IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lvl/pmmacr/2008-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Will Formula-Based Funding and Decentralized Management Improve School Level Resources in Sri Lanka?

Author

Listed:
  • Nisha Arunatilake
  • Priyanka Jayawardena

Abstract

Using the experience of the Educational Quality Inputs (EQI) Scheme in Sri Lanka, the paper examines the distributional aspects of formula-based funding and efficiency of decentralized management of education funds in a developing country setting. The study finds that the EQI fund distribution is largely pro-poor, with the exception of expenditure at the collegial level. The study finds that allocating more funds to more disadvantaged schools alone is insufficient to reduce disparities as the inability of schools to fullly utilize the funds holds back progress. The study findings support the hypothesis that qualified principals, adequate levels of human and physical resources, and state-level monitoring and support is needed for the success of education management at the school level. The study highlights the need to better use information collected from the schools on the EQI scheme to simplify and improve its implementation and effectiveness.

Suggested Citation

  • Nisha Arunatilake & Priyanka Jayawardena, 2008. "Will Formula-Based Funding and Decentralized Management Improve School Level Resources in Sri Lanka?," Working Papers PMMA 2008-12, PEP-PMMA.
    • Handle: RePEc:lvl:pmmacr:2008-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://portal.pep-net.org/documents/download/id/13538
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yasuyuki Sawada, 1999. "Community Participation, Teacher Effort, and Educational Outcome: The Case of El Salvador's EDUCO Program," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 307, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    2. Galiani, Sebastian & Gertler, Paul & Schargrodsky, Ernesto, 2008. "School decentralization: Helping the good get better, but leaving the poor behind," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(10-11), pages 2106-2120, October.
    3. Gunnarsson, Louise Victoria & Orazem, Peter F. & Sanchez, Mario & Verdisco, Aimee, 2004. "Does School Decentralization Raise Student Outcomes?: Theory And Evidence On The Roles Of School Autonomy And Community Participation," Working Papers 18220, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Gunnarsson, Victoria & Orazem, Peter & Sanchez, Mario A. & Verdisco, Aimee, 2004. "Does Local School Control Raise Student Outcomes?: Theory and Evidence on the Roles of School Autonomy and Community Participation," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11417, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mihály Fazekas, 2012. "School Funding Formulas: Review of Main Characteristics and Impacts," OECD Education Working Papers 74, OECD Publishing.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emiliana Vegas & Ilana Umansky, 2005. "Improving Teaching and Learning through Effective Incentives : What Can We Learn from Education Reforms in Latin America?," World Bank Publications - Reports 8694, The World Bank Group.
    2. Elizabeth M. King & Peter F. Orazem & Elizabeth M. Paterno, 2016. "Promotion with and without Learning: Effects on Student Enrollment and Dropout Behavior," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 30(3), pages 580-602.
    3. Qin, Lixia & Bowen, Daniel H., 2019. "The distributions of teacher qualification: A cross-national study," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-1.
    4. World Bank Group, 2015. "Governance and Finance Analysis of the Basic Education Sector in Nigeria," World Bank Publications - Reports 23683, The World Bank Group.
    5. Elizabeth Beasley & Elise Huillery, 2017. "Willing but Unable? Short-term Experimental Evidence on Parent Empowerment and School Quality," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(2), pages 531-552.
    6. Song, Yang, 2019. "Sorting, school performance and quality: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 238-261.
    7. Berlinski, Samuel & Galiani, Sebastian & Gertler, Paul, 2009. "The effect of pre-primary education on primary school performance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 219-234, February.
    8. repec:idb:brikps:259 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Victoria Gunnarsson & Peter F. Orazem & Mario A. Sánchez & Aimee Verdisco, 2009. "Does Local School Control Raise Student Outcomes? Evidence on the Roles of School Autonomy and Parental Participation," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(1), pages 25-52, October.
    10. Lorenzo Neri & Elizabetta Pasini & Olmo Silva, 2024. "The organizational economics of school chains," CEP Discussion Papers dp1993, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Pedro Carneiro & Oswald Koussihouèdé & Nathalie Lahire & Costas Meghir & Corina Mommaerts, 2015. "Decentralizing education resources: school grants in Senegal," CeMMAP working papers CWP15/15, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    12. Volpe Martincus, Christian & Blyde, Juan, 2013. "Shaky roads and trembling exports: Assessing the trade effects of domestic infrastructure using a natural experiment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 148-161.
    13. Nicolas Contreras, 2015. "School Autonomy, Education Quality and Development: an Instrumental Variable Approach," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01161888, HAL.
    14. Massimo Bordignon & Matteo Gamalerio & Gilberto Turati, 2013. "Decentralization, Vertical Fiscal Imbalance, and Political Selection," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def002, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    15. Simons, Andrew M., 2022. "What is the optimal locus of control for social assistance programs? Evidence from the Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    16. David K. Evans & Anna Popova, 2016. "What Really Works to Improve Learning in Developing Countries? An Analysis of Divergent Findings in Systematic Reviews," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 31(2), pages 242-270.
    17. Lugo, Maria Ana, 2011. "Heterogenous peer effects, segregation and academic attainment," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5718, The World Bank.
    18. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/eu4vqp9ompqllr09iatqiagpl is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Mergele, Lukas & Weber, Michael, 2020. "Public employment services under decentralization: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    20. Li Han & Mingxing Liu & Xuehui An, 2017. "Centralized Deployment and Teacher Incentives: Evidence from Reforms in Rural China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 297-337.
    21. Kis-Katos, Krisztina & Sjahrir, Bambang Suharnoko, 2017. "The impact of fiscal and political decentralization on local public investment in Indonesia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 344-365.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education finance; Sri Lanka; formula-based funding; decentralized management of schools;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lvl:pmmacr:2008-12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Manuel Paradis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cdvlvca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.