SOCIAL INTEGRATION BY MEANS OF

DECENTRALIZATION:

In Guatemala, Mayas create and manage their

own schools

The PRONADE experience

José Pedro Alberti ([2])

(May 1999)

1. Introduction

Is it possible for parents to manage and supervise their children’s education as well as or better than the State? This question is unanswered as yet, after countless debates on the advantages and disadvantages of delegating to parents the management of public education funds – either through voucher systems, or by means of other demand-oriented mechanisms.

A decentralization program directed by the Ministry of Education in Guatemala - PRONADE - ([3]) shows that, with adequate information and training, parents in small rural communities can set up, manage and supervise schools with remarkable improvements in teacher performance. At the same time, the strengthening and recognition of the communities’ traditions in participation, organization and decision-making have positive effects on community management of other public services, such as health, drinking water and electricity. Impact evaluation shows an increasing integration of these communities into the political, social and economic life of the country.

The key to the success of this type of institutional innovation seems to lie in the solution to an old problem that has long been the bane of the quality and efficiency of Latin American educational systems, namely, supervision. The implementation of adequate and modern information and control systems, based on a distribution of roles and responsibilities that responds to the natural interests of the various participants, is the correct path towards the consolidation of these experiences.

II. The demand for education in the Mayan communities

In the rural areas of Guatemala, over 400.000 children between 7 and 12 years of age lack a primary education service, as they live in small indigenous communities which are isolated from urban centers ([4]). This strong social exclusion explains the low net enrolment ratio ([5]) that could be observed in the rural areas before the PRONADE was implemented - 64% in 1995 - and which constituted the main obstacle to improving the rate at the national level.

Diversity of languages and ethnic groups is characteristic of the population of these rural communities, where often the only language spoken is one of the 23 traditional languages ([6]) or one of the many dialects. Moreover, their high atomisation and geographic dispersion contribute to cultural and linguistic

differences, even between communities that belong to the same ethnic group ([7]).

Nevertheless, these communities exhibit certain common cultural features. In keeping with Mayan traditions, work is the basis of children’s education and the cornerstone of their socialization process. The girls are taught housework, which includes the care of vegetable patches and animals, while the boys are trained at an early age for work in the world outside the family group.

However, the high poverty rate in these communities endangers their cultural and linguistic heritage. 87% of the households are poor and 61% are below the extreme poverty line. In general they have no access to running water, electricity or sewage. Migration to urban centers is the easy way out.

The extreme poverty results in high malnutrition rates, which restricts the physical development and learning skills of the native children. These usually work to supplement meagre household incomes. Together with their families they form migratory groups, mobilizing several times per year to find work in temporary agricultural activities.

In accordance with this diagnosis, the offer of educational services to these communities should rise to the challenge of adapting to local conditions, if the goal is to effectively strengthen coverage.

In a vast majority of cases education should be bilingual, or at least take into account that the learning process should be based on a transition method from the mother tongue to Spanish. This means that teachers must be selected with great care due to the cultural and linguistic diversity of the communities. At the same time, the importance of child labour should be taken into account, both from the standpoint of Maya tradition and as a source of household income. These circumstances call for a flexible management of resources, from the hiring of teachers and the schedules and calendars to be observed to meet the needs of each individual community, to the development of adequate curriculæ that include bilingual education and training for the work market.

III. The traditional response of the educational system

The traditional education system does not respond satisfactorily to the needs of indigenous communities in the rural areas. According to the diagnosis of the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) itself, the system is characterized by an unfair distribution of services and funds in detriment of the rural areas, by the inflexibility of the school calendar and schedule, and by a low internal efficiency.

These are a result of an inadequate regulatory framework that weakens the ability of MINEDUC to act as the system manager. The Ministry of Public Finances centralizes the country’s resources, and procedures to approve new action in the field of education are extremely slow. In addition to this administrative weakness is the fact that current regulations regarding the recruitment of human resources are an obstacle to the policy of focalisation in the rural areas. There are no incentives attached to jobs in rural communities, or to the hiring of bilingual teachers. At the same time, the dismissal of teachers with unsatisfactory performance - namely absenteeism, lack of personal hygiene, alcoholism and sexual harassment of the girls - is subject to strong legal restrictions.

There is the crisis of the supervisory system to be considered in addition to the limitations imposed by the legal framework regarding the recruitment, dismissal and compensation of teachers by MINEDUC. Under current regulations, supervisors must take on a high workload involving between 50 to 75 schools. Their mobility is hardly encouraged by a daily travelling allowance of a mere US$ 3.30 to cover food, accommodation and transport, whichever the distance to be covered. This crisis of the administrative and supervisory systems has led to a deterioration in the quality of rural teachers’ work.

Within the traditional system, teachers have never had to account to the parents, but rather to those who pay their work directly and appoint them to their posts, that is to say the Ministry, the municipality or the union. Within the above regulatory context, the accountability of rural teachers is not regulated by efficient information and control systems which means it is practically nonexistent. An available education authority is something faraway and unknown in these communities. Parents who are dissatisfied with teacher performance have no mechanisms to control the quality of the education offered to their children. Their only option is not to send them to school.

The alleged lack of interest of Maya parents in their children’s education is really concealing their reaction to the arbitrariness of unsupervised teachers, to the inadequacy of school calendars and schedules in respect of the productive activities of the community, and to the scant cultural and linguistic relevance of the education that is offered. Under the circumstances, and in view of the high opportunity costs of an inadequate educational offer, parents prefer the traditional Maya education within the family.

IV. The starting-point of a new institutional outlook on education

Although the small Maya communities of the rural areas of Guatemala have evolved on the fringe of the institutional framework, and consequently have

scarce participation in the decision-making of the country’s political system, their involvement in local public affairs is intense. In the absence of any real possibility of accessing public offices at the national level, the communities have concentrated their efforts in creating a complex network of local social institutions, and the individual’s authority within the community is defined on the basis of longevity, personal or family achievements and attitudes held as honourable. It is a stable structure of hierarchy, recognition and punitive measures which is difficult for outsiders to understand.

One of the main lessons learnt from the civil war, which affected the country for thirty years, is the need to overcome the political and social segregation of the Maya communities, by implementing decentralization policies which allow the integration of their own traditional participation and decision-making structures into the political and social life of the country. Within the framework of negotiations for the Peace Agreement, the Agreement on the Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples envisages an educational reform that enables the access of indigenous communities to education - especially for those with least coverage - by promoting mechanisms to achieve this goal ([8]).

Among other aspects, decentralization is mentioned as a means to adjust the educational policies to the cultural and linguistic diversity of Guatemala. This includes the participation of communities and families in the design of the school curricula and calendar, as well as in the appointment and dismissal of teachers. These conditions - agreed upon for the implementation of the educational reform - define a modality for the provision of educational services for rural and indigenous communities strictly based on their needs and desires.

V. PRONADE’s double decentralization strategy

Adhering to the Peace Agreements subscribed between the Government of Guatemala and the guerillas at the end of 1996, the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) established the target of providing educational services to 250.000 children in the rural areas by the year 2000.

To achieve this objective, MINEDUC opted for a double decentralization strategy - to be executed by PRONADE - which on one hand delegates school management to parents, and on the other hand, delegates the functions of information, guidance and training of parents and teachers to specialized private institutions. The decentralization concept which was applied meant that responsibilities were distributed between the three types of participating institutions: the Comités Educativos (COEDUCAs, or Education Committees), the Instituciones de Servicios Educativos (ISEs - Educational Services Institutions) and MINEDUC.

Democratically and in accordance with its own traditions, each community ([9]) creates a COEDUCA (which have legal status) and elects seven persons to form its Board of Directors, which subscribes a financial support agreement with MINEDUC. The funds are sent quarterly to the COEDUCA, to a bank account which is opened under its responsibility in a private bank. The COEDUCA hires and pays the teacher, controls his/her attendance and the children’s, establishes the calendar and timetable (choosing between three different cycles), buys school materials, organizes and supervises the preparation and distribution of one daily meal, takes care of basic accounting and is accountable to MINEDUC.

By delegating school management to parents in this manner, MINEDUC attempts to maximize parents’ interest in obtaining education for their children with acceptable quality and efficiency levels (including the prevention of incorrect behavior or absenteeism by teachers, prevention of the misuse of funds and the appropriate provision of teaching materials, among others). The system also enhances the information advantages of community management, which help to configure an education modality that is relevant to local requirements.

Technical networking with the schools - a part of educational supervision in a traditional system - is entrusted to private institutions, the ISEs ([10]). The ISEs are hired to (i) identify communities that qualify for Program support, (ii) organize and formalize the legal status of the COEDUCAs in these communities and (iii) follow up their activities during the school term; they also provide information, guidance and training to both COEDUCAs and teachers. Each of these activities is regulated by a specific agreement between the MINEDUC and the ISE, which is paid retroactively against results. In this way the MINEDUC ensures the fulfillment of each agreement, in terms of both punctuality and quality.

In this decentralization model, the MINEDUC - through PRONADE and its central agencies - retains the functions of regulation, funding, curricular planning, supervision and evaluation.

The main challenge in the design of PRONADE consisted firstly in the establishment of appropriate management systems at its three horizontal levels - COEDUCAs, ISEs and PRONADE - which had to be suitable in their complexity for the diverse functions of the three participants, and at the same time, maintain integration and vertical consistency in one single system.

Secondly, the design of the information and control systems were critical in the consolidation and expansion of the experience:

1. As mentioned above, the COEDUCAs are in charge of the supervision and control of teacher performance, including their attendance. Nevertheless, COEDUCAs also participate in the control of the ISEs activities. The chairman of each COEDUCA is responsible for the quarterly delivery of a

sworn statement declaring the ISEs activities in the dates and conditions agreed with MINEDUC. The ISEs then obtain the settlement of their fees from PRONADE against the quarterly forms delivered by all the COEDUCAs under its care.

2. PRONADE also receives quarterly information on the COEDUCAs and the teachers’ activities through the ISEs, and controls the COEDUCAs’ quarterly accounting statements.

3. Lastly, a modern system of achievement indicators applied to a random sample of schools - representative at the level of each ISE – allows PRONADE to supervise directly the quality of the ISEs’ work with reference to COEDUCA and teacher performance.

VI. Initial results

Although PRONADE launched its first pilot program in 1994, the foundations for the current model were established in 1996 with the introduction of the double decentralization strategy. To date, the PRONADE has gone through three well-differentiated stages in its development and consolidation as a decentralization model. These are: (i) the pilot stage (1994-1995), (ii) the stage involving the design of management systems at the level of the three main participants (1996-1997), and (iii) the consolidation of the information and control systems (1998-1999), particularly with reference to the satisfactory design of incentives and supervision mechanisms in the contracts signed between the MINEDUC and the Educational Services Institutions (ISEs). In our opinion the last stage should begin in the year 2000, and consist of a simultaneous decentralization process of funding to COEDUCAs and supervision of the ISEs from the Direcciones Departamentales (Departmental Management Units) of the Ministry, and an increasing transfer of matters related to information, hiring of ISEs and evaluation of the PRONADE towards the Ministry’s central agencies.

Scope

By April 1999, PRONADE had absorbed 2.043 COEDUCAs into its system, which in turn had hired 5.256 teachers to provide education for 173.222 children. Each school has an average of 85 children, so the prevalent system is of one-teacher, multigrade schools.

In the four years between 1996 and 1999 the net coverage of primary education in the rural area increased by 15 points due to PRONADE action, rising from 64% to 79%. In the previous three years (1993-1995) the coverage had only increased by two points. It should be noted that in the 1996-1997 period the

average annual increase was 3 points, whereas between 1998 and 1999 it was 4,5. At the current rate the PRONADE should achieve a total coverage of the rural areas in four years. If, after that, it expands to cover the very poor urban areas it could include another 100.000 children in two years, reaching total coverage in the whole country.

The typical obstacles to achieving nation-wide coverage found in other countries of the region are precisely those that the PRONADE has managed to overcome, namely, the inaccessibility of the rural communities which have no education services, and the lack of relevance of the traditional education systems.

Quality

With regard to internal efficiency ([11]), it is worth noting that in 1996 the PRONADE drop-out rate was over 13% of the enrolled students. This is normal for rural areas and logical in the case of PRONADE, given its focus on isolated communities that never had a school system before, with high illiteracy rates and a considerable number of one-teacher schools and multi-grade classrooms. This figure was taken as a starting point for the Program in highly rural areas with the greatest percentages of poverty and illiteracy.

In the following two years (1997-1998), the drop-out rate decreased by one point in PRONADE community-managed schools, while the rest of the schools of the traditional system remained at the same level. It should also be noted that the pass rate in the first grade of community-managed schools grew by 8 points in the same period - from 53,5% to 61,5% - which had significant effects on the distribution pyramid of children by grade. In the next few years PRONADE expects to maintain this upward trend in the improvement of its internal efficiency indicators.

These improvements are largely the result of a correct teacher selection by the parents. As opposed to what can be observed in the rural schools of the traditional system, the teachers of the community-managed schools are proficient in the languages and culture of the communities, which is essential considering that a Maya language predominates in 80% of the communities with PRONADE schools ([12]). This cultural and linguistic integration between teachers and students improves their performance from the first day of class.

Sustainability

In 1998 the cost per student in the classrooms ([13]) was of US$ 131 for the PRONADE students and US$ 96 for students in the traditional system. If the cost of food (not provided by the traditional system) were to be deducted from PRONADE figures, together with the additional supervision cost derived from the inaccessibility of the communities, the resulting amount would be quite close to

the traditional system. The difference is easily explained by these two additional cost items that are unavoidable if coverage is to increase in rural areas. In the next two years the PRONADE shall enter an expansion stage and its operating costs may benefit from economies of scale.

VII. Lessons learnt

The conception of PRONADE as an educational policy does not imply an attempt to resolve the discussion of whether it is the parents or the State that “know best” how to manage children’s education. Indeed, the PRONADE strategy is basically intended to make the best of local information advantages and of the natural incentives that parents have to manage their children’s education with healthy quality and efficiency criteria, but these advantages are complemented by regulatory, administrative and technical information transmitted by the Ministry through the ISEs. PRONADE’s double decentralization strategy can be summarized as a double mechanism of providing information and funding to parents. In other words, the PRONADE attempts to establish a system of subsidy of the demand, under optimum information conditions.

In the second place, the practice of subscribing a private service contract between the teachers and the parents for specific periods - they are renewable annually - prevents egotistical behavior which would make mutual cooperation impossible. On the contrary, although the specific duration of the contract is for a short period, each party knows that they must “win over” the other party if they wish it to be renewed. If the parents are satisfied with the teacher’s performance they must not only carry out their supervision functions but also motivate him or her to carry on working in the community. On the other hand, the teacher should involve parents in school activities so they can evaluate his performance and be able to decide on the renewal of his contract. The freedom of choice that both sides enjoy under this arrangement has actually led to a validation of the teacher’s presence in the community. Unlike regular teachers, who are appointed by a distant and unknown educational authority, the teachers of the community managed schools are selected by an assembly with full community participation. ([14])

Finally, the PRONADE decentralization model has not only allowed the communities to reduce the high opportunity costs of the traditional education offer - through the selection of the teachers, schedules and school calendars that suit their needs - but it has also appreciably reduced the transaction costs to obtain it ([15]). The PRONADE eliminated the long wanderings of the rural communities through public institutions, the plague of being charged “commissions” for the creation and confirmation of teaching posts by public officials, local politicians and even corrupt union leaders. The small size and cultural homogeneity of each of these communities - within the ethnic and linguistic diversity of Guatemala - make it possible for decisions concerning

teacher profiles, school schedules and calendar, to be reached with greater speed and consensus.

However, this positive evolution towards community management would not have been possible without the Acuerdos de Paz (Peace Agreements) of 1966, which allowed the State to become more accessible to the traditional forms of organization and civil participation of the Mayas, reducing the high external costs (trade union corporatism, racial discrimination, centralist practices) which made this type of policy impossible in the past. The Mayas have taken this historic opportunity with incredible speed.

([2]) The author is a consultant for Grupo de Asesoria Multidisciplinaria (GAMA) of Uruguay and for Internationale Projekt Consult (IPC) of Germany, which provided technical assistance -as requested by KfW and GTZ of Germany - in the design and implementation of PRONADE, and currently continues to assist the Executive Management of the Program in an advisory capacity - as requested by KfW - in the process of institutional consolidation.

([3] ) PRONADE: Programa Nacional de Autogestión para el desarrollo Educativo (National Program for Community management in Educational Development).

([4]) The regions with the greatest deficit in educational coverage are precisely the departments with predominantly indigenous populations with the greatest atomisation rates. In Alta Verapaz and Quichés, where in 1995 there was a net school attendance rate of only 39% and 42%, respectively, 8 out of 10 persons are indigenous. The roads that access the rural communities in these departments are few and in bad shape. In general they are reached on foot and by paths riddled with obstacles of all sorts (rivers, cliffs and even minefields remaining from the war), which implies an average of 6 to 10 hours from the nearest municipal seat.

([5]) Initial enrolment rate for children aged 7 to 12, over the total population in the same age group. The gross schooling rate includes the enrolment of children below and above the defined age group.

([6]) 21 are Mayan languages, plus Xinca and Garifuna.

([7]) Some of these ethnic groups constitute populations of over one million, as for example the Q’eqchi’s.

([8]) Agreement on the Identity and Rights of Indigenous Peoples, dated 31 March 1994, Chapter III, item G, as well as the Agreement on the Socioeconomic and Rural Situation dated 6 May 1996, Chapter II, item A.

([9]) In order to apply for MINEDUC/PRONADE support, communities must first prove the lack of school coverage - the closest school must be at least 3 kms away – and have a minimum of 25 children of school-going age.

([10] ) Instituciones de Servicios Educativos – Educational Services Institutions.

([11]) Children’s performance based on pass, repeat and drop-out rate indicators.

([12]) Asturias de Barrios, Linda, and Sergio Romero. (1997). Preliminary Study of the Sociolinguistic Situation in the PRONADE Communities and Schools (Estudio Aproximativo de la Situación Sociolinguística de las Comunidades y Escuelas del PRONADE) – mimeo- PRONADE. Guatemala.

([13]) For the comparative analysis, only the costs of a child in the classroom were taken into account for the PRONADE, not including the expenses of increasing coverage (identification of communities, organization, legalization and training of the COEDUCAs).

([14]) Centro de Investigaciones Económicas Nacionales (CIEN - Center for National Economic Investigations). (1998). Análisis del Impacto de la Autogestión: La Experiencia del PRONADE (Analysis of the Impact of Community management: the PRONADE Experience). CIEN. Guatemala.

([15]) On average, it takes 5 months between the identification of the communities with no schools and implementation. During this time the COEDUCAs are organized, legalized, and trained to tale over school management.