Posting Education Sector Data and Receipts of Free Education Fund Online by July 2017 (KIG0003)

• Securing human dignity through the lens of open governance (July 1, 2019)

Issue to be addressed: Education is a sector of exceptional importance. It serves a large part of the population of the municipality including parents, teachers, students and other stakeholders. It is a biggest sector that employs a big share of council’s employees. Given its size, everything has to be open to everyone to help delivery of quality services and monitoring can be easy. Currently not the case. Being transparent in provision of services will help build confidence among these actors and encourage some to contribute to the growth and the provision of better education. Some stakeholders refuse to give their contribution either during budget session or implementation. The aim of the council is to provide quality and affordable education that meet standards but it misses the stakeholders contribution and opinion, let be financial or materially. One of the reasons studied is lack of information to stakeholders. The council plans to disclose all information by publish online to reach majority of the public for their follow up and to improve education in Municipality. Primary Objective: To publish online all information/data on education sector for public use by July 2017. Short description: Education is a sector of exceptional importance. It serves a large part of the population of the Municipality including parents, teachers, students and other stakeholders. Given its size, the transparent provision of services will help build confidence among these actors and encourage some to contribute to the growth and the provision of better education. The council plans to publish information relating to the provision of education services for use by the public. OGP challenge: Kigoma Ujiji Municipal Council commit itself to disclose data on education as it increase transparency and provide feedback to underperforming institutions, diagnose problems and plan to reforms them. By opening up data on education help to ensure resources for education are prioritized and are being spent on intended beneficiaries. Community having access to information will themselves engage in monitoring schools and build trust and hence better outcomes. To achieve this commitment, the Municipality intends to publish the following information: Education funding received each month by each primary and secondary school; Expenditure per month on education by each primary and secondary school; Funds received and spent on education sector development projects; The number of students, teachers, and non-teaching staff at each school; The number of classrooms, offices, latrines, desks, chairs, tables, teachers' houses and fences, showing needs, existing and shortage for each school; Examination results and schools’ rankings on national, regional and council lists.

3. Education Transparency

Commitment text

Posting Education sector data and receipts of free education fund online by July 2017

Education is a sector of exceptional importance. It serves a large part of the population of the Municipality including parents, teachers, students and other stakeholders. Given its size, the transparent provision of services will help build confidence among these actors and encourage some to contribute to the growth and the provision of better education. The council plans to publish information relating to the provision of education services for use by the public.

Milestones

3.1. Publish Education funding received each month by each primary and secondary school for public use

3.2. Publish Expenditure per month on education by each primary and secondary school for public use

3.3. Publish Funds received and spent on education sector development projects for public use monthly

3.4. Publish the number of students, teachers, and non-teaching staff for each school for public use

3.5. Publish the number of classrooms, offices, latrines, desks, chairs, tables, teachers' houses and fences, showing needs, existing and shortage for each school for public use monthly

3.6. Examination results and schools’ rankings on national, regional and council lists for public use

Commitment Overview

Commitment aim

Overall Objective & Relevance

Over the last five years, Kigoma Ujiji has ranked among the bottom five districts in the Tanzania in education outcome. ^{This is according to both the national examination council results available at and the Uwezo Learning Assessment reports available at https://www.necta.go.tz/results/2017/psle/results/reg_06.htmhttps://www.twaweza.org/uploads/files/Tanzania%20Report%202017%20Web%20Version.pdf.} Available data through the open data portal (http://opendata.go.tz) suggests Kigoma has one of highest teacher-pupil ratios in the country, which contributes significantly to declining education results in the area. According to the Municipal Council, the lack of available funds has resulted in a low number of teachers against the growing enrollment and low investments in education facilities due. The government of Tanzania announced in 2015 that it would provide education free of tuition in all public schools in the country. ^{Prior to 2015, public schools in Tanzania were free only up to the primary school level. After 2015, public junior high schools were also made free.} The decision led to the direct transfers of the capitation grant to public schools. ^{Capitation grant is a central government grant offered directly to service providers i.e. schools to cover the cost of offering such services.} However, these funds (amounting to $7 ^{https://www.twaweza.org/uploads/files/Sauti%20Brief%20Eng.pdf} per student) are insufficient to meet the learning needs for schools. Before this announcement, parents made monetary contributions to the schools. Also, according to the Municipal Council, this decision has deterred the participation of parents in contributing to education development in the region. ^{This is suggested by the Council in the action plan}

There is also a lack of awareness among citizens regarding the local government’s limited funding and control over funding decisions in the education sector, as there is a general perception that education costs are adequately covered by the central government and citizens are not required to contribute. ^{http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/New-report-highlights-effects-of-free-learning/1840340-3879536-ky79dcz/index.html.} The lack of information on education financing has made it difficult for the public to hold schools and the Council accountable for poor education results, and discouraged the School Management Committees from proactively supervising the quality of education in their respective schools. As citizens are unaware of the funding gap in the education sector, they consistently blame elected officials for the poor performance without acknowledging the limited resources available to them in the form of capitation grants.

In light of this context, this commitment plans to publish online all information/data on the education sector by July 2017. Among its milestones, it calls for the monthly publication of various documents regarding the expenditure of funds and available resources in the education sector. The publication of education data makes the commitment relevant to the OGP value of access to information. Through full disclosure of data related to performance, human resources, infrastructure, number of students, and financial data on education, citizens would benefit from credible data in relation to disbursement and utilization of funds. On the other hand, the government could benefit from such transparency, as it could make it easier to monitor the allocation of funds. Opening up education data in Kigoma Ujiji could serve as an incentive for citizens to participate in monitoring performance in the education sector and contribute to such results themselves.

Specificity and Potential Impact

The IRM researcher considers the commitment to be of medium specificity. The commitment includes a timeline on when the data is to be published and the frequency at which the data will be disclosed. However, it only mentions that it will be published online without clarifying where it will be published or the process through which it will be accomplished. Also, the format that will be used to publish the information is unclear.

Given that access to education information is currently very limited, this commitment could represent a significant change in how government officials disclose data. Additionally, it could provide the tools for citizens with internet access to monitor government performance in the sector and use available mechanisms (such mechanisms include the School Management Committees, Street Assemblies, and the Ward Development Committee meetings) to hold officials accountable for not fulfilling their community’s educational needs. However, it is not clear how the publication of this data could transform the status quo: improving the municipality’s performance in the education sector or reaching the previous level of monetary contributions from parents and the community. The commitment could have been more ambitious by calling for the full disclosure of information in a reusable format in to better ensure that Kigoma residents can access and use the information. For these reasons, the commitment is could have a moderate potential impact on access to education information in Kigoma.

Completion
Substantial

This commitment saw substantial completion. Only Milestone 3.4 is considered incomplete, as the IRM researcher was unable to find evidence on the Municipal Council website or elsewhere of the publication of data on the availability of the number of students, teachers, and non-teaching staff. The IRM researcher found on the Council’s website information on funds disbursement, examination results, and expenditure of education development funds.

The Kigoma Ujiji government reports significant progress towards this commitment as a reasonable portion of the milestones has been completed. The IRM researcher verified the publication of data on education funds received and disbursed (Milestone 3.1 ^{http://www.kigomaujijimc.go.tz/announcement/mgawa-wa-fedha-sekondari} ), expenditure per month of such funds (Milestone 3.2), the number of existing and shortage of infrastructure (Milestone 3.5 ^{http://www.kigomaujijimc.go.tz/announcement/miundombinu-ya-shule-msingi-2017} ). This information is available on the Council website http://www.kigomaujijimc.go.tz/announcements/2, while examination results and school rankings (Milestone 3.6) are published both on the website as well as on the National Examinations Council of Tanzania (NECTA) website. ^{For the Council website, see: http://www.kigomaujijimc.go.tz/announcements/1, for the NECTA website, see: https://www.necta.go.tz/csee_results} Finally, information on enrollment has also been made available on the Council website (Milestone 3.4 ^{http://www.kigomaujijimc.go.tz/announcement/uandikishaji-wanafunzi-sekondari-hadi-januari-2017} ).

Early results: did it open government?
Access to information: Marginal

Prior to the development of this commitment, there was limited participation of citizens in the education sector development. Lack of public interest and publication on the funding of schools contributed to poor education outcomes. The commitment would contribute to moderately improving this trend, as citizens would be able to monitor government performance in the education sector through increased access to information. However, beyond the publication of data, most citizens are unaware of such information and are therefore unable to engage in the sector. Indeed, feedback from civil society suggests a lack of awareness about the progress made towards implementing this commitment. While some information has been published on the Council website, there is no evidence of its utilization by civil society.

While the publication of critical data on education marks an important step forward in promoting transparency in the education sector, in the absence of a strategy for engagement of citizens, there does not seem to be significant impact of such transparency. The absence of critical actors from both civil society and grassroots-level government has had a limiting effect on the commitment.

Recommendations

The disclosure of education data is an important first step towards enhancing accountability in the education sector. However, Kigoma Ujiji’s experience suggest that data publication in itself is not sufficient to promote active participation or accountability among citizens. Moving forward, the Kigoma Ujij government should work closely with school committees, as well as civil society and local media to promote the information that is made available. The publication of data should also be made in offline formats, including school noticeboards where citizens have much easier access.

Working through grassroots government is also key for encouraging broader citizen participation in the education sector, due to its proximity to citizens’ daily lives. There is no evidence of a strategy for dissemination and engagement of this information, such as working through existing governance structures like the school committees, the street governments, or the Ward Development Committees. These governance mechanisms provide more room for citizens to directly participate in holding officials accountable.