Education Reform Support Volume Two: Foundations of Education Reform Support

Education Reform Support series means to provide an integrated approach towards educational policy implementation in light of the recent failure of donor agencies and host countries to successfully implement and scale educational reforms. Volume two within this series highlights that lack of accountability and proper infrastructure, inherent limitations within the administrative system, lack of economic and political capacity along with inability to accept technical change by citizens of the host country prevents reforms to be successfully implemented. The study holds that reforms that adopt an aggressive yet participatory approach can allow donor agencies to bring about profound changes in education sector of countries such as Africa. Lesson learnt from previous policy reforms reveal that reforms fail to achieve the objectives if they are not properly implemented.

Policy reforms are an ever dependent process that requires substantial effort and technical input and policies must not be copied without considering the local context. Information and data analysis plays a key role in successful design of a policy reform but the complexities of generating data in developing countries mean that research and information functions pose a significant hurdle. The paper concludes with a comprehensive definition of ERS that states that ERS is a framework for policy analysis and designing using techniques and tools that allows decision makers to design a sustainable educational reform.