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Debates about decentralisation, involving questions such as who should make decisions about public schooling and who should pay for it [Caillods, F., 1999. Preface. In: McGinn, N., Welsh, T. (Eds.), Decentralization of Education: Why, When, What and How? UNESCO, Paris] have permeated and affected educational planning in the last 20 or so years. This paper reports on and draws lessons from two pieces of work: an empirical study on the locus of decentralised decision-making power among Zimbabwean school heads, teachers and parent school governors in the areas of school finances, human resources and curriculum; and on a review of one article on the process of educational decentralisation in Malawi. Cross-national studies are necessary in this age of the internationalisation of education. The paper reveals that the process of educational decentralisation, and stakeholders' perceptions of the locus of decentralised decision-making power are contested issues. There is no automatic link between decentralisation and the improvement of quality. The level of clarity of the guiding policy (ies), the capacity of the stakeholders, and the availability of resources are important deciders of the success or failure of educational decentralisation. (Contains 3 tables.)

The establishment of formal teacher training systems is a relatively new innovation in some parts of Africa. Formal training of secondary teachers in Malawi commenced when the government of Malawi opened the University of Malawi in 1965. The contribution of Malawi's ruling parties to the development of teacher education in Malawi since then is an important consideration in understanding some of the actions and outcomes of this continuing process. This paper provides a brief overview of a current teacher education initiative, linked to the National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) for the recruitment, training and deployment of quality teachers to schools in Malawi. It includes a discussion of Mann's model of four sources of power (Mann, M. 1986. "The sources of social power." Vol. I. Cambridge University Press) to offer insights as to why the some of the educational outcomes linked to the NESP are yet to be realised within rural school across Malawi. Insights on the potential impact of power groups other than the government may help to reduce the gap between the planned and realised outcome of educational reforms in Malawi and other least developed countries. (Contains 2 tables.)

Since the democratic dispensation of 1994, the education sector seems to be in perpetual transition with numerous facets of policies being introduced against a background of alleged poor management, understaffing and a poorly paid cadre of teachers. The situation was at one time likened "to a patient on a resuscitation bed in a hospital". Despite this seemingly chaotic and complex scenario, the education system has managed to survive. Using the Malawi Community Day Secondary Schools (CDSS) policy, the paper intends to draw some insights from public policy's Chaos and Complexity theory to explain why the education sector still manages to survive and show resilience (on the "edge of chaos") despite the apparent overwhelming challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The study assessed the implementation of the Malawi nation reading Programme's theoretical grounding and its localisation based on context. The methodology included a standardised reading assessment that tested the ability of children to read and regressed contextual factors to examine how they contributed to the reading skills of pupils. Results showed that the programme was well grounded in theory but lacked awareness of the implementation context. Therefore, the study recommends a balance of effort and investment in the implementation of reading programmes for optimal and sustained reading skill gains by pupils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]