprived regions.
• 3.9.5. The government will give financial support to raise the
participation of women in education.
• 3.9.6. The government will create the necessary conditions to
encourage and give support to private investors to open schools and
establish various educational and training institutions.
• 3.9.7. The necessary conditions will be created for educational and
training institutions to generate their own income and to use it to
strengthen the educational process.
Ethiopian Education and Training Policy Under EPRDF Identified Three Areas of
Special Attention and Action Priority

• 4.1. Change of curriculum and preparation of

education materials accordingly.
• 4.2. Focus on teacher training and overall
professional development of teachers and
other personnel.
• 4.3. Change of educational organization and
management
 Part II: Change Leadership and
Management

• The Essence of Change in a School

• The concept of change
• Definition of change
• Nature and types of change
. Origin of change
. Models of change
 Change Defined …
• ‘Change favors only the prepared mind’. --- Louis Pasteur
Change is the observation of difference over time in one or more dimensions of
the school. It refers to alterations at the broadest level among individuals,
groups, and at the collective level across the entire school (Kezar, 2001).
Change also refers as the adoption of an innovation where the ultimate goal is to
improve outcomes through an alteration of practices (Kezar, 2001).
Change is a phenomenon that is inevitable in the schools, which are faced with
new demands and circumstances of the changing education system. It also
refers to the new ways of organizing and working school arrangements
involving relationships, understandings and processes in which people are
employed (britishcouncil.org).
• To sum up, change in a school refers any planned or unplanned alteration in a
school’s processes, strategy, structure, technology, and/or people. It is the
process of moving a school from a CURRENT STATE (how things are done
today) through a TRANSITION STATE to a DESIRED FUTURE STATE (the
new processes, systems, organisation structures or job roles as well as new
skills, knowledge, and attitudes of people have been brought into the school).
 What is Innovation in School?

• ‘Just as energy is the basis of life itself, and ideas are the
source of innovation, so is innovation the vital spark of all
human change, improvement and progress’.--- Theodore
Levitt
• ‘Innovation is the creation of the new or the re-arranging
of the old in a new way’. --- Michael Vance
• Innovation is  the process of making changes to school
by introducing something new that adds value to clients
like students, teachers and stakeholders and contributes to
the knowledge store of the school. Ideas have little value
until they are converted into new rules, services or
processes (Kezar, 2001).For example, introducing plasma
education in secondary schools of Ethiopia so that all
students in the nation will benefit similar learning
experience.
 Innovation and Inventions/Creativity?

• Innovation is often used in conjunction with terms such as

creativity/invention. However, they are different in meaning.
• Invention ‘The best way to predict the future is to invent it’. ---Alan
Kay
• Invention is creating something new that has never existed before;
often about creating something that has yet to be desired by a
customer. The relationship between invention and innovation is:
• Innovation = Invention + Exploitation
• If an invention can be exploited or used and transformed into change
that adds value to a client, then it becomes an innovation
(www.sagepub.com)
• Creativity ‘There is a way to do it better’. ---- Thomas Edison
• ‘People can be motivated to creativity simply with the instruction to
“be creative.”’--- Richard Saul Wurman
• ‘Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new
 Creativity, innovation
• Creativity is the ability to bring something new into existence. This
definition emphasizes the “ability,” not the “activity” of bringing
something new into existence.
• However, when he/she brings the creative ideas into useful
applications that adds values to consumers of the school or the
school, it is referred as innovation.
• Innovation = Creativity + Exploitation (www.sagepub.com)
• For Example, Thomas Edison was a creative person. Thus, he thought
of the new idea that is bringing the light bulb into existence. Not only
he thought about it over and over again but he also experimented his
idea several times to bring it to the reality. Finally, he invented the
light bulb.
• Since then, factories have presented different innovations of the light
bulb by making it portable, attractive, available and accessible for
people.
 Sources of Change
• external environment: These changes can occur through
macro shifts in the economic, social(alcoholism, drug abuse,
crime, vandalism and family break-down), or technological
environment(new techniques for organizing, communicating
and disseminating information );Policy and legal change;

• internal environment- originates from the school are

generally recognizable in the form of signal indicating that
something need to be altered(Changes in the managerial
personnel; Deficiency in Existing school; Change on the
nature of work force over a period of time;
 Forms of Change
__1
A. This types of change occurs when a group of people or
Techn
school community decides on change to improve matters
ocrati
concerning effective running of the school. This includes
c
changes in the classroom, the programs and structures of a
chan
school and in the educational system. This therefore
ge
requires collective planning where each and every relevant
individual participates and makes positive contribution.
__2
B. This type of change is generated by a variety of aspects
Incre
such as changes in the relationships between parents and
ment
children and between teachers and learners. A change in role
al
such as the reformulation of teacher’s tasks, for instance,
chan
current educational policies and legislation emphasizes the
ge
relationship between the parents and educators for the benefit
 Forms of Change
3. C. This type of change occurs as a result of changes and
Inter improvements in technology. Therefore, educational
active adaptations have to occur to accommodate these changes.
chan This includes the use of technology such as computers in
ge schools. For instance, Computer Studies was introduced as
a learning area in schools with a view to teach learners
computer literacy. Computers are also used in schools for
administrative purposes.
4. D. change is brought about by the desire to be better than
Trans other schools, for instance, an introduction of extra tuition
forma classes after school hours and over the weekends with the aim
tional to improve students’ results. In this regard, the school
chan competes with other schools in the same circuit or district in
 Forms of Change
5 . Compe- E. This type of change is initiated by the school itself, not
titive by the external force. It occurs when key groups of
change employees initiate the change, rather than having the
change mandated by the school principal.
6. Social F. This is also a preferred choice of change when the school
change is operating well. In this regard, the school stakeholders
agree that minor changes help to improve the current
operations further. For instance, the School Development
Program as a tool for incremental change as it is designed
to allow the school to organize its programe of development,
improvement and change.
7Optional G. This is the only rational change to be made when a
change school is working poorly
 Degree of Change
• First order change involves minor adjustments and
improvements in one or a few dimensions of the school
while allowing the school to carry on its present policies
and objectives. It does not change the school’s core
function. It is just developmental or ongoing efforts. For
example, a first-order change might be building many
classrooms in the school.
• Second-order change is changes the core of the school. It
tends to be multidimensional (many aspects of the school
change); to be multilevel (individuals, groups, and the
overall school change).It is irreversible process. It examines
and changes the policy and the goal of the school. An
example of second- order change would be altering the
elementary school curriculum to be prepared by mother
 McKinsey 7S framework: Focus of change
• 1 Strategy: the plan devised to maintain and build competitive advantag
over the competition. Some of the question you may ask: What is our
strategy? How do we intend to achieve our objectives? How do we deal
with competitive pressure? How are changes in clients demands dealt
with? How is strategy adjusted for environmental issues?
• 2 Structure: the way the organization is structured and who reports to
whom. Some of the question you may ask: How is the school/team
divided? What is the hierarchy? How do the various departments
coordinate activities? How do the team members organize and align
themselves? Is decision making and controlling centralized or
decentralized? Is this as it should be, given what we're doing? Where are
the lines of communication? Explicit and implicit?
• 3 Systems: the daily activities and procedures that staff members engage
in to get the job done. Some of the question you may ask: What are the
main systems that run the organization? Consider financial and HR
systems as well as communications and document storage. Where are th
 McKinsey 7S framework ..
4. Shared Values: called "super ordinate goals" when the model was first
developed, these are the core values of the school that are evidenced in the
corporate culture and the general work ethic. Some of the question you may
ask: What are the core values? What is the corporate/team culture? How strong
are the values? What are the fundamental values that the company/team was
built on?
5. Style: the style of leadership adopted. How participative is the
management/leadership style? How effective is that leadership? Do
employees/team members tend to be competitive or cooperative? Are there
real teams functioning within the organization or are they just nominal groups?
6. Staff: the employees and their general capabilities. Some of the question you
may ask: What positions or specializations are represented within the team? Are
there gaps in required competencies? What positions need to be filled?
7 Skills: the actual skills and competencies of the employees working for the
school. Some of the question you may ask: What are the strongest skills
represented within the school?
 Planned versus unplanned Change
• Planned change is a conscious and deliberate attempt of
change that happen by designing some predetermined end.
In educational setting, for example, planned change takes
place when effort is made to initiate a program whether or
not one is formally charged with the responsibility or
directing an organization. Before the planned changes take
place, as a leader of the school you have to answer the
questions: What did we achieve? Where are we now? Where
do we want to go? How might we get there?
• Unplanned change is an alteration that emerges in a short
time frame as a consequence of natural circumstances and/or
random occurrences. No deliberate attempt is made to bring
about this form of change; instead, it just happens. For
example, the school closed for two days as a result of heavy
rain and storm.
 Reactive versus Proactive Change
• Reactive: These change occurs only when they have to - usually are fire-
fighting/running to keep still. Change programs are not usually well
implemented. For example, since schools are expected to minimize the
repetitions of girl students, as a principal, you might take reactive
response for the problem like arranging extra summer classes for girls
who failed and make them pass for the next level of grade.
• Proactive: These schools have dynamic management within unstable
environments and need to keep one step ahead of the game; change is a
way of life for them. Example, you may also take a proactive response for
the above problem (repetitions of female students).In the beginning of
the year, if you plan to give a necessary additional supports (life skills,
tutorial classes on basic subjects and reproductive health and others)
throughout the academic year so as to increase their efficiency and
enable them pass to next level, that means you are designing proactive
strategies.
 Change management
• Change management is a structured approach to transitioning
individuals, teams, and schools from a current state to a desired future
state, to fulfill or implement vision and strategy. It is an organizational
process aimed at empowering employees to accept and embrace
changes in their current environment. There are several different
streams of thoughts that have shaped the practice of change
management (www.ryerson.ca. ).
• Change Management:  As a Systematic Process Change management
is the formal process for school change, including a systematic
approach and application of knowledge. Change management means
defining and adopting corporate strategies, structures, procedures, and
technologies to deal with change stemming from internal and external
conditions (www.ryerson.ca. ).
•  As a Means of Transitioning People Change management is a critical
part of any project that leads, manages, and enables people to accept
new processes, technologies, systems, structures, and values. It is the
set of activities that helps people transition from their present way of
working to the desired way of working (www.ryerson.ca).
 The Three Steps of Lewin’s Change Management Model

• Kurt Lewin's change management model is relevant for

understanding the basic concepts of a straight-forward
change management process.
• One of the cornerstone models for understanding
organizational change was developed by Kurt Lewin back
in the 1950s, and still holds true today. His model is
known as Unfreeze – Change – Refreeze, refers to the
three-stage process of change he describes. Lewin, a
physicist as well as social scientist, explained
organizational change using the analogy of changing the
shape of a block of ice.
 Unfreeze

• involves break down the existing status quo before you can build up
a new way of operating.
• Key to this is developing a compelling message showing why the
existing way of doing things cannot continue. This is easiest to frame
when you can point out the poor academic results of students; the
report on the drop out of female students ,the concerns of parents
on students drug addictive behaviors suchlike: These show that
things have to change in a way that everyone can understand.
• This first part of the change process is usually the most difficult and
stressful. When you start cutting down the "way things are done",
you put everyone and everything off balance. You may evoke strong
reactions in people, and that's exactly what needs to done.
• By forcing the organization to re-examine its core, you effectively
create a (controlled) crisis, which in turn can build a strong
motivation to seek out a new equilibrium. Without this motivation,
you won't get the buy-in and participation necessary to effect any
meaningful change
 Change after unfreeze

• After the uncertainty created in the unfreeze stage, the

change stage is where people begin to resolve their
uncertainty and look for new ways to do things. People
start to believe and act in 20 ways that support the new
direction. The transition from unfreeze to change does not
happen overnight: People take time to embrace the new
direction and participate proactively in the change. In order
to accept the change and contribute to making the change
successful, people need to understand how the changes
will benefit them. Not everyone will fall in line just because
the change is necessary and will benefit the school. This is a
common assumption and pitfall that should be avoided.
 Refreeze

When the changes are taking shape and people have embraced the new ways of
working, the school is ready to refreeze. The outward signs of the refreeze are a
stable school chart, consistent job descriptions, and so on. The refreeze stage also
needs to help people and the school internalize or institutionalize the changes.
This means making sure that the changes are used all the time; and that they are
incorporated into everyday business. With a new sense of stability, employees feel
confident and comfortable with the new ways of working.
The rationale for creating a new sense of stability in our every changing world is
often questioned. Even though change is a constant in many organizations, this
refreezing stage is still important. Without it, employees get caught in a transition
trap where they aren't sure how things should be done, so nothing ever gets done
to full capacity. In the absence of a new frozen state, it is very difficult to tackle the
next change initiative effectively. How do you go about convincing people that
something needs changing if you haven't allowed the most recent changes to sink
in? Change will be perceived as change for change's sake, and the motivation
required to implement new changes simply won't be there.
As part of the Refreezing process, make sure that you celebrate the success of the
change – this helps people to find closure, thanks them for enduring a painful
 Kotter’s Eight Steps of Change Management Model

• John Kotter, a professor at Harvard Business School and

world-renowned change expert, introduced his eight-
step change process in his 1995 book, "Leading Change."
We look at his eight steps for leading change below.
• Step #1: Create Urgency
• Step #2: Build a guiding team
• Step #3 Create a Vision for Change
• Step #4: Communicate the Vision
• Step #5: Remove Obstacles
• Step #6: Create short-term wins
• Step #7: Build on the Change
• Step #8: Make change stick
 Step 1: Create Urgency

• Change can happen if the whole school really wants it. Develop a
sense of urgency around the need for change. This may help you
spark the initial motivation to get things moving.
• This isn't simply a matter of showing people poor performance
statistics or talking about increased improvement. Open an honest
and convincing dialogue about what's happening in your school
and how you want to change it. If many people start talking about
the change you propose, the urgency can build and feed on itself.
•  Identify potential threats, and develop scenarios showing what
could happen in the future.
•  Examine opportunities that should be, or could be, exploited.
•  Start honest discussions, and give dynamic and convincing
reasons to get people talking and thinking.
•  Request support from different stakeholders.
• Strategies: Storytelling; Analysis of the expected opportunities and
challenges; Discussion; Meetings/forum
 Step 2: Build a guiding team
• Convince people that change is necessary. This often takes strong
leadership and visible support from key people within your school.
Managing change isn't enough – you have to lead it.
• You can find effective change leaders throughout your school– they don't
necessarily follow the traditional school hierarchy. To lead change, you
need to bring together a team of influential people whose power comes
from a variety of sources, including job title, status, expertise, and political
importance.
• Once formed, your "change team" needs to work as a team, continuing to
build urgency and motivation around the need for change .
• Identify the true leaders in your school.
•  Ask for an emotional commitment from these key people.
•  Work on team building within your change team. Check your team for
weak areas, and ensure that you have a good mix of people from different
departments and different levels within your school.
• Strategies: Delegate people; Communications; Team Work
 Step 3: Create a Vision for Change

• When you first start thinking about change, there will probably be
many great ideas and solutions floating around. Link these concepts
to an overall vision that people can grasp easily and remember.
• A clear vision can help everyone understand why you're asking
them to do something. When people see for themselves what
you're trying to achieve, they can easily understand the directives
they're given.

• Determine the values that are central to the change.

•  Develop a short summary (one or two sentences) that captures
what you "see" as the future of your school.
•  Create a strategy to execute that vision.
•  Ensure that your change partnership can describe the vision in
five minutes or less.
•  Practice your "vision speech" often.
• Strategies: Team work; Workshop; Use diagram
 Step 4: Communicate the Vision

• What you do with your vision after you create it will determine your
success. Your message will probably have strong competition from
other day-to-day communications within the school, so you need to
communicate it frequently and powerfully, and insert it within
everything that you do.
• Don't just call special meetings to communicate your vision. Instead,
talk about it on every chance you get. It's also important to "walk the
talk." What you do is far more important – and believable – than what
you say. Demonstrate the kind of behavior that you want from others.
• “Walk the Talk’- Lead by example
•  Talk often about your change vision.
•  Openly and honestly address peoples' concerns and anxieties.
•  Apply your vision to all aspects of operations – from training to
performance reviews. Tie everything back to the vision
• Strategies: Being a model; Workshops; Meetings
 Step 5: Remove Obstacles
• If you follow the above steps and reach this point in the change process,
you've been talking about your vision and building buy-in from all levels of
the school. Hopefully, your staff wants to get busy and achieve the benefits
that you've been promoting.
• But is anyone resisting the change? And are there processes or structures
that are getting in its way?
• Put in place the structure for change, and continually check for barriers to
it. Removing obstacles can empower the people you need to carry on your
vision, and it can help the change move forward.
•  Identify, or hire, change leaders whose main roles are to deliver the
change.
•  Look at your school structure, job descriptions, and performance and
compensation systems to ensure they're in line with your vision.
•  Recognize and reward people for making change happen.
•  Identify people who are resisting the change, and help them see what's
needed.
•  Take action to quickly remove barriers (human or otherwise).
 Step 6: Create Short-term Wins

• Nothing motivates more than success. Give your school a taste of

victory early in the change process. Within a short time frame (this
could be a month or a year, depending on the type of change),
you'll want to have results that your staff can see. Without this,
critics and negative thinkers might hurt your progress.
• Look for sure-fire projects that you can implement without help
from any strong critics of the change.
•  Don't choose early targets that are expensive. You want to be able
to justify the investment in each project.
•  Thoroughly analyze the potential pros and cons of your targets. If
you don't succeed with an early goal, it can hurt your entire change
initiative.
•  Reward the people who help you meet the targets.
• Strategies: Meetings, actions; Team work; Workshops;
Communications
 Step 7: Build on the Change

• Kotter argues that many change projects fail because victory is

declared too early. Real change runs deep. Quick wins are only
the beginning of what needs to be done to achieve long-term
change.
• Launching one new product using a new system is great. But if
you can launch 10 products, that means the new system is
working. To reach that 10th success, you need to keep looking
for improvements.
• Each success provides an opportunity to build on what went
right and identify what you can improve.
• After every win, analyze what went right and what needs
improving.
•  Set goals to continue building on the change you've achieved.
•  Keep ideas fresh by bringing in new change agents and leaders
for your change partnership
• Strategies: Assessment; communications
 Step 8: Make change stick: Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture

• Finally, to make any change stick, it should become part of the core of your
school. Your corporate culture often determines what gets done, so the
values behind your vision must show in day-to-day work.
• Make continuous efforts to ensure that the change is seen in every aspect of
your school. Give change a solid place in your school's culture.
• It's also important that your school continue to support the change. This
includes existing staff and new change leaders who are brought in. If you lose
the support of these people, you might end up back where you have started.
• Talk about progress every chance you get. Tell success stories about the
change process, and repeat other stories that you hear.
•  Include the change ideals and values when hiring and training new staff.
•  Publicly recognize key members of your original change partners, and make
sure the rest of the staff – new and old – remembers their contributions.
•  Create plans to replace key leaders of change as they move on. This will
help ensure that their legacy is not lost or forgotten.
• Strategies: Storytelling; Meetings; Communications; Delegation
 Steps for Implementing Change

• five additional practices that can further help

you implement your change initiative and plan
effectively. These powerful practices as
suggested by Harvard Business School in 2009
are:
• A. Craft an implementation plan
• B. Enlist key people
• C. Send consistent message
• D. Develop enabling structures
• E. Celebrate achievement of objectives
 Craft an implementation plan
• a) Is simple: Make your plan clear, concise, and coherent. For example, ensure
that it specifies who is supposed to do what, and when, to minimize complexity.
• b) Reflects input from people who will be affected by the intended change: An
implementation plan should not be imposed on the people asked to move it
forward. Rather, the people affected should be involved in developing the plan.
If people have played a part in the creation of the plan, they will be more likely
to support it.
• c) Is structured in achievable amounts: Overly ambitious plans are usually ended
to failure. Build a plan that can be tackled in manageable, achievable amounts.
For example, if you’re initiating a new way of handling clients (students,
teachers, and stakeholders) for instance introducing BPR, break the project down
into parts such as developing new guides, training people in the new process,
and determining new criteria for assessing performance in the new process.
• d) Specifies roles and responsibilities: Establishing accountability in any
implementation plan is essential. Define clear roles and responsibilities from the
beginning to avoid any confusion later.
• e) Is flexible: As we’ve seen, change programs seldom follow their planned
trajectories or timetables. Thus, a good implementation plan is open for revision.
• As you execute your school or unit’s implementation plan, be sure to enlist the
support and involvement of key employees within- and outside of–your group. This
means assembling a team with the right blend of leadership skills, authority,
resources, and expertise. Ask yourself the following questions to ensure the
effectiveness of your team:
•  Do key leaders support the change effort?
•  Do members of the team have the relevant expertise to do the job and make
intelligent decisions?
•  Do team members have a range of differing points of view so that they can analyze
and address problems creatively?
• Does the team include people with sufficient credibility to ensure that employees and
management will treat decisions seriously?
•  Does the team include people with demonstrated leadership skills?
•  Are the team members capable of forgoing their personal immediate interests in
favor of the larger school goal?
• If your answers are no to any of these questions, it might be a good idea to revisit your
• C) Send Consistent Messages
• Once you have articulated the need for
change convincingly and enlisted board
support, you must maintain that support
through consistent behavior and message
related to the change. For example, if you
want teachers to be punctual, you have to be
punctual for being at school, meeting and
others
• D) Develop Enabling Structures
• Enabling structures are the activities and programs that underpin successful
implementation and are a critical part of the overall plan; they include:
•  Pilot Program to give people opportunities to grapple with implementation
and its problems on a smaller, more manageable scale. Pilots are test beds in
which implementers can experiment with change initiatives before rolling
them out more broadly. For example, applying strategies to reduce drop out in
grade 8 and if it is effective, try it for wider range.
•  Training programs to provide employees with opportunities to improve their
skills so that they can contribute more effectively to the change initiative.
•  Reward systems to recognize employees who demonstrate the results and
behaviors essential in order for the desired change to deliver its promised
benefits. Be sure to visibly reward people who have contributed to the
successful generation of short –term wins
 E) Celebrate Achievement of Objectives

• Change initiatives can be frustrating and take long time.

To maintain enthusiasm for and commitment to a change
program, you’ll therefore need to celebrate objectives as
your employees reach them. Taking the time to recognize
achievements is important because acknowledges
people’s hard work, boosts morale, keeps up the
momentum, and neutralizes skepticism about the change
effort.
• Don’t make the mistake of celebrating milestones before
your employees have actually achieved them. Declaring
victory early will only drive away the sense of urgency
needed to keep people motivated about the change
• In general, for effective change initiation and implementation, you can
follow the following: SUCCESS principle suggested by Russell-Jones in
1995
• Shared vision. Ensure that there is a clear statement as to where the change
is taking you and that it is understood by everyone.
• Understand the organization. Analyze the organization to determine its key
characteristics and the things that need special attention
• Cultural alignment .Try to ensure that change is made in ways that are close
to the way things are normally done
• Communication .Communicate as soon as possible and where there is
something to say.
• Experienced help where necessary Use appropriate methodologies that have
been tried and tested, to ensure that your programme will deliver what you
want and not surprises; if this means using external help, then do not be
• S trong leadership. A strong individual, at the
highest level appropriate, must sponsor the
change and be seen to do so; the individual
must be dedicated to one goal - success of the
project .
• Stakeholder buy-in .Ensure that anyone with a
`stake’ in the programme has bought-in.
Stakeholders can be: employees; management;
shareholders; suppliers; government
 Dealing With Resistance to Change
• What is resistance to change in school and how
does it manifest itself?
• Resistance to change is the act of opposing or
struggling against modifications or transformations
that alter the status quo in the workplace
(humanresources.about.com). When you want to
change something different than before, employees
are start to complain and resist the attempt of the
change effort even though they know the old way
of doing things is not working anymore .Because
they are already used to the status quo and they
feel insecure going out of their comfort zone.
 Signs of Resistance

•  Unexplained physical illnesses - Are workers complaining of increased headaches,

muscle aches, and other physical ailments which cannot be explained by conventional
medicine?
•  Increased absenteeism - Are people arriving later and leaving earlier? Are the
attendees missing work for the first time?
•  Breakdowns in constructive communication - Are employees speaking in hushed
tones? Is rumor spreading overshadowing the facts about the implications of the
change?
•  Low productivity - Do your employees appear to be spinning their wheels -- looking
busy but producing little or no work product?
•  Narcissism - Has the employee spirit been so dampened that everyone is doing their
own thing without much direction or purpose? Are there more territory battles or
complaints as employees try to have better positions for the change?
•  Lack of morale and motivation - Do people appear lethargic, distant, and unwilling to
undertake new projects or responsibilities?
• These symptoms have underlying causes that spring from unexpressed
feelings of anger, betrayal, anxiety, insecurity, loss, confusion, and most
 Reason for Resistance and Support
Why do people resist change? why do people support
change?
They believe that change is They believe that the
unnecessary or will make the situation change makes sense
worse. and is the right
 They don’t trust the people corrective action.
mandating or leading the change  They respect the
effort. people leading the
 They don’t like the way the change change effort.
has been introduced.  They expect new
 They are not confident that the opportunities and
change will succeed. challenges to come
They have had no input in planning and from the change.
implementing the change.
 Reason for Resistance and Support
Why do people resist change? why do people support
change?
 They feel that change will mean  They were involved in
personal loss-of security, competence, planning and implementing
relationship, territory.(It is explained the change program.
further below)  They believe that the
 They believe in the status quo. change will result in
 They’ve already experienced a lot of personal gain.
change and can’t handle any more  They enjoy the
disruption. excitement of change
 They fear they don’t have the skills or
competencies to do their work in new
ways required by the change.
 What Employees lose During Change
• employees normally experience loss including the loss of:
• Security-Employees no longer feel in control or know what the future
holds, or where they stand in the school.
• Competence-Workers no longer feel that they know what to do or how
to manage. It is hard to admit you don't know how to do something.
• Relationships- The familiar contact with people like old clients, co-
workers or supervisors can disappear. People often lose their sense of
belonging to a team, a group or a school.
• Sense of Direction- Employees lose an understanding of where they are
going and why they are going there.
• Territory- There is an uncertain feeling about the area includes
psychological space as well as physical space. Each of the losses
described has a cost. Any type of loss, even of a work space or familiar
technology, can trigger an emotional response that resembles grief. You
must help your employees move past their loss to accept and move
 4 steps that you can practice to reduce resistance to change (Harvard Business School, 2009).

• Encourage people to openly express their thoughts and feelings about the

change. Create an environment that fosters open communication and
exchange of ideas. Actively reach out to employees- using informal
hallway conversations. More formal one-on-one meetings, e-mail, and
other channels-and ask them how they’re managing the change effort.
•  When resistance occurs, listen carefully. While it’s important to explain
the benefits of a change program, employees who are resistant to the
change don’t always want to hear an explanation of why the change is
necessary.
•  Treat resistance as an input to reshape and improve the change effort.
Resisters may provide valuable information about a change program-
information that you may not be aware of. For example, a resister may
reveal an unanticipated consequence of a projected change that could
result in a potential threat to either the unit or the school.
•  Once you understand the nature of their concerns, bring people together
to discuss and deal with the perceived problems. If people feel that
they’ve been heard and have had opportunities to discuss problems and
 The ten commandments of Change management
• Rosabeth Moss Kanter(1992) is a professor at Harvard who has
carried out research into change. Here are her ten
commandments that minimize resistance to change:
• 1. Analyze the organization and its need for change
• 2. Create a shared vision and common direction
• 3. Separate from the past
• 4. Create a sense of urgency
• 5. Support a strong leadership role
• 6. Line up political sponsorship
• 7. Craft a feasible plan
• 8. Develop enabling structures
• 9. Communicate and involve people
• 10. Reinforce and institutionalize change
 Second Assignment
• Group work.
• The first Group: Discuss the eight change steps
developed by Kotter.
• The second Group: Resistance- define, reason,
and show how to manage resistance.
• The third group: How to successfully lead and
mange change.
 The End
• Thank You for Your Attention!