Empowering parents and promoting school and teacher accountability and responsiveness: Case of Kyrgyzstan

The Aga Khan Foundation in Kyrgyzstan implemented the Community Engagement for Better Schools project in Kyrgyzstan in 2017–2022. The project promoted three key mechanisms - performance and budget hearings, social contracts, and community scorecards – that were innovative for schools in the post-Soviet lower-middle-income country with multiple education reforms. This paper examines to what extent the project succeeded in improving the accountability and responsiveness of teachers and school management and empowering parents from the perspective of parents/caregivers. It draws on the survey with 1750 parents/caregivers from the project and comparison schools collected at the baseline and endline stages. The paper concludes that the project improved the accountability and responsiveness of teachers and school management to some extent from the perspective of parents/caregivers, especially women and those from low-income households. Most changes were observed in relation to making budget information available and reporting on school expenses. The project outcomes offer validated mechanisms for promoting accountability and responsiveness of schools that can be rolled out to other schools. However, a multi-actor commitment at the national and local levels is required for long-term sustainable results.