Education in the Samoa is highlydecentralized. While education policy is the soleresponsibility of the Ministry of education, school boardsare responsible for delivery. The entire organization of theschool system is based on checks and balances to ensureaccountability. Budgetary autonomy is established. Theschool board controls the school budget, with input fromparents. Personnel management is established. Salaries arerelatively fixed by civil service rules at the primaryschool level, but completely negotiable at the secondaryschool level. The school board controls the hiring andfiring of teachers and principals. Participation of parentsin school governance is established. There is anaccountability system comprised of different supervisoryinstitutions where parents are formally represented. Schoolautonomy and accountability are key components to ensureeducation quality. The transfer of core managerialresponsibilities to schools promotes local accountability,helps reflect local priorities, values, and needs, and givesteachers the opportunity to establish a personal commitmentto students and their parents. There are five indicators ofschool autonomy and accountability that can help benchmarkan education system's policies that enable schoolautonomy and accountability: school autonomy in budgetplanning and approval; school autonomy in personnelmanagement; the participation of the school council inschool finance; the assessment of school and studentperformance; and school accountability to stakeholders. Thisreport focuses specifically on policies in the area ofschool autonomy and accountability.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
