The AEW presents a regional overview of accountability and transparency in primary education management in seven African countries. It has been produced within the framework of Africa Education Watch (AEW). AEW is a threeyear programme (2007-2010) implemented by Transparency International (TI) that focuses on governance in the management of public funds in the primary education system.

Since the late 1990s the management of primary education in much of Africa has been subject to structural changes intended to bring it closer to the ‘user’, and to give citizens at the local level (particularly parents) a greater stake in management. The goal is to increase accountability, oversight and responsiveness. The new administrative and fiscal  rrangements have placed more responsibilities on regional, district, communal and school level authorities.

TI’s AEW programme seeks to discover whether these new decentralised systems are effective in controlling malpractice, monitoring the flow of resources, and preventing corruption, resource leakages and delays. Particularly, it asks whether school administration is now a genuinely accountable and participatory governance system.

This assessment covers the effectiveness of decentralised accountability structures in seven countries: Ghana, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

In each country, four types of respondents were interviewed: households, head teachers, heads of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) and local  governments (district education officers). A minimum of 60 schools were randomly selected and surveyed. On average, 58 head teachers and 58 heads of PTAs were interviewed in each country. Additionally, at least 1,000 households were selected from the schools’ roster and interviewed. A proportion of those interviewed were also members or heads of the School Management Committees (SMCs). An average of 10 district officials were also interviewed
in each country.

Respondents were asked about the existence of channels and mechanisms for voicing opinions and monitoring accountability, the use of such mechanisms  by parents, experiences and perceptions of corrupt practices and any other problems they identified at their schools. For detailed information on the  methodology used for the surveys, please refer to Annex 2.

The Africa Education Watch was executed using the following survey instruments:

Household Questionnaire
Provider Questionnaire 1
Provider Questionnaire 2: SCHOOL BUDGET DATA SHEET
Provider Questionnaire 3: DISTRICT LEVEL
Provider Questionnaire 1 bis