178 Brooke Zobrist and Patrick McCormick
The actual type of decentralization — the philosophy, implementation,
and outcome — reflect the situation in which the process is undertaken.
Overall, there are three major forms: Deconcentration is the redistribution
of decision-making authority and financial management to various levels
of the central government.^31 This form is the least radical and is the kind
most often found in unitary states. As such, deconcentration merely shifts
responsibilities from central government officials to those working in
lower-level administrative units. Delegation is a more extensive form of
decentralization through which central governments transfer responsibility
for decision-making and the administration of public functions to semi-
autonomous organizations not wholly controlled by the central government,
but ultimately accountable to it. These organizations include public
enterprises and corporations, which usually have decision-making power.
In the case of education, this would include private educational institutions.
Devolution usually transfers responsibilities for services to municipalities
or other subnational levels that elect officials and raise revenue.
In the short term, deconcentration is the form that decentralization
will take in the Ministry of Education, given that education falls under
Schedule 1 of the Constitution as discussed above. Private and monastic
schools operate outside of the purview of the Ministry of Education, and
so represent an unexpected form of delegation of administrative, decision-
making, and budgeting authority.
Decentralization in the Context of Myanmar’s
Education Reform
The Framework for Social and Economic Reform (FESR), released in
December 2012, is a major component of the decentralization in education.
This document lists the policy priorities of Thein Sein’s government across
several sectors, including the economy, environmental sustainability,
poverty alleviation, and health and education reform. The FESR
provides short-term recommendations as a bridge to the Comprehensive
Development Plan, a twenty-year plan which the government has drafted.
The FESR does not, however, offer a comprehensive vision of reform in
the education sector, or a clear articulation of the expected outcomes of
the reform process. Rather, it focuses on “quick wins”, of which there are
nine. One of these is changing the funding structure of basic education,
as well as undertaking a Comprehensive Education Sector Review. The