TY - JOUR AU - Hamal, Sanjay PY - 2018/03/15 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Understanding Education Decentralization and 'Sustained' Elite Capture – Explicating Cases From Two Public Schools JF - Journal of Education and Research JA - JER VL - 8 IS - 1 SE - DO - UR - http://www.kusoed.edu.np/journal/index.php/je/article/view/252 SP - 29-45 AB - <p><span class="fontstyle0">The paper aims at uncovering the practices of educational decentralization in Nepal<br>that started after the restoration of democracy in 1990. Though decentralization in<br>education in Nepal began with the aim of greater community participation and<br>autonomy to the needs and priorities perceived by the local level functionaries in<br>school, it has been subject to elite capture in its governance. Because of control in<br>planning, organization, management, financial liability and different activities for the<br>education system, the paper argues that practices of educational decentralization have<br>been shaped by the local elites who capture the local resources and power to operate<br>the school with their network and 'one-upmanship'. While arguing so, the paper is<br>based on the ethnographic case study of two public schools located in the MidWestern region of Nepal. Applying the Gramscian concept of hegemony, the paper<br>narrates the process of a 'sustained' selection of the School Management Committee<br>Chairpersons and shows how they negotiate and balance their power to sustain their<br>capture. The paper concludes that the informal mechanisms of individual attributes<br>such as trust and capital are playing an important role in their sustained elitism.</span> </p> ER -