Decentralized finance and provision of basic education

This booklet was prepared as part of UNESCO Bangkok’s programme on education policy reviews and analyses on sector planning, management and financing. The information contained in the booklet draws on the papers and presentations delivered at the Regional Policy Seminar on Education Finance and Decentralization in Asia:
Implications for Service Delivery, held in Bangkok, Thailand, between 3 and 5 November 2010. As such, many of the facts and data cited in the paper come from the country presentations and, while they reflect what was discussed and debated in the Seminar, the sources cannot always be confirmed.

To meet the challenges attendant to the Education for All (EFA) goals, education services must be provided as efficiently and equitably as possible. With the aim of improving both efficiency and equity, governments face three important choices.

• The first choice that governments face is the role of the private sector and extent of their participation
• The second choice that governments must make concerns the organization and structure of the delivery of public education.
• The third choice concerns how best to finance decentralized education service delivery.