The Rhetoric and Reality of Decentralisation Reforms: The Case of School-Based Management in Egypt

Decentralisation reforms have been in vogue in the education sector for the last few decades. School-based management (SBM) has been one of the most notable decentralisation reforms and has particularly been prominent in Western countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. Egypt has been no exception to this trend. In the early 1990s, the Ministry of Education started a comprehensive educational reform programme with educational decentralisation being a key theme on the reform agenda. As part of this move, SBM has been promoted through a number of decentralisation initiatives aiming to devolve more decision-making powers to the local school level. However, evidence from recent literature indicates that the rhetoric surrounding this move is much more significant than its substance. This paper highlights the apparent paradox between policy and practice and provides possible explanations for it.