Practices, Challenges, and prospects of Implementing School-Based Management (SBM) System in Ethiopian Schools: Implications for Policy Makers

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the level of practice, challenges, and prospects of SBM in Ethiopian schools. A holistic multiple-case study was utilized. In addition to document review, the researcher collected data via semi-structured interviews with maximum diversity sampling from eight participants. Thematic analysis was employed for analysing data. Results showed that implementing SBM in Amhara regional state, Ethiopia, was ineffective. The significant challenges identified were: the low administrative capacity of crucial members of the SBMs, uncertainty, overload, lack of cooperation from the school leaders, and teachers' misunderstanding of the importance of the SBM. To improve school management at the school level, Ethiopian schools should take the following prospects into account: Commission a steering committee to introduce SBM, make a pilot project to allow some schools to have greater control over their budgets, give legal authority to schools to define themselves, increase the direct relationship between district education bureaus and regional educational bureaus, provide in-service training and so forth. In addition to the theoretical implications to the literature about SBM in the Ethiopia context, this study has several practical implications for many stakeholders of education, such as the Ministry of Education and school administrators, to understand the challenges in implementing SBM and to overcome the challenges in their respective schools by considering the suggested prospects.