Does Information Improve School Accountability? Results of a Large Randomized Trial.

Authors: Pandey. P, Goyal, S and Sundararaman, V

The problem of poor quality outcomes is a more general one in various public services across many developing countries. Targeting resources efficiently to communities and getting public workers to perform have remained a challenge for many public services, including education. Weak mechanisms of accountability are a key reason for indifferent service delivery; workers rarely face any censure for their absences or below par performance.

Monitoring by the local community—who have a direct stake in the quantity and quality of public services that are available to them—can play a fundamental role in improving public service delivery. To this end, a number of developing countries, including India, are decentralizing control over local public services to local communities. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a nation-wide public scheme initiated in 2001 to universalize elementary quality education in India, aimed to increase accountability of schools to communities‘ through greater involvement of
village education committees and parent-teacher associations. Click here to read more.

The World Bank Discussion Paper Series, December 2011