Governance

In remote areas the school is often the most prominent outpost of the State - the main point of contact people have with their government. Parents send their children every day yet often feel alienated from the school, unable to influence what goes on.

Enabling parents to feel confident to engage with the local school - to feel that they have the right to have a say, to be confident to complain if teachers do not turn up - is a fundamental step. If parents can build their confidence to hold the local school accountable this is their first step in enabling them to engage positively with other parts of government.

Good governance in schools
Achieving good governance in schools, through parent teacher associations, school management committees or other forms of citizen engagement, is a very effective foundation for wider work on improving governance, and accountability. It may not be immediately obvious, but addressing the alienation between schools and parents can be an essential means of deepening democracy.

In many respects this is echoed at a national level. One of the most significant uses of taxes is on education. Once people are made aware that they are paying for education (even if only through indirect taxation) they often develop the confidence to demand a right over how such money is spent. In most contexts tax-payers would like to see more of their money spent on education - and they would like to see it better spent.

Tracking budgets
Through independently tracking how government education budgets are developed and spent, we can give people greater confidence in their capacity to scrutinise other areas of government expenditure. The starting point might be to look at education spending in itself but the big challenge often lies in looking at relative spending between different areas - to demand more investment in education and less, for example, in military spending.

photo : ©Elaine Duigenan/ActionAid