Educational Planning in a Decentralised System

From 1981 to 1984, Mark Bray was employed by a National Department [Ministry] of Education project in Papua New Guinea. He was based at the University of Papua New Guinea, and provided in-service training in educational planning for officers at all levels of the system. This required considerable travel to all provinces, and he gained close acquaintance with the realities within the system.Before moving to Papua New Guinea, Dr Bray taught in secondary schools in Kenya and Nigeria and at the University of Edinburgh. He had also been a consultant to the World Bank Fourth Primary Education Project in Pakistan, and had travelled extensively in both less developed and more developed countries.Subsequently, Mark Bray moved to the University of Hong Kong where he currently holds the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education. Between 2006 and 2010 he worked in Paris as Director of UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP).

• Introduction 1. Theoretical issues and practical constraints: an international perspective 2. The political history of decentralisation in Papua New Guinea 3. Decentralisation and the education system 4. Decentralisation and the financial system 5. Decentralisation and inter-provincial inequalities 6. Diversity and conformity in the education system 7. Decentralisation and efficiency 8. Participation in educational decision-making 9. Conclusions: lessons from the Papua New Guinean experience

Reviews of the first publication:‘Bray’s book offers a concise, clear, and compelling exposition of the process of decentralisation…offer[s] extremely important empirical and conceptual contributions to the study of educational decentralisation.’— Comparative Education, Vol. 22, No. 2‘This is a valuable contribution to the body of literature on educational planning.’— Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. XXIII, No. 2‘Bray has given all students of education’s role in the development process a useful case study of an important subject.’— Pacific Affairs, Volume 58, Issue 4‘Mark Bray is to be congratulated…for writing a clear, succinct, and eminently balanced account of Papua New Guinea’s experiment with decentralized educational planning…’— Comparative Education Review, Volume 29, Number 4