Decentralized Planning and Service Delivery in the Education Sector in Pakwach District Local Government: An Analysis of Primary Schools in Pakwach Sub-county

Abstract

In Uganda, the Second Schedule of the Local Government Act (1997) decentralized service delivery including education sector, but the education service delivery in local governments is still wanting in most of the country side. The paper analyzes the effects of decentralized planning on education service delivery in Pakwach district by making an empirical scrutiny of four major indicators of decentralized planning, namely: goal setting, identification of priorities, public participation in program implementation, and monitoring in primary education sector of the district. A cross-sectional study design was considered, with both qualitative and quantitative approaches; and a total of 102 respondents were sampled using the table recommended by Krejcie & Morgan (1970). The findings show that three decentralized planning (Adjusted R2 = 0.320) would account for about 0. 320 variation in education service delivery in Packwach district from which identification of priorities appears a significant predictor of education service delivery (p value=0.002, β = 0.476); goal setting does negatively and significantly predict education service delivery (β = -0.474, p value=0.002); and monitoring negatively and significantly predict education service delivery (β = -0.262, p value = 0.02). But Implementation (p value=0.852, β = -0.031) appears to be having no significance in predicting education service delivery. The study concludes that the identification of priorities enhances better service delivery in the education sector but goal setting, monitoring and implementation are not good at enhancing. The study recommends that the actual implementation of programs be supported through timely and full funding of the planned priorities.