A Case Study of Parental Participation in Primary School Education in Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia

The Mismatch Between World Bank Actions and the Decentralization of Educational Systems in LMICs

“…An overwhelming body of literature in the field of international development and comparative education suggests how decentralization reforms by IOs, especially the WB, might have changed the education sector in LMICs (Bandur, 2012;Kristiansen, 2006;Manor, 1999;Naidoo, 2005;Shoraku, 2009;Wong & Guggenheim, 2005). Findings in this study do not suggest so, as there is no significant association between WB reforms and de jure changes.…”

“…The WB has been promoting SBM across the developing world to create more autonomy in schools so that decisions can be more participatory by involving parents and local communities, supposedly leading to better learning outcomes (Barrera-Osorio et al, 2009). The term ''SBM'' itself, along with its goals and instruments, has remained remarkably similar when diffused to countries with vastly different institutional and cultural contexts, for instance, from Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand in Southeast Asia (Bandur, 2012;Shoraku, 2009) to Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico in South America (Ganimian, 2016;Reimers & Ca ´rdenas, 2007). Among the small World Bank Actions and Decentralization of Educational Systems in LMICs number of countries I mentioned here, cultural and institutional variations, even within each region, are nonnegligible.…”