Why this sub-theme matters?
Financing systems can be a bastion of bureaucracy and the status quo, gatekeepers driven by fiscal considerations that are disconnected from educational perspectives and evidence. They can be or become obstructive, perhaps not deliberately, of change. Yet, finance systems can be catalysts for change, driving new initiatives and accountability for effective improvements in education systems. If finance systems can be re-designed in such ways, their potential impact to foster change is vast.
What are we looking forward to in the submission?
We are particularly looking forward to research and thought pieces that explore:
Sustainable financing models, that sit outside Government initiatives and external projects that operate in short to medium fixed term ‘start / stop’ modalities, and to understand whose agenda is underpinning such sustainable models; donor, national Government, more locally decentralised models
Financing models based on payment by results have become prevalent, but what evidence is that these drive long-term changes in teaching or learning; do they focus on short-term gains or on embedding development processes and behaviour changes for lasting improvements in teaching and learning
Literature and examples of cost-effectiveness analyses of different education programmes, their relationship or not to current discourses on equitable financing, and how responding to local needs and targeting specific and diverse vulnerable communities are captured in such analyses
Accountability models that promote ‘brave’ shifts in education systems based on recent evidence of what works through what may be an incremental journey, but that has a conceptual paradigm shift which moves away from doing the same or more of the same that evidence shows is not currently working
Innovative examples of school and / or local District financing policies and practices that enable and promote school and / or local decision-making that respond to school and / or local needs and contexts to improve teaching and learning
Professor Michael Amakyi and Claire Hedges
Submit your abstract by Monday, 29th May 2023 through https://www.icerdaafrica.org/abstract-submission