Understanding Educational Financing: A Manual for Developing Countries

These modules on educational financing evolved from of series of seminars held in the small states of the Caribbean and the Pacific. The project was set up to improve the financial understanding and budgetary skills of key education personnel and to help bridge the gap between finance and education ministries.
With greater decentralization a common development in most countries, responsibility for planning and administering education has shifted from central ministries to district offices and, in some cases to institutional level. This autonomy underscores the challenge for other key educational personnel to acquire the skills to improve the internal efficiency of education systems and the quality of schools in a decentralized system.
This publication provides overviews of the issues raised, detailed content relevant to those issues, ease studies, training material and summaries. These modules will be a useful source of information for ministries, schools, community personnel and researchers and will promote a greater understanding of the scope and relevance of educational financing.

Dr Purna Sen is Head of Human Rights at the Commonwealth Secretariat.