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The Importance of De Facto Decentralization in Primary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa PTAs and Local Accountability in Uganda

Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph, Centre for Urban and Community Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada

In the past two decades, cash-strapped countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have been unable to provide even rudimentary primary education systems. User fees for primary education have become common, as has the intervention of parent-teacher associations (PTAs), which requires further fees. A look at the relationship between PTAs and local government in Jinja, Uganda, demonstrates that the de facto decentralization of the provision of primary education to PTAs provides an opportunity for building political accountability; when parents bring resources to the table, governments must share resources and responsibility and relationships of accountability emerge. These relationships are threatened by the new universal primary education (UPE) policy for which Uganda has few resources and little accountability. Current UNESCO initiatives for establishing UPE in Sub-Saharan Africa call for participation and accountability but may ignore the potential for accountability and improvement through partnerships between governments and PTAs.

Key Words: decentralization • public participation • accountability • universal primary education • local government

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