Abstrakt
The paper deals with the experience of the Czech Republic with transformation of educational policy governance after 1989. It focuses upon decentralization and its consequences for accountability.
First, the broader context of changes in educational policy governance is briefly described. Second, the Czech educational reform towards decentralization is discussed and put into comparative perspective, using data from the OECD-INES Survey on Locus of Decision Making.
Third, the effects and consequences of decentralization are analyzed. It is argued that decentralization helped to strengthen the involvement of various stakeholders in education policy making and empowered schools and teachers.
Decentralization, however, has not been accompanied by changes in accountability regimes. While the central level has been hollowed out and divested of instruments for influencing educational processes, it is still considered the principal education actor to be held accountable.
On the other hand, there are new actors, the regions and municipalities, which have been provided with substantial power but are only rarely held to account. Schools have been given a substantial level of autonomy, but also a lot of accountability which is not always consistent.
Moreover, there has been a temptation to compensate for the loss of central power using various inadequate measures such as high-stakes testing. The article concludes that decentralization in itself is not a negative tendency; however, to be effective it must be combined with changes in the accountability regime.