2018年-世界发展银行全球_Guinea-Bissau_School_Autonomy_and_Accountability___SABER_Country_Report_2017_29页_555kb

Summary of the SABER Country Report on School Autonomy and Accountability in Guinea-Bissau (2017)

Core Content

The SABER School Autonomy and Accountability (SAA) report on Guinea-Bissau evaluates the current state of school autonomy and accountability across five key policy goals. It highlights the challenges the country faces in establishing a decentralized and accountable education system, while also providing insights into the national context and the potential benefits of school autonomy.

Main Policy Goals and Findings

1. Autonomy in Planning and Management of the School Budget

• Status: Latent
• Key Points:
  • Legal authority over operational funds is centralized.
  • Schools do not receive an operating budget.
  • There is no clear process for school budget planning.
  • A dispatch on school fees provides a budget-related process for EB3 and secondary schools, but not for EB1 and EB2.
  • The Fundo Social de Apoio Escolar (FSAE), a social fund for school support, is not fully implemented across the education system.

2. Autonomy in Personnel Management

• Status: Latent
• Key Points:
  • Teaching staff are contracted at the central level via a civil service ministry.
  • Authority for teacher deployment is shared between central and regional levels.
  • Non-teaching staff appointments are mainly controlled at the central level.
  • There is no clear legal framework for these appointments.
  • School director evaluations are supposed to be conducted by regional levels with sectoral inspectors, but this does not occur in practice.

3. Participation of the School Council on School Governance

• Status: Emerging
• Key Points:
  • Community participation is a key feature of the education system.
  • Various forms of school management committees exist, but they are not systematized.
  • These committees lack legal authority and are not involved in personnel decisions.
  • Pilot models for participation and voice in school operations are being tested on a small scale.

4. Assessment of School and Student Performance

• Status: Latent
• Key Points:
  • School inspections are conducted by the education inspectorate, but not regularly.
  • There is no regular assessment of school performance.
  • Assessments are not used to inform pedagogical or operational adjustments.
  • National examinations and standardized tests are not regularly conducted.
  • There are no provisions for sharing and reporting standardized test results.

5. Accountability to Stakeholders

• Status: Emerging
• Key Points:
  • Some regulations exist for financial management and school operations.
  • There is no linkage between compliance and rewards or sanctions.
  • No mandate exists for simplifying and explaining student assessment results to the public.
  • Accountability to stakeholders is not effectively promoted.

Country Overview

Guinea-Bissau is a coastal country in Western Africa with a population of approximately 1.8 million. It has a young population, with 41% under the age of 14. The country is among the poorest in the world, with a GDP per capita of $573 (2015) and 70% of the population living below the poverty line. The education system is under the responsibility of the Ministry of National Education, Culture, Science, Youth, and Sports (MEN), with administrative support from 11 regional directorates.

Education in Guinea-Bissau is governed by the Basic Education Law of 2010. The law mandates free access to the first two cycles of basic education (EB1 and EB2) but allows for school fees in EB3 and secondary education. The country has seen improvements in access to education, but learning outcomes and completion rates remain low. Teacher and student performance in core subjects such as math and Portuguese is below expectations.

The education budget is heavily reliant on donor support, with less than 2% of GDP allocated to the sector. In 2013, 97% of the education budget was spent on salaries, leaving little for operational expenditures. The recent National Education Plan (2016–2025) aims to expand education coverage, improve quality, and strengthen school management through better coordination, decentralization, and financial management.

Key Concepts and Findings

• School Autonomy and Accountability: These are essential for improving educational quality. They allow schools to make decisions, assess results, and be accountable to stakeholders.
• School-Based Management (SBM): A form of decentralization where schools have more control over management decisions. SBM is seen as a tool to improve learning outcomes, but its success depends on the integration of autonomy, assessment, and accountability.
• System Closure: This refers to the integration of school autonomy, assessment, and accountability into a coherent system. The report emphasizes the importance of achieving system closure for effective educational reform.

Conclusion

Guinea-Bissau's education system is in the early stages of developing school autonomy and accountability. While some pilot programs and legal frameworks exist, they are not fully implemented or institutionalized. The country needs stronger legal and policy support to enable schools to manage budgets, personnel, and assessments more independently, and to foster community participation and transparency in educational outcomes.

Figures and Tables

Figure 1: School Autonomy & Accountability The 3 A'S

Source: Demas and Arcía 2015
Note: EMIS - Education Management Information System

Table 1: Structure of the Education System

Source: A Lei de Bases do Sistema Educativo da Guiné-Bissau (Basic Education Law of Guinea-Bissau), Ministério de Educação Nacional, Cultura, Ciência, Juventude e dos Deportes (MEN) May, 2010
Note: The Basic Education Law states school entry at 6 years old; ages are calculated from that starting point. In practice, students within grades are often much older than the ranges shown above.

Table 2: Selected Education Indicators (2013)

Source: MEN et al. 2015
Note: Rate of access to Ensino Básico 3 (grade 7) is 56 percent according to the 2015 RESEN.

Policy Actions and Scoring