New book examines failures of educational reform in developing countries
In Fixing Governance from Below: Why Short Route of Accountability Cannot Solve the Education Crisis (New York: Oxford University Press), Professor Masooda Bano calls for a fundamental shift in how we approach educational reform.
Why do so many well-intentioned efforts to improve education in developing countries fall short? This book critically examines the repeated failures of decentralizing education systems and promoting community participation as solutions to learning crises. Despite decades of donor-driven initiatives, millions of children remain out of school, and even those who attend often struggle to learn. Why? Because while these policies are well-meaning, they frequently miss the mark.
Drawing on compelling research from Pakistan, India, Nigeria, and Indonesia, the book reveals how international aid programs—designed based on what works in Western contexts—routinely misjudge local realities. At the same time, national governments implement costly, donor-approved reforms to gain international credibility, while real, on-the-ground issues remain unaddressed. Challenging conventional wisdom, this book questions the assumption that more participation, more training, and more decentralization automatically lead to better educational outcomes. It highlights how different tiers of governance are interlinked and so are the incentive structures: while bottom-up measures can enhance accountability in countries with strong national-level oversight, they cannot replace it. The book also illustrates why top-down mandates for “community involvement” often fail, whereas organic, locally driven participation tends to succeed. With sharp insights and thought-provoking analysis, this book calls for a fundamental shift in how we approach educational reform—one that respects local contexts, prioritizes genuine accountability, and moves beyond one-size-fits-all solutions. It is a call to rethink the strategies shaping the future of millions of children.
Masooda Bano is a Professor of Development Studies at the University of Oxford and a Senior Golding Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford. She has held numerous prestigious research awards including European Research Council Starting and Advance grants. Bano is the author of Breakdown in Pakistan: how aid is eroding institutions for collective action (Stanford) and has edited several volumes on Islamic educational institutions in Muslim-majority countries as well as in the West.