School resource management in Kazakhstan

This chapter looks at capacity building for resource management, the monitoring of resource use, transparency and reporting, and incentives for the effective use of resources. School leaders might not be adequately prepared for resource management as related abilities are not taken into consideration in their recruitment and professional opportunities are limited in this area. Increased attention has been paid to creating, collecting and making data available, including the development of a national database of education. However, a recurrent problem with education data in Kazakhstan is the lack of processes to ensure their quality and validity. Lack of reliable data does not allow adopting an evidence-based approach in the formulation and evaluation of education policies. Moreover, the existence of detailed norms provides clear expectations on resource management and facilitates their monitoring. Monitoring is purported to check compliance and gauge progress towards national objectives, mainly the State Program for Education Development in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-20 (SPED). However, the monitoring approach is compliance-driven and entails no analysis of educational performance. As such, it is limited in the way it evaluates efficiency, equity, and value for money. Furthermore, low autonomy at the local level and the little flexibility in the norms prevent educational actors making decisions that could lead to greater efficiency. There is also room to improve the transparency of school budget information. School and local education budgets can be publicly accessed upon request but the format used makes it difficult for parents and citizens to understand them and hold schools accountable. The existence of school Boards of Trustees, while still a nascent change, opens up avenues for improved transparency and reporting procedures at the school level. Finally, opportunities for misallocation of resources and corruption exist throughout the system. In particular, loopholes in the system of norms are a gateway for resources to be misappropriated and misused.