The Impact of Decentralization Policy on the Performance of Colleges of Education in Zambia: The Case of Kitwe, Mufulira and Copperbelt College of Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of decentralization on the performance of public Colleges of Education after the introduction of decentralization policy. The study was conducted on three colleges of education, namely; Kitwe College of Education (KICE), Mufulira College of Education (MUCE) and Copperbelt College of Education (CBCE), now Mukuba University. The three selected institutions are all public teacher training institutions located on the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. The sample consisted of thirty (30) respondents, comprising academic staff and administrators. Ten (10) participants were drawn from each college.

In order to evaluate the impact of decentralization on the performance of public colleges of Education, the researcher decided to use some performance variables (indicators) of decentralization; quality assurance, efficiency and effectiveness, service delivery, transparency and accountability, responsiveness and staff motivation to guide the study in the investigation of the topic at hand.

The methods used to collect data for this study were questionnaires, unstructured interviews and desk research. The research design used for this study was a mixed survey method. Data obtained were analyzed using simple statistics, and the Pearson’s correlation model.

The findings of the study were that colleges of educations had failed to take advantage of the decentralization policy as they have continued to depend for instructions and other important things from government. The performance variables showed that nothing significant has taken place in the three sampled public Colleges of Education. Despite this general picture however, the results from individual institution showed significant contrasts among the three institutions sampled on each of the performance indicators.