Paper Id:- 67Title:- ‘Managing Crisis in Information Technology’: A Business Survival StrategyAuthors:- G. P. Sahu, Rajeev  Srivastava, Omdeep Gupta

Abstract:- Information technology has become an important part of the business world. IT is involved in communication and business processes across departments making the uses dependant on the technology to perform their work. In this paper the authors are focusing on how companies prepare themselves for crisis that can affect information technology within the businesses, and what types of crisis they are worrying about.This paper contributes to the field of crisis management and shows that the growing usage of information technology in businesses demands focus. Preparation and planning is the first step in avoiding a crisis from happening.

Paper Id:- 70Title:- E-governance through Semantic webAuthors:- Anamika Rana, Amit Prakash Singh

Abstract:- In Many countries the government organizations have a very distributed structure. Different organizations that are organized at different levels provide different services to the citizens. The level of a government's service is one main factor that can affect its international competitive power. Several developing countries are realizing the role of ICT (Information & Communication Technology) can play in the governance sector and are putting into practice innovative e-governance models that may be technologically simple but are drastically changing the way information is distributed in the society. This paper depicts a model of e-governance. The main objective is to implement e-governance in an easy and cost effective way to suit with existing ICT infrastructure to provide better information and service delivery of government to the people. The complexity of government-to-constituent interactions needs to be analyzed comprehensively.

Title:- DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF NANOROBOT  USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENT TECHNIQUESAuthors:- G.SUGU MARAN, R.MANI KANDAN

Abstract:- Currently robotics plays vital part in the research and development of industrial and manufacturing processes, biomedical applications and so on. With the growth of technology, machines are doing most of the work which are used to be carried out by humans. The need of robots for carrying out work in future is evident. Recent advances in nanotechnology lead to nanorobots, in present time all researchers and scientist highly focus on good intelligent mobile nanobot which are effectively used as nano medicine. Future medical nanotechnology has been imagined to employ nanorobots injected into the human body to perform treatment on a cellular level. But the problem is obstacle avoidance, optimal path planning, self localization and speed controlling of mobile nanobot.  Every nanobot placed inside the human body will encounter immune system as obstacles during flowing within a human body. Thus nanorobot must use strategy for avoiding and escaping from such immune system. To avoid obstacles during movement trajectory, self organized trajectory planning is required. This study proposes to use advanced soft computing approach like adaptive PSO, which is motivated from the simulation of social behavior of natural species, as a feasible approach for selforganized control of nanoscale

robots to avoid obstacle throughout the movement trajectory, and also  we find out an efficient path of the nanobot using this approach at each instant of time, the algorithms ensure that under any circumstance, there would not be any collision of the nanobot with any of the dynamically changing obstacles. etc. The algorithms works on a grid of definite size with known positions of obstacles. This grid may be formed by scanning the surroundings.  We assume that the nanobot can make a limited number of moves, restricted to moving forward a unit step or tuning a unit direction. The soft computing tools calculate the most efficient next move. When these algorithms were simulated, the results obtained emphasized the following i)  Travelled without collision   ii) Reached the appropriate destination.The simulation analysis has shown that self organized control over throughout the movement can be achieved by using proposed approach.  This was true even when the nanobots placed in highly chaotic environment.

itle:- e-Governance: Issues in ImplementationAuthors:- Atif Iqbal, Rajiv Bagga

Abstract:- The paper is a contribution to the ongoing debate on the. An appropriate mechanism is being prepared for good governance particularly in the developing countries like India with the involvement of Information Technology in the system of the government and for the betterment of the society. It focuses on the practices and solution for e Governance implementation and the issues related to its implementation. It highlights the benefits and challenges of implementing e-governance while considering factual speciality, pecularities, growing impact of Information Technology and need of developing and developed countries

itle:- NIC E-GOVERNANCE : A TOOL FOR RESOURCE DEPLOYMENT DURING GENERAL ELECTION 2009Authors:- Pabitrananda Patnaik, Subhashree Pattnaik

Abstract:- National Informatics Centre, the backbone of e-Governance applications inIndia is a leading organization of developing and implementing e-Governance applications in the country. It has been successful  in the area of Information and Communication Technology through its competent professionals and state of the art technology. Election, which is a tightly time bound and  sensitive task  needs some tool for removing the biasedness in deploying the resources during the election. For this purpose, Election Commission of India takes necessary measures at every stage of election to conduct it in a free and fair manner. It needs the use of computerized systems to make it error free and unbiased resource deployment. That’s why the randomization techniques are used for successful execution of the work in deploying the resources. This study focuses on how the   General Election 2009 could be successful in deploying Polling Personnel, EVMs and Micro Observers in the state of Orissa using NIC e-Governance for conducting the simultaneous election of Parliament and Assembly constituencies. Further, the key findings of the study is that, e-Governance applications can be successfully implemented in  all the critical areas of administration in India .

Paper Id:- 83Title:- Green ComputingAuthors:- Sukritha S, Anup  K M

Abstract:- Environment is on verge of global panic as this century belongs to the extensive use of computers. With the increase in power consumption and the circuit speed there is a proportional increase in the heat emission also. They contribute

more than the other greenhouse gases in global warming. In order to tackle this issue a vision has been put forth to create a green society and economy. The creation of ‘Green Computing Era’ where environmental friendly computer related systems would be found which not only helps in minimizing the impact of global warming but would also be effective and efficient.

Paper Id:- 84Title:- Farmers Automatic Crops Selling Machine: FASALAuthors:- Sarang Pitale

Abstract:- Today E-Governance is playing a vital role in improving the government processes and enhancing the internal and external communications of government by the relevant use of Information Technology and Internet. Agriculture provides the principal means of livelihood for over 58.4% of India 's population. Most of the people are depending upon the farming and they are illiterate also. They don’t even know that at what amount they are selling their crops, broker’s use this lose point of these farmers and forge both farmer and government. The proposed scheme can solve this problem by automating the selling process of crops directly to the government at fix rate

itle:- E WASTE MANAGEMENT - AN OBLIGATORY COMPONENT OF E-GOVERNANCE AT THIS HOURAuthors:- Sanghita Roy, Manigrib  Bag

Abstract:- After the epoch of this millennium there was a spurt of the use of IT infrastructure in India denoting a sort of IT revolution. Most of the industrial units and service sector opted for the IT resources which includes the hardware, software and data resources. Due to product explosion the hardware and software changed the morphology, facilities etc. during the passage of time and thereby making most of the older IT equipment or hardware as obsolete. This activity cumulatively generated a huge pool  of junk hardware which is termed as e-waste. An environment friendly recycling methodology for the disposal of e-waste has become a necessity now. Most of the developed nations including USA have already prepared the framework and also guided us to a benchmark already made there. The international conventions have created reinforcement for the same which is to be finetuned according to the requirement perceived in India in various sectors. It is perhaps the right time to figure out the modus operandi for the e-waste management strategically suiting the different sectors of industries, not only to comply with the world trend but also to maintain the environment in situ and thereby helping the sustenance of  endemic flora and fauna.

itle:- Leveraging India Post Rural Network with ICT – Lessons from disbursement of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme Wages through Post OfficesAuthors:- Sandhya Rani  K, Dr. P M  Sarvanan

Abstract:- e - Governance and e Government involving the use of a range of modern Information and Communication Technologies and reforming the governance systems and structures offers tremendous scope for effective, efficient service delivery and to promote democracy1. To achieve the financial inclusion agenda to make growth sustainable, inclusive and equitable, appropriate policies, programs and institutional structures for delivery become critical. India Post has a vast physical presence of post

offices that play an important role in the disbursement of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme wages. This paper makes a case for the urgency of enabling the post office to become a viable ‘last mile’ institutional connectivity with appropriate ICT solutions, policy changes, for facilitating electronic payment/transaction modes in

tPaper Id:- 95  Title:- E- GOVERNANCE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS USING RFID  Authors:- Amirthasaravanan A, Vivekanandan K  

Abstract:- Educational sector is an important place where we need the proper e-Governance and good infrastructure. A good infrastructure can be processed by technology. However, a lot of institutions are realizing the need for bringing e-Governance and technology from the paper-based procedures to their infrastructure and to the classroom. And one can now find educational institutes equipped with some of the world's best technologies like RFID to support e-Governance. Here the RFID is incorporated along with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).SOA is extendible, flexible and fits well with the existing legacy systems. Replacing legacy systems and processing with new system & technology is not only costly but also introduces risk of malfunctioning. In this context, the traditional software architectures prove ineffective in providing the right level of cost effective and extendible Information systems across the organization boundaries. SOA provides a relatively cheap and more cost-effective solution addressing these problems and challenges. And here Prototype is developed considering major use cases involved in educational institutions. The system is taking care of maintaining attendance record, securing restricted areas, tracking the assets and the people, Fast and secures access in library and Tracking vehicles.  

he remote corners of the country. It also emphasizes the need for changing the business processes and ways of working of Post offices inIndia to bring in new productivity and a higher level of efficiencies.

Paper Id:- 178

aper ID: - 4  Title:- Information Technology Implementation Prioritization in E-governance Implementation: An Integrated Multi Criteria Decision Making Approach  Author:- Debendra Mahalik  

Abstract:- ICT revolution has changed the way business is done and e-governance is not an exception. The computerizations of government process, if implemented in one go may result in failure. This result in researchers and planner attention for prioritize the components of e-governance implementation. IT implementation prioritization is a major issue before the planner as there is no clear cut formula to solve this problem. This paper examines different implementation issue with respect to e-governance in a typical University education system. Two multi-criteria decision making methods (MCDM) viz. analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) are used in the paper to solve the IT implementation prioritization problem.  

Paper ID :- 5  

Paper ID:-11  Title:- Strategic use of IT in the tourism Industry: A case of incredible India  Author:- Sancharan Roy  

Abstract:- Tourism is the largest service industry in India , with a contribution of 6.23% to the national GDP and 8.78% of the total employment in India . The intense competition in today’s business environment means that tourism and hospitality industry have to work hard to maintain and develop their competitiveness. The success of a business, to certain extent, depends on its ability to acquire and utilize updated information to assist its management and marketing processes. Hence, Information Technology (IT) assists organization to manage information dynamically and influences business competitiveness through assisting decision makers to make appropriate investments and decisions. Incredible India (URL: www.incredibleindia.org ) has widely adopted IT to reduce costs, enhance operational efficiency, and most importantly to improve service quality and customer experience. This paper describes the website’s background, analyzes the functions and services that are offered by the website, and evaluates the website’s usefulness.  

per Id:- 40  Title:- E-GOVERNANCE  A BOOST TO INDIAN DEMOCRACY  Authors:- Preet Inder Singh, Richa Gupta  

Abstract:- E-Governance is the public sector’s use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) such as Internet, Local Area Networks, mobiles etc., with the aim of improving information and service delivery, encouraging citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more accountable, transparent and effective and to promote democracy.It is hoped that it will also reinforce the connection between public officials and communities thereby leading to a stronger, more accountable and inclusive democracy. E-governance is neither just about government web-site and e-mail, nor is it just about digital access to government information or electronic payments. Rather, it will bring forth new concepts of citizenship, both in terms of needs and responsibilities. This paper tries to bring forward the goals, components and stages of e-governance. The paper also discusses the origin and analysis current status of e-governance in India as well as, it throws light on the benefits of E-governance and the challenges before E-governance.  

 

ABSTRACT‘OUTSOURCING OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ENABLED SERVICES TO INDIA’ Scholar: Ranjana A Gera Supervisor: Prof. M. Ishtiyaq Department of Geography Faculty of Natural Sciences Jamia Millia Islamia

Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) are business services that are provided over telecommunication and data networks. When one country outsources the business processing functions to another country, it is referred to as cross-border or offshore ITES. The international trade in business services has given rise to Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. Since ITES is a global phenomenon, the present work has attempted to study the world distribution of this industry with special reference to South and South-East Asia. India has emerged as the most important ITES destination in the world based on English speaking capability of its educated workforce. The present thesis deals with the characteristics and spatial distribution of ITES industry in India. Further, ITES industry has created many employment opportunities in India and has become an important part of Indian economy in ten years of its existence. Despite this, it is plagued with high rates of attrition. Moreover, the attrition rates are highest in call centers among all kinds of work that constitute ITES. It indicates that integration of a country’s economy with global economy has far reaching implications for local economic and social organisation. Therefore, the present work has made a modest attempt to understand the economic and social implications of call center jobs in India. The study is structured at global, regional, national and city level. The spatial distribution and characteristics of ITES have been studied at global, regional and national level. While at regional level South and South-East Asia is the study area, at the national level the study focuses on ITES industry in India. The social and economic implications of call center jobs are studied at the city level. The present research is based both on primary and secondary data. The study of ITES industry in world in general and South and South-East Asian region including India in particular is based on the secondary sources of information. The analysis of economic and social implications of the call center jobs is based on the primary survey conducted in the National Capital Region of Delhi.

Some major findings of the present research work are as follows: • The study has recognised seven segments of Information Technology Enabled Services - Customer Interaction Services (call center), Back Office Services, Transcription, Data Digitisation/Processing, Content Development, Research and Analytics, and Education and Advisory. • It has been found that the offshore ITES industry is located in 46 countries, including both developed and developing countries. India is the most important ITES destination in the world, providing 37% of total offshore ITES in 2007. Other countries which have significant share are Canada, Philippines, Ireland, Mexico and China. Altogether these six countries delivered 91% of 2outsourced ITES in 2007. Thus, despite a widespread distribution in the world, a large part of total offshore ITES is provided by a few countries. • The distribution of ITES industry in South and South-East Asia and state-wise distribution in India has been explained with the help of three determinants – economic development, human resource development and technological development. It has been found that ITES, being skill and technology intensive industry, follows existing patterns of development. • The ITES industry in India consists of both Indian and foreign companies, the later playing an important role in employment generation. The service composition of ITES in India is highly diversified. Indian ITES companies provide the services pertaining to all above mentioned service segments. Yet, customer interaction services (provided through call centers) form the largest segment, followed by finance and accounting that is a sub-segment of back office services. Indian ITES industry mainly serves English speaking countries; USA is the most important client followed by UK. ITES industry is a people intensive industry that provides jobs for persons with a wide range of educational background and skills. About 700 thousand people were employed in Indian ITES industry in 2007. • The study of economic and social implications of the call center jobs reveals that these jobs are not sustainable for a long time despite being financially rewarding. The nature of employment and work in call centers adversely affect the sustainability of these jobs. For lack of job security and paucity of career growth opportunities, call center jobs are mostly

considered as short-term employment rather than a full-fledged career opportunity. As the offshore call centers serve clients located in different time zones, the working hours are unconventional. Night work involves adjustment of body clock as well as social activities and therefore affects health and social life of people who become a part of global workforce. Thus the study identifies reasons for attrition in call center industry. The present study has put forward certain suggestions to improve the sustainability of ITES employment for people and also to improve the sustainability of ITES industry itself. The development of skills and controlling attrition are the prime issues related to the development of human resources for ITES industry. The formal education system should respond to the skill development needs of the industry. The employment and work practices in ITES companies should be oriented to tackle the reasons for attrition. There is a need to develop health standards and safeguards for call center employees to avoid the ill effects on physical and psychological health of employees. The social perception of jobs in ITES industry also needs to be improved by social awareness programmes. In order to reduce dependence on few outsourcers, ITES services in languages other than English need to be developed. At present only few ITES companies provide services in languages other than English, especially European languages. As a strategy to deal with the vagaries of an Industry that is largely based on global capital and market, the domestic ITES industry should be simultaneously developed so that the displaced persons can find the job. The revenues of domestic ITES have grown in recent years as there has been increase in spending on IT and ITES in banking, insurance, telecom, and government sectors. The development of e-governance in India can go a long way in creating jobs for the man power trained for ITES industry.

• Governance Concept It is the quality of 'governance' in a society that alone can ensure achievement of these development goals. "Good governance", said Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, "is

perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development". The 'governance' or 'good governance' issue, conceptually speaking, is of recent origin. The World Bank and other international donor agencies have been suggesting that the state has so far taken almost the entire burden of 'development' which has affected adversely its own resource position, and more crucially, overstatization has led to overdependence on the state's bureaucratic apparatus and a gradual atrophy of traditional societal involvement in local collective problem-solving. Governance, in this context, stands for a new institutional visioning beyond formally constituted 'government'. Robertson Work of the UNDP has explained governance comprehensively as 'the system of values, policies and institutions by which a society organizes collective decision-making and action related to political, economic and socio-cultural and environmental affairs through the interaction of the state, civil society and the private sector'. Elaborating it further, Work views governance in terms of 'the complex mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, mediate their differences and exercise their legal rights and obligations'. In the vocabulary of conventional development administration, the governance concept is a salutary new entrant, as it helps enlarge the ambit of administrative function by bringing about a convergence of multiple actors: the state (government), the private sector and the civil society. The contemporary decentralization discourse has drawn sustenance from the concept of governance. In practice decentralization has been looked at as facilitative of community participation including participation of women and the poor, creative people's response to local problem-solving and participative and accountable local government .

e-governance

Design & Development of e-governance Model

SHEELA PRIYA & R.RADHAKRISHNAN, M.E, Ph.D

Abstract

Hi tech Information and communication technologies can make a significant contribution to the achievement of good governance goals. The main aim of these technologies is to design the e-governance model for improving and strengthening government processes (e-administration),

connecting citizens (e-citizens and e-services), and building external interactions (e-society). Web enabled network technology provide a wonderful opportunity to implement e-governance model in web environment. e-government is a form of e-business in governance and refers to the processes and structures pertinent to the delivery of electronic services to the public (citizens and businesses). The network is fiber-based, and the software architecture is 3-tier browser-based.

Keywords: G2C (Government to Citizen)), G2G (Government to Government), G2B (Government to Business)

Introduction

In e-governance all interaction with government can be done through one counter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without waiting in lines. In the near future this will be possible if governments are willing to decentralise responsibilities and processes, and if they start to use electronic means such as the Internet. Each citizen can then contact the government through a website where all forms, legislation, news and other information will be available. e-governance define application  of electronic meansin

 the interaction between government and citizens and government and businesses, as well as

 internal government operations

The spread of information and communication technology (ICT) brings hope that government can transform their activities through web enabled environment. e-government is the use of ICT to promote more efficient and effective government, facilitate more accessible government services, allow greater public access to information, and make government more accessible to citizens.

e-governance Model

The three main target groups that can be distinguished in e-governance concepts are government, citizens and businesses. The most common interactions in e-governance, G2C, G2B and G2G, are presented schematically in Figure 1. Gartner, an international consultancy firm, has formulated a four-phase e-governance model. This can serve as a reference for governments to position where a project fits in the overall evolution of an e-governance strategy.

According to Gartner, e-governance have the following four phases:

1.Information                      

2.Interaction                 

3.Transaction                      

4.Transformation        

In the first phase, e-governance means being present on the web, providing the public (G2C & G2B) with relevant information. The format of the early government web sites is similar to that of a brochure or leaflet. In the second phase, the interaction between government and the public (G2C & G2B) is stimulated with various applications. People can ask questions via e-mail, use search engines, and download forms and documents. With phase three, the complexity of the technology is increasing, but customer (G2C & G2B) value is also higher. Complete transactions can be done without going to an office. Examples of online services are filing income tax, filing property tax, extending/renewal of licenses, visa and passports and online voting. The fourth phase is the when all information systems are integrated and the public can get G2C & G2B services at one (virtual) counter. The model presented can serve as a reference for governments to position where projects fit in the overall evolution of their e-governance implementation.

The model can also support governments in defining an e-governance vision and strategy. A vision is a high-level goal, or ambition level, of government regarding the democracy, government and business aspects of e-governance.

A strategy consists of plans that translate the vision into SMART (simple, measurable, accountable, realistic and time-related) projects

e-Governance Domains

e-Governance does not cover e-commerce and e-business applications that focus solely or mainly on the private sector. There are three main domains of e-governance:

Improving government processes: e-Administration Connecting citizens: e-Citizens and e-Services Building interactions with and within civil society: e-Society

Improving Processes: e-Administratione-administration initiatives deal particularly with improving the internal workings of the public sector. It includes

Cutting process costs: improving the input: output ratio by cutting financial costs and time costs. Creating National ID system, that shows all the details of individual person.

Managing process performance: planning, monitoring and controlling the performance of process resources (human, financial and other). Launching Integrated HR and Payroll system for state wise.

Making strategic connections in government: connecting arms, agencies, levels and data stores of government to strengthen capacity to investigate, develop and implement the strategy and policy that guides government processes.

Connecting Citizens: e-Citizens and e-ServicesSuch initiatives deal particularly with the relationship between government and citizens. It involves

Talking to citizens: providing citizens with details of public sector activities.

Listening to citizens: increasing the input of citizens into public sector decisions and actions.

Improving public services: improving the services delivered to members of the public along dimensions such as quality, convenience and cost.

Building External Interactions: e-SocietySuch initiatives deal particularly with the relationship between public agencies and other institutions – other public agencies, private sector service providers, non-profit and community organisations – and with the relationship between civil society institutions. It consists of 

Working better with business: improving the interaction between government and business.

Developing communities: building the social and economic capacities and capital of local communities.

Building partnerships: strengthening institutional relationships

Benefits to Government

Increased employee productivity. Facilitation of information reuse across and within the departments of Government. Reduced system maintenance and training requirements by adopting standard systems

and processes. Cost-effectiveness in the operation of Government agencies. Improvement in Government-to-Government (G2G) interfaces

Benefits to Citizen and Business

Electronic delivery of services to meet citizen expectations and requirements Convenient, anytime, anywhere citizen services Support for e-commerce initiatives ( e.g.  online filing, payment) Significant improvement in Government to Citizen (GTC), and Government to Business

(G2B) interfaces

Challenges for development

In this section, the challenges of e-governance for developing countries are investigated. Four SWOT-analyses are presented, with a focus on political, social, economic and technological aspects. The following factors have to be taken into account when examining the risk of implementing e-governance solutions.

Political stability (democracy or dictatorial regime) The importance of government identity (fragmentation or integration) Economic structure (education, agriculture, industry or service) Government structure (centralised or decentralised) Constituent demand (push or pull)

    Technology associated with e-governance Development Active server page, Oracle 9.i, VBScript, Web Server, Developer 2000 Data warehousing, data mining, Geographic information system Knowledge management Business process re-engineering Internet, Intranet and WAN. Architecture (Security, Infrastructure and Functional) Change management

Conclusion

The e-governance vision differs from country to country, state to state, and regions to region as it should reflect the needs and aspirations of those countries, states and regions. The core project areas are National ID card, e-procurement, HRMS and Revenue earning departments. E-governance improves delivery of messages to the citizens as well as citizens can easily access the data through Internet or Intranet.

References

www.panasia.org.sg/nepalnet/ technology/ ict/e_gov_1.htmwww.the-south-asian.com/oct2001/E-Governance .htmwww.e-gov.gr/programme.htmlJai-Kisan Jai-Hind 

SHEELA PRIYA, IASResearch Scholar

R.RADHAKRISHNAN, M.E, Ph.D

Assistant Professor

Department of Mechanical EngineeringAnna University, Chennai – 600 025

Abstract:

Corporate governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws, and institutions affecting the way a corporation is directed, administered or controlled. Corporate governance also includes the relationships among the many stakeholders

involved and the goals for which the corporation is governed. The principal stakeholders are the shareholders, management, and the board of directors. Other stakeholders include labor(employees), customers, creditors (e.g., banks, bond holders), suppliers, regulators, and the community at large.

This article reveals various reasons for failure of Corporate Governance, Corporate Governance conists of, various examples of Corporate Governance Failures like Enron, Satyam, Cadbury, Wal-Mart, Xerox and why Corporate Governance failed in such big organizations. Article also describes various mechanisms of Corporate Governance like (1) Company's Act (2) Security law (3) Discipline of capital market (4) Nominees on company board (5) Statutory audit (6) Codes of conduct etc. Some factors that influence the Corporate Governance like Owernership structure, Structure of company board, Financial structure, Institutional Environment etc. Various systematic problem in Corporate Governance and Recent Corporate Governance failures.

Key words: Corporate Governance, Governance, Satyam, Enron, Wal-Mart, Mechanism,Polly Peck and Coloroll

Corporate governance is a multi-faceted subject. An important theme of corporate governance is to ensure the accountability of certain individuals in an organization through mechanisms that try to reduce or eliminate the principal-agent problem. A related but separate thread of discussions focuses on the impact of a corporate governance system in economic efficiency, with a strong emphasis shareholders' welfare. There are yet other aspects to the corporate governance subject, such as the stakeholder view and the corporate governance models around the world.

There has been renewed interest in the corporate governance practices of modern corporations since 2001, particularly due to the high-profile collapses of a number of large U.S. firms such as Enron Corporation and Worldcom. In 2002, the U.S. federal government passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, intending to restore public confidence in corporate governance.

Factors influencing corporate governance

1. The ownership structure

The structure of ownership of a company determines, to a considerable extent, how a Corporation is managed and controlled. The ownership structure can be dispersed among individual and institutional shareholders as in the US and UK or can be concentrated in the hands of a few large shareholders as in Germany and Japan. But the pattern of shareholding is not as simple as the above statement seeks to convey. The pattern varies the across the globe. 

Our corporate sector is characterized by the co-existence of state owned, private and multinational Enterprises. The shares of these enterprises (except those belonging to a public sector) are held by institutional as well as small investors. Specifically, the shares are held by 

(1) The term-lending institutions (2) Institutional investors, comprising government-owned mutual funds, Unit Trust of India and the government owned insurance corporations (3) Corporate bodies 

(4) Directors and their relatives and (5) Foreign investors. Apart from these block holdings, there is a sizable equity holding by small investors.

2. The structure of company boards 

Along with the structure of ownership, the structure of company boards has considerable influence on the way the companies are managed and controlled. The board of directors is responsible for establishing corporate objectives, developing broad policies and selecting top-level executives to carry out those objectives and policies.

3. The financial structure 

Along with the notion that the structure of ownership matters in corporate governance is the notion that the financial structure of the company, that is proportion between debt and equity, has implications for the quality of governance.

4. The institutional environment 

The legal, regulatory, and political environment within which a company operates determines in large measure the quality of corporate governance. In fact, corporate governance mechanisms are economic and legal institutions and often the outcome of political decisions. For example, the extent to which shareholders can control the management depends on their voting right as defined in the Company Law, the extent to which creditors will be able to exercise financial claims on a bankrupt unit will depend on bankruptcy laws and procedures etc.

Mechanisms of corporate governance

In our country, their are six mechanisms to ensure corporate governance:

(1) Companies Act 

Companies in our country are regulated by the companies Act, 1956, as amended up to date. The companies Act is one of the biggest legislations with 658 sections and 14 schedules. The arms of the Act are quite long and touch every aspect of a company's insistence. But to ensure corporate governance, the Act confers legal rights to shareholders to 

(1) Vote on every resolution placed before an annual general meeting; (2) To elect directors who are responsible for specifying objectives and laying down policies;(3) Determine remuneration of directors and the CEO;(4) Removal of directors and (5) Take active part in the annual general meetings.

(2) Securities law 

The primary securities law in our country is the SEBI Act. Since its setting up in 1992, the board has taken a number of initiatives towards investor protection. One such initiative is to mandate information disclosure both in prospectus and in annual accounts. While the companies Act it self mandates certain standards of information

disclosure, SEBI Act has added substantially to these requirements in an attempt to make these documents more meaningful.

(3) Discipline of the capital market 

Capital market itself has considerable impact on corporate governance. Here in lies the role the minority shareholders can play effectively. They can refuse to subscribe to the capital of a company in the primary market and in the secondary market; they can sell their shares, thus depressing the share prices. A depressed share price makes the company an attractive takeover target. 

(4) Nominees on company boards Development banks hold large blocks of shares in companies. These are equally big debt holders too. Being equity holders, these investors have their nominees in the boards of companies. These nominees can effectively block resolutions, which may be detrimental to their interests. Unfortunately, the role of nominee directors has been passive, as has been pointed out by several committees including the Bhagwati Committee on takeovers and the Omkar Goswami committee on corporate governance.

(5) Statutory audit 

Statutory audit is yet another mechanism directed to ensure good corporate governance. Auditors are the conscious-keepers of shareholders, lenders and others who have financial stakes in companies. 

Auditing enhances the credibility of financial reports prepared by any enterprise. The auditing process ensures that financial statements are accurate and complete, thereby enhancing their reliability and usefulness for making investment decisions.

(6) Codes of conduct

The mechanisms discussed till now are regulatory in approach. The are mandated by law and violation of any provision invite penal action. But legal rules alone cannot ensure good corporate governance. What is needed is self-regulation on the part of directors, besides of course, the mandatory provisions.

Systemic problems of corporate governance

Demand for information: A barrier to shareholders using good information is the cost of processing it, especially to a small shareholder. The traditional answer to this problem is the efficient market hypothesis (in finance, the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) asserts that financial markets are efficient), which suggests that the shareholder will free ride on the judgements of larger professional investors.

Monitoring costs: In order to influence the directors, the shareholders must combine with others to form a significant voting group which can pose a real threat of carrying resolutions or appointing directors at a general meeting.

Supply of accounting information: Financial accounts form a crucial link in enabling providers of finance to monitor directors. Imperfections in the financial reporting process will cause imperfections in the effectiveness of corporate governance. This should, ideally, be corrected by the working of the external auditing process.

Recent Corporate Governance failures

As we have discussed before, the creation of corporate regulation is often linked to perceived failures of corporations and their management to behave in the way society expect them to. Corporate governance is not an exception to this trend, and, as with accounting, different countries may well experience difficulties at different times. For example, the development of British codes of best practice, which began with the Cadbury Committee, can be related to governance scandals such as Polly Peck and Coloroll in the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, the wave of corporate scandals, mostly in the USA, at the turn of the century has been marked not only by the number of cases but also by the effect they have had on investor confidence and market values worldwide.

The combined impact of various US corporate scandals caused the Dow Jones Index to drop from a high for 2002 of 10,632 on 19 March to 7,286 on 9 October, wiping out trillions of dollars in market value. Investor confidence in the fairness of the system and the ability of corporations to act with integrity was ebbing. According to a poll in July 2002, 73 per cent of respondents said that Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of large corporations could not be trusted (Conference Board, 2003). Amongst the many negative effects of this was a worsening of the pension funding crisis caused by the dramatic drop in the value of pension fund assets. It also increased the cost of capital and caused a virtual cessation in new securities offerings. The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) claims that while there has been a lot of strategic guidance for business, there has been too little said about the need for good corporate governance. These authors emphasize the fact that successful companies were visionary companies, with a long track record of making a positive impact on the world. They did more than focus on profits; they focused on continuous improvement. They took a long-term view and realised that they were members of society with rights and responsibilities.

However, the long-term view is something of a rarity in many companies. A critical factor in many corporate failures was:

Poorly designed rewards package Including excessive use of share options (that distorted executive behaviour

towards the short term) The use of stock options, or rewards linked to short-term share price

performance (led to Aggressive earnings management to achieve target share prices)

Trading did not deliver the earnings targets, aggressive or even fraudulent accounting tended to occur. This was very apparent in the cases of Ahold, Enron, WorldCom and Xerox (IFAC, 2003).

Adelphia manipulated its earnings figures for every quarter between 1996 and 2002 to make it appear to meet analysts' expectations. Some of the better known cases of financial irregularities are summarised in following table.

Company Country What went wrong

Ahold NL earnings overstated

Enron USA inflated earnings, hid debt in SPEs

Parmalat Italy false transactions recorded

Tyco USA looting by CEO, improper share deals, evidence of tampering and falsifying business records

WorldCom USA expenses booked as capital expenditure

Xerox USA accelerated revenue recognition

In terms of corporate governance issues, Ahold, Enron and WorldCom all suffered from

Questionable ethics Behaviour at the top Aggressive earnings management Weak internal control Risk management Shortcomings in accounting and reporting

Corporate governance failure at Enron

EVERY time you turn a stone, another worm creeps out. That seems to be the story of the Enron debacle. Not a day goes by without a new expose of wrong doing in the company that one begins to wonder if there is anything in our systems and structure of an enterprise that can prevent such a catastrophe.

Enron is an excellent example where those at the top allowed a culture to flourish in which secrecy, rule-breaking and fraudulent behaviour were acceptable. It appears that performance incentives created a climate where employees sought to generate profit at the expense of the company's stated standards of ethics and strategic goals (IFAC, 2003). Enron had all the structures and mechanisms for good corporate governance. In addition, it had a corporate social responsibility task force and a code of conduct on security, human rights, social investment and public engagement. Yet no one followed the code. The board of directors allowed the management openly to violate the code, particularly when it allowed the CFO to serve in the special purpose entities (SPEs); the audit committee allowed suspect accounting practices and made no attempt to examine the SPE transactions; the auditors failed to prevent questionable accounting.

The use of questionable accounting and disclosure practices, their approval by the board and their verification by the auditors arose from a variety of forces, including:

Pressure to meet quarterly earnings projections and maintain stock prices after the expansion of the 1990s

Executive compensation practices Outdated and rules-based accounting standards

complex corporate financial arrangements designed to minimise taxes and hide the true state of the companies, and the compromised independence of public accounting firms.

Corporate governance failure at Wal-Mart

It has co-filed a shareholder proposal over concerns that Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the US supermarket group, is failing to comply with its own governance standards. Karina Litvack, head of governance and sustainable investment.

Despite strong policies on paper, Wal-Mart has struggled to implement its standards across its US business.

'Weaknesses in internal controls have eroded the company's reputation as an attractive employer and are adding fuel to the fires of Wal-Mart's critics.

Its failure to deliver on these policy commitments is inhibiting Wal-Mart's ability to expand into new domestic markets.

Over 'the past several years', it has become increasingly concerned by signs of failure in internal controls that have led to government investigations and class action lawsuits by employees.

Allegations include requiring employees to 'work off the clock' -- during breaks and after shifts -- systematic discrimination against women, and alleged questionable tactics to prevent workers from voting for union representation.

It got off to a promising start in 2005 with expectations of a dialogue with the independent directors on the audit committee. But when this simply withered on the vine, Wal-mart had little choice but to bring concerns about internal controls, labour violations and the erosion of the company's reputation to fellow shareholders.

Company was not interested in engaging in a productive discussion about how it builds and supports a compliance culture and, as a result, they have joined an international group of large filers led by the New York City Employees' Retirement System to file a shareholder proposal.

Corporate Governance failure at Satyam

It is one of Corporate India's worst unfolding chapters, What could be the reason behind such a huge collapse? The top level management failed to estimate the intensity of the gangrene in the organization. Questions also arise on the role of the auditors,and how such a magnitude of financial fraud could have gone unnoticed. Corporate governance is a field which constantly investigates how to secure and motivate efficient management of corporations. It has began as a corporate governance issue back in December has now turned into a major financial scandal for the ages in India. The shares of Satyam Computer Services has plummeted more than 90% in trading at the NYSE today, a stark reminder that investors must always cover their backs or else get racked even by the big names in the industry. NYSE today halted trading in Satyam Computer at its bourses in the US as well as in Europe after the Chairman disclosed financial bungling at the Indian IT major.

A business will always have two sides, its not necessary to gain profits everytime, but to sustain in the market the integrity is vital. Every day in some or the other place there is a merger or an acquisition happening, but due to the projected image the co-players in the market are dropping out their plans of taking over Satyam.

Undoubtedly there will be intense focus directed at the other Indian IT Services companies as well.The Satyam corporate governance failure may also make its competitors bolder in terms of acquiring market share created by its fallout, provided the indutsry can regain the trust of the same investors that Satyam has deceived.

From this necessarily brief review of the evidence, and particularly of the sources of failure in financial firms, draw some tentative conclusions. It is important to recognise, however, the evidence base for firm recommendations on corporate governance in financial institutions is thinner than one would like, and certainly not robust enough to offer a standardised set of recommendations valid at all times and in all places.

Principal conclusions are:

First , that people are more important than processes. Many of the failed firms, or near failed firms which we have encountered, had Boards with the prescribed mix of executives and non-executives, with socially acceptable levels of diversity, with directors appointed through impeccably independent processes, yet where the individuals concerned were either not skilled enough for, or not temperamentally suited to, the challenge role that came to be required when the business ran into difficulty.

Secondly , and in spite of first conclusion, there are some good practice processes worth having. Properly constituted audit committees, and Board risk committees can play an important role, as long as they are prepared to listen carefully to sources of advice from outside the firm.

Third , and this is a foundation stone of the FSA's approach, a regulatory regime built on senior management responsibilities is absolutely essential. In some of the cases we have wrestled with, senior management did not consider themselves to be responsible for the control environment and indeed, in the old pre FSA regime, were able successfully to claim that they were not responsible even if the business failed. So our regulation is built on a carefully articulated set of responsibilities up and down the business. It is important that they are not unrealistic. We do not expect the CEO to check in the bottom drawers of each of his traders for unbooked deal tickets. But we do expect the CEO to ensure that there is a risk management structure and a control framework throughout the business which ought to identify aberrant behaviour, or at least prevent it going on unchecked for any length of time.

One consequence of this senior management regime, fourth point, is that regulators must focus attention on the top level of management in the firm. For the major firms we regulate we insist that our supervisors have direct access to the Board, and that they present to the Board their own unvarnished view of the risks the firm is running, and of how good the control systems are by comparison with the best of breed in their sector. Unfortunately, we find some resistance to this approach. The management of some of our firms want to negotiate the regulators assessment, so that when it reaches the Board it is an agreed paper and sufficiently bland to cause no debate. Well-structured Board, and a confident management, should welcome an independent view, even expressed at the Board level, which they may challenge and contest if they wish. And non-executive directors should find it helpful to see a knowledgeable view of the institution which does not come from or through its own senior management.

Fifth  and penultimate point may not be a popular one. Boards should take more interest in the nature of the incentive structure within the organisation. I am not talking solely about the pay of the CEO, important though that is to get right - as some firms in Britain have recently discovered. Talking about

ensuring that the incentives within the firm, and pay is a very powerful one, are aligned with its risk appetite. A number of our most problematic cases have their roots in a misalignment of incentives.

Lastly , no corporate governance system will work well unless there is some engagement on the part of shareholders. Boards are responsible to shareholders. That is the received wisdom in Anglo-American capitalism, at least. But if those shareholders are not prepared to vote their shares, and show little interest in business strategy, then that accountability is somewhat notional, and unlikely to be effective. Certainly regulators cannot hope to substitute for concerned and challenging shareholders, though in some senses they may complement them.

Corporate Governance Failure at Cadbury

Adrian Cadbury, successor to and chairman of the Cadbury Schweppes confectionary group

Mr. Cadbury's visit and interactions with Indian industry triggered the first serious discussions on the subject of corporate governance. All in all, it seemed like a promising new way of looking at the evil that was single promoter-run firms in India then, who, among other things, ran their companies like fiefdoms and were loath to give up control even if their shareholdings were low.

Recognise that it was a not so competitive environment, the grip of the license raj was still fairly firm and companies and their promoter/founders could pretty much do what they wanted, with public money. The real pain of liberalisation was yet to set in and the Infosys way of boardroom discipline was some way from making its presence felt.

History it seems is repeating itself. Indian companies have exposed themselves to billions of dollars worth of forex derivative contracts over the last few years. Precise numbers are hard to come by and will perhaps never will. What is clear is that companies have taken financial risks they could or should have avoided.

What is clearer is that there was no compelling reason to take these risks. And to that extent, it's a failure of corporate governance and must be treated and then addressed as such. There is of course the other issue of how the Institute of Chartered Accountants or the accounting regulator figuring out how to treat derivative losses as they stand on scores of balance sheets today.

How did it happen? Companies have been steadily stepping up their exposure to currency swaps and the like for at least four years now. Over time, as the stock markets (which bolster sentiment) have held their own and the prospect of any downside risk appeared more and more distant with every passing day, chief financial officers (CFOs) of companies have got braver.

If a company entered into, let's say, a transaction to convert a local currency borrowing into the Japanese yen or Swiss franc borrowing through the swap route, then the company is inducing a risk into the system where there is not.  No two ways about that.

Managements ought to have, in the interests of corporate governance, clearly informed their boards of all foreign exchange exposures, the risks arising out of that and the measures to mitigate them were something to go wrong.

Moreover, under the relevant Securities & Exchange Board of India regulations, in the absence of an applicable standard in India for derivatives, the companies' Audit Committees should have examined international standards and disclosed the losses in the Governance report and indicated that these would have been provided for had the country adopted international standards as applicable.

Its possible many companies did keep their boards informed and made the appropriate references in their balance sheets. Though this does seem unlikely, even if they did, no one was watching. It's also possible that some companies are in violation of law. Either way, shareholders must perhaps shoulder some part of the blame.

To conclude is another Enron waiting in the wings? Not quite but it does raise some fundamental questions on what companies do with their shareholders' funds. It's also about how when the good times roll, everyone forgets to look at the figures closely. There is something in the original Cadbury committee definition of corporate governance. "Corporate governance is the system by which companies are directed and controlled."

Getting down to the details of governance, we can focus on five issues

Chairman and CEO: It is considered good practice to separate the roles of the Chairman of the Board and that of the CEO. The Chairman is head of the Board and the CEO heads the management. If the same individual occupies both the positions, there is too much concentration of power, and the possibility of the board supervising the management gets diluted.

Audit Committee: Boards work through sub-committees and the audit committee is one of the most important. It not only oversees the work of the auditors but is also expected to independently inquire into the workings of the organisation and bring lapse to the attention of the full board.

Independence and conflicts of interest: Good governance requires that outside directors maintain their independence and do not benefit from their board membership other than remuneration. Otherwise, it can create conflicts of interest. By having a majority of outside directors on its Board.

Flow of information: A board needs to be provided with important information in a timely manner to enable it to perform its roles. A governance guideline of General Motors, for instance, specifically allows directors to contact individuals in the management if they feel the need to know more about operations than what they are being told.

Too many directorships: Being a director of a company takes time and effort. Although a board might meet only four or five times a year, the director needs to have the time to read and reflect over all the material provided and make informed decisions. Good governance, therefore, suggests that an individual sitting on too many boards looks upon it only as a sinecure for he or she will not have the time to do a good job. 

Reference:

1. For a good overview of the different theoretical perspectives on corporate governance see Chapter 15 of Dignam, A and Lowry, J (2006) Company Law, Oxford University Press ISBN-13: 978-0-19-928936-3 

2. Corporate Governance International Journal, "A Board Culture of Corporate Governance, Vol 6 Issue 3 (2003) 

3. Crawford, Curtis J. (2007). The Reform of Corporate Governance: Major Trends in the U.S. Corporate Boardroom, 1977-1997. doctoral dissertation, Capella University. 

4. SSRN-Good Corporate Governance: An Instrument for Wealth Maximisation by Vrajlal Sapovadia 

5. Bhagat & Black, "The Uncertain Relationship Between Board Composition and Firm Performance", 54 Business Lawyer) 

6. National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) – Directors Monthly, "Enlightened Boards: Action Beyond Obligation", Vol. 31Number 12 (2007), Pg 13.  

7. Theyrule.net 

8. Hovey, M. and T. Naughton (2007), A Survey of Enterprise Reforms in China: The Way Forward.Economic Systems, 31 (2): 138-156. 

9. Business for Development: Fostering the Private Sector . OECD Development Centre. Paris: OECD Publications, 2007 (149-152). 

10. Nicolas Meisel, Governance Culture and Development (Paris: OECD Publishing, 2004) SourceOECD, 27 July 2007 

11. Corporate Governance in Development: The Experiences of Brazil, Chile, India, and South Africa. ed. Charles P. Oman. OECD Development Centre and CIPE, 2006. 

12. Nicolas Meisel, Governance Culture and Development (Paris: OECD Publishing, 2004) SourceOECD, 27 July 2007 

13. The Disney Decision of 2005 and the precedent it sets for corporate governance and fiduciary responsibility, Kuckreja, Akin Gump, Aug 2005 

14. TD/B/COM.2/ISAR/31 

15. "International Standards of Accounting and Reporting, Corporate Governance Disclosure". UNCTAD.  

E-Governance: Miles to Go....

Budget allocation, policies and a task force are not enough. Cultural inhibitions and the lack of infrastructure are stubling blocks along India's e-governance path

The Year 2001 was declared as the ‘Year of e-governance’ by the Central Government. A number of measures suggested by the 1998 Task Force targeted at promoting and enhancing the use of IT in governance. But a look at actual implementation shows that almost 40% of MIT’s targets are yet to be achieved and most of them, directly or indirectly, relate to e-governance. Says IT Minister Pramod Mahajan, "Technology can not work in isolation, it has to reach one and all. Most officials still find IT too complicated to use and unless we train and motivate them to adopt tech tools to speed up their processes, we can not expect things to change."

Interestingly, the 3% IT budgets allocated to all central and state government departments are all being exhausted as per the directions. But senior officials reiterate that just buying equipment will not help unless it is put to efficient use, which in most cases is not happening. Says Central Vigilance Commisioner N Vittal: ""Money is not an issue because by and large, the budget is available for investing in IT. Policy-wise, the government seems to be encouraging e-governance, but unfortunately that money is being spent on buying junk. It takes a lot of commitment to translate policy into reality and that is missing."

Even well known IT companies have not been able to implement software projects successfully for the government. The prime reasons have been poor direction (particularly in the case of frequent policy changes) and more importantly, the non-involvement of end-users during this process. A number of other factors add to the woes — Lack of IT awareness among decision-makers, poor management of knowledge and human resources, non-compatibility between IT projects and business processes, poor risk management, choice of technology and over-ambitious projects.

What was to be What actually happened

Minimum standards stipulated by the Ministry of IT to enable e-governance:

How much of this has been implemented…

Automation of Internal ProceduresEquip all ministries and government departments with LANs, PCs and basic software necessary to improve their functioning; Automate recording and filing systems to ensure better workflow.

Employee Training Give necessary IT training to all staff members who need to use computers for their work

Online Communication Promote the use of e-mails and online notice boards.

Transparency through the Web Set up Web Sites for all ministries and government departments displaying information of interest or relevance to the public.

Web-Enabled Services Set up Web-enabled grievance cells and make all necessary efforts to allow electronic delivery of services to the public.

Department-specific IT strategy Each ministry or department should have an overall IT strategy for a five year period, within which it could detail specific action plans and targets to be implemented within one year.

 

Scattered Automation While the process of networking and purchase of hardware has been initiated, in many cases the departments have randomly bought material (which is lying unused) only to exhaust the budgets allocated. The result: lack of standards and scattered automation.

Slow on Learning Training of employees has been perhaps one of the slowest in terms of actual implementation as most of the 1998 Task Force recommendations in this regard are yet to be achieved. MIT officials blame the ministry of HRD for this.

Not Connected Yet Although senior officials have been given access to the Internet, only a handful of self-motivated and tech savvy have put it to actual use.

Need More Info There are some useful sites such as the ones giving online status railway bookings or passport status, but there’s a long way before all such information is made available to public.

Inefficient Services A few steps have been initiated and automation of many services such as billing has been made. But whether it is lack of IT knowledge or rampant corruption, incidents such as inflated bills, inefficient services still cause harassment.

Far From Reality It may be easy to lay down policies on paper, but to ensure actual implementation is a tough call.

Cultural Inhibitors

A lot of stress is laid on the lack of infrastructure in the country, which certainly can not be ignored. But a bigger question that arises is that IF we have the infrastructure ready, can we

ensure the successful adoption of e-governance across the country? As of now, the aggressive buying spree that government offices are indulging in is only creating graveyards of computers. There is absolutely no accountability or motivation to put them into efficient use.

Experts insist that the basic work culture and framework of the government in India does not favor e-governance. "I can say with conviction that 95% of people in the government don’t believe in e-governance. So, how much can you expect from the remaining 5%, who have to work under tremendous constraints," Vittal points out. He explains that the whole issue of e-governance is stuck in the conflict between domain knowledge and knowledge of IT. "The policy makers are older people who are not technology savvy and those who know IT are the junior fellows. The problem with these senior people is that they have a sense of power, which they may not want to surrender by sharing information," he says.

The rampant corruption prevalent in all government departments also prevents the use of IT, because it will make all processes more transparent. And this again may not be in the interest of many ‘senior’ people. Besides these issues related to work culture, there exists a lot of disparity across the country in the level of education and orientation to technology. While southern states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have higher literacy and have been more active in implementing IT, the North lags far behind.

A Cafeteria Approach

"It has been widely accepted that IT implementation in government is the most difficult process and hence requires careful planning and formulation of strategies for effective implementation," says Renu Budhiraja, Additional Director, E-Governance Division, MIT. There is tremendous emphasis on rules and procedures across all government departments. Unless the records are kept properly, accessing information and tracing the precedents becomes time consuming and this is one of the reasons for the delays and inefficiency in administration.

The use of IT can improve the pace of effectiveness of governance, but it has to be done in a phased manner. A step-by-step or ‘Cafeteria Approach’ as they put it. This means that just like a buffet, you have various options laid out and you pick and choose the ones that suit your taste. "You can’t go for it all at once, you will obviously have to implement it step by step," says Vittal. Based on your existing infrastructure and requirements, you choose and implement from among the various options such as front-end e-services, backend digitization, e-services, e-procurement and process reengineering.

What can be done?A few states and government departments have initiated innovative steps, but they are yet to be implemented in a big way. Some features of e-governance that could be used for effective functioning:

Front-end E-services All public interfaces or points of contact with government departments can be automated. This would help avoid the delay and harassment people have to face in such dealings. For instance, inter-connecting various departments can centralize payments.

Backend Digitization All the paper documents need to be converted into digital form. To reduce extra costs and save time, unemployed youth or self-help groups could be used for such exercises. Kerala, for instance, has used women self-help groups to input

all the data. In this way, even funds meant for women empowerment could be utilized for such programs.

Information Kiosks and Intranet Exchange of information, online bidding and selling could be done through these. The Gyandoot model based on the Intranet has been initiated in Madhya Pradesh. An educated and well-informed person, who monitors the kiosk, enables people to get good deals while selling buffalos or other agricultural products.

Smart Cards Individual public services such as ration shops or transport licenses could make use of smart chips.

E-procurement E-procurement is another new concept based on reverse auctions for online bidding and buying. The government will now have to define and clarify guidelines on various legal and security measures to enable public sector organizations to compete in the market.

Process Re-engineering This would mean implementing e-governance in a big way, such as the one initiated in Andhra Pradesh. It involves complete re-engineering or designing of processes around technology.

E-governance has to go hand in hand with all the other welfare measures adopted by the government. Whatever approach it adopts, in the end what finally measures success the success of any policy is its benefit to the citizens. If the government is not able to improve the life of the common man, there is no point implementing any amount of IT. And more than infrastructure, it would need cultural reorientation or a change in the mindset of the bureaucracy. The ‘Year of E-governance’ calls for a more committed approach, otherwise the government’s ambitious e-agenda may remain unfinished.

SHWETA VERMA In New Delhi

DATA GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES Organizations tend to manage data by adopting ad-hoc data governance policies that over time root themselves in day-to-day data management operations. Data management is further hampered by a lack of a central place to control day-to-day data management activities (i.e. an MDM hub), a lack of clear representation of data operations and an inability to continuously measure data quality at the attribute level. These approaches reduce an organization’s ability to foresee and effectively plan for data management issues in light of a growing reliance on the proliferation of sales, service, product, finance and marketing data from myriad sources. Despite companies now recognizing the importance of their enterprise data, they still have a difficult time effectively managing it as an asset. Some of those challenges arise from a lack of business involvement and sponsorship, an inability to identify data owners and encourage accountability, or a reluctance to share data. Business involvement and executive level sponsorship is one of the biggest

challenges in governing data. DG tends to be a cross-functional program that no individual organization wants to or should independently own, which makes finding an executive sponsor difficult. Executive commitment is also difficult because DG is often perceived as an esoteric issue, rather than as a program that delivers measured business value. Consequently, few people are raising their hands to run a program that may be perceived as delivering little value. However, executive and senior business leadership involvement is essential to the success of DG because it helps to identify data owners while holding people accountable to the agreed upon standards, policies and processes. Executive involvement also helps to manage, arbitrate and resolve difficult crossdepartmental decisions, many of which typically arise while deploying an MDM technology platform. Executive sponsorship helps ensure that the DG program is aligned with corporate goals and objectives, while facilitating the sharing of data across departments by breaking down organizational barriers and encouraging the view of data as a shared asset.

6. Technology Enables Data Governance Each of these critical data governance program components: strategy, organization, policies and procedures, measurement and monitoring, and communications, are each enabled and enhanced by the use of technology – with MDM providing the technical foundation for data governance. MDM inherently addresses data quality, data structure, data architecture, master data management and data security. Where data governance defines and standardizes master data definitions, MDM instantiates them within business processes so they stick. Where data governance prioritizes data management efforts to derive the greatest business value, MDM profiles the data to allow for data analysis. Similarly, metrics and monitoring tools provided by MDM allow DG teams to track their progress, identify issues and continually improve performance. Where data auditing capabilities provide insight into how the data is created and corrupted, MDM propagates data fixes throughout the enterprise. These and other tactical examples of how data governance is enabled by technology are best understood in context of the data governance technology framework. DATA GOVERNANCE TECHNOLOGY FRAMEWORK As mentioned, technology can help address the inherent challenges of data governance. Specifically, technology can help: • Define and communicate data definitions, policies and business rules • Operate consolidate, share and cleanse hub functions • Monitor hub operations and track sources of bad data in the enterprise • Fix data issues proactively and help tune data quality rules Figure 2. Technology requirements for Data Governance “Governance has emerged as a critical success factor for an enterprise-wide information management initiative. Now, technology can greatly facilitate data stewards’

daily tasks and help data governance teams fulfill their data management goals.” Kelle O'Neal, Managing Director, First San Francisco Partners LLC. How Technology Enables Data Governance 9 Oracle Data Governance Manager Oracle Data Governance Manager (DGM) is designed specifically around the aforementioned requirements. It provides an intuitive graphical user interface as the single management destination for data stewards and business users alike. Using DGM, data stewards can easily perform stewardship operations on crossdepartmental data in a centralized place. The DG overseeing group can also manage the data stewards’ performance and workloads and generate data quality assessments to monitor and demonstrate progress for continued executive support. DGM serves as a place to define and set enterprise master data policies and to monitor and fix data issues. It also helps operate t

The 4th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV2010) will take place in Beijing, China, during 25 - 28 October 2010 under the patronage of the National School of Administration, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China. The conference will be co-organized by: UN University, Macao SAR; Electronic Government Center, National School of Administration, China; Center for Technology in Government, University at Albany, USA; Fudan University, China; and University of Oxford, UK.

The International Conference on Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV) series tech enabled governance focuses on the use of technology to transform relationships between government and citizens, businesses, civil society and other arms of government (Electronic Governance). The Series looks beyond the traditional focus on technology-enabled transformation in government (Electronic Government), towards establishing foundations for good governance and for sustainable national development.

The Series, established by the UN University in 2007, aims to bring together practitioners, developers and researchers from government, academia, industry, non-governmental organizations and UN organizations to share the latest in theory and practice of Electronic Governance. Following its first three editions in Macao (ICEGOV2007), Cairo (ICEGOV2008) and Bogota (ICEGOV2009), ICEGOV established its identity as:

1. A Global Conference - ICEGOV consistently attracts submissions from more than 45 countries, including over 60% representation from developing and transition countries.

2. A Multi-Stakeholder Conference - ICEGOV is well attended by all major stakeholders of technology-enabled innovation in government: government, academia, industry and NGOs.

3. A Networking Conference - ICEGOV brings participation from across thematic, national, and development borders, with common interests in transformational use of technology in government.

4. A Research and Practice Conference - ICEGOV includes a healthy balance of research-, practice- and solution-related work - looking at technology, at the processes surrounding its implementation and management, or at the wider context of Electronic Governance.

5. A Capacity Building Conference - ICEGOV features a rich program of invited talks, invited sessions, tutorials, workshops, panel discussions, posters, demos, etc. all taught, moderated or organized by leading researchers and practitioners in the area.

6. An International Development Conference - The focus on Electronic Governance helps consider how government investments in technology, resulting in expected social and economic benefits, contribute to the fulfillment of the national development goals.

7. A UN Conference - With international development focus, with United Nations University as the founder of and the main force behind its editions, and with several UN organizations being actively involved, ICEGOV exhibits a strong UN character.

In addition, ICEGOV promotes close interactions between government, academia, industry and NGO stakeholders so that each group can contribute to as well as benefit from the interactions with others:

The stakeholders from government can share the knowledge of concrete initiatives as well as lessons learnt and challenges faced when carrying them out. In return, they can learn about the latest research results, and how they are implemented by industry, non-governmental organizations and other governments to address the challenges they face.

The stakeholders from academia can share the models, theories and frameworks which extend the understanding of Electronic Governance and upon which concrete solutions can be built. In return, they can learn about concrete challenges faced by governments, gain access to concrete cases, and identify opportunities to implement and deploy research prototypes.

The stakeholders from industry and NGOs can share technological and socio-organizational solutions to be used in government practice. In return, they can learn about the challenges faced by governments, and the latest research findings available for developing solutions.

he ideal scenario for e- Governance would be one common application for all the 5,000 Urban Local

Bodies (ULBs). However, variation in law across different states and 22 official languages make such

a common application unviable.

The power of e-Governance in transforming citizen services has been proven. Not only does technology

enabled governance results in quick, transparent and reliable citizen-centric services, but it also acts as a

check on corruption. 

In fact, automation of municipalities was identified as one of the 27 mission mode projects under the

Government of India’s National e-Governance Programme (NeGP). Further, the Ministry of Urban

Development (MoUD) decided to implement ‘automation of municipality’ scheme in 35 cities. These cities

were also identified for massive infrastructural up gradation under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban

Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In return for the infrastructure upgrade, the cities were expected to introduce a

system of e-Governance in their Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).

The stage was set for e Governance. 

 

Modus Operandi – Some Glitches

 

However, there have been practical issues in the adoption of technology at the grassroots - by local

administrative bodies. Some questions that needed to be answered are:

Which technology should be adopted?

How can services be made accessible to citizens living in different topographical zones?

How should data be secured?

The problem is compounded by the fact that though the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) has issued

a set of guidelines to various state governments for implementing e-Governance,  and also  prepared a

model Detailed Project Report (DPR), the Ministry did not lay down a specific solution to be deployed. 

CASE IN POINT

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation automated six civic centres in 2002 (covering over 50 lakh citizens) by using ICT applications. This was a much lauded e-Governance effort.However, the initiative was not extended to other Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in Gujarat because of lack of knowhow, resources In the absence of a centralised application, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation remained an island of excellence.

The result is that, though all municipalities have to offer a common set of eight services (minimum), they all

follow different technology designs. This diversity is likely to create a serious human resource issue.

Employees of ULBs are routinely transferred across different municipalities within a State. Such people have

to deal with different solutions at each end. Also, at the district level, specialised technology resources are

hard to come by.

Another serious issue is the lack of learning from the implementation in seven mega cities, which are in

advanced stage of e-Governance readiness.

The conclusion is that standardisation eliminates learning curve and increases efficiency – and is the need

of the hour as far as e- Governance is concerned.

Shifting gears and perspective – An Imperative

The ideal scenario for e- Governance would be one common application for all the 5,000 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). However, variation in law across different states and 22 official languages make such a common application unviable.

CISCO’S ROLE IN eGOV

IBSG (Internet Business Solutions Group), the strategic arm of Cisco is working with NISG (National Institute for Smart Government) that runs the e-Municipality projects of the Government of India. IBSG brings to the table, global experience of large scale deployment of e-Municipality projects. Cisco has been helping urban local bodies achieve their objectives by supporting and enabling initiatives like shared services, increasing e-Government services and bringing

local government services closer to the citizens.

Given the diversity across the country, the solution would be to adopt one application for each State. And a

centralised application in each State would handle all ULBs in that State. Cloud Computing is best suited to

this scenario.

The Benefits of Cloud Computing

Evolutionary and enabled by a number of existing technologies, such as virtualisation, automation,

and self-service portals

Virtualised and dynamically scalable resources are provided as a service over the Internet. This

means that users do not need to have knowledge of the technology infrastructure in the “cloud” that

supports them. This aspect is very important considering that technology resources are hard to obtain at

a district level.

 

SUCCESS STORIES IN CLOUD COMPUTING

The City Council of Biel, Switzerland moved from a standalone model to a cloud model, hosting 190 different applications. Faulty clients can be restored within minutes, compilation of software inventories is automated, allowing IT staff to save hours of maintenance time each week while improving end-user productivity.

 

Greening’ of the data center through centralised and shared infrastructure

Reduced cost of infrastructure, platforms, and applications,  as municipalities within  state can

share services like network, security, IT help desk support, facility management

Increased speed of response to business needs.

Conclusion

To sum up, cloud computing at the state level (vis a vis independent deployments at local body level) is the

answer to wide spread adoption of eGovernance in local bodies due to the following:

Lower cost of development

Less complex technical manpower requirement for maintenance of application software

Lower roll-out time

Cost reduction as urban local bodies can use the State Data Center and State Wide Area Network

for hosting applications

Clearly cloud computing can provide the strategic leverage needed by Indian States to take the power of e-

Governance to India’s masses. The Cisco-Metropolis study points to an interesting trend where 45% of

respondents (fig. 1) consider their cities responsive to technology innovation. It is in this positive outlook that

cloud computing’s success in transforming local governance lies. \\

 

 

 

 

 

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AbstractIT governance arrangements refers to the patterns of authority for key IT activities in business firms, including IT infrastructure, IT use, and project management. During the last 20 years, three primary modes of IT governance have become prevalent: centralized, decentralized, and the federal mode. These modes vary in the extent to which corporate IS, divisional IS, and line management are vested with authority for the key IT activities. While a significant volume of research has examined the influence of contingency factors on the choice of a specific mode of IT governance, most of this research has examined the singular effects of the contingency factors. The assumption underlying these studies is as though the organizational contingencies act in isolation in influencing the mode of IT governance. However, in reality, business firms are subject to the pulls and pressures of multiple, rather than singular, contingency forces. Therefore, to acknowledge this reality, this study applies the theory of multiple contingencies to examine how contingency forces influence the mode of IT governance. The theory argues that contingency forces interact with each other by either amplifying, dampening, or overriding their mutual influences on the IT governance mode. Three scenarios of multiple, interacting contingencies are identified: reinforcing, conflicting, and dominating. Each of these scenarios of multiple contingencies is hypothesized to influence a particular mode of IT governance. Utilizing rich data from case studies of eight firms, empirical evidence is presented to support these hypotheses. Implications of the multiple contingencies theory for research and for practice are presented.

Towards a theory of the technology-based firm1

Ove Granstrand*

Industrial Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, S-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden

Available online 2 November 1998. 

AbstractThe modern firm is a very viable economic institution, drawing strength from a competitive market

economy, with embedded ‘super-markets' for corporate control and ‘sub-markets' for internal

organization. The technology-based firm in addition draws strength from its co-evolution with

modern science and technology (and vice versa), and thereby becomes increasingly important.

However, received theories of the firm, of which there are many, have not particularly taken account

of technology and technology-based firms, nor their management. This paper takes an empirical

point of departure from recent findings regarding the positive relationship between technology

diversification on the one hand and corporate growth and business diversification on the other.

These findings are not readily explainable by received theories of the firm, which the paper reviews,

and the findings are thus taken as an explanandum for a proposed approach to formulate a theory of

the technology-based firm. The approach is compatible with various other theoretical approaches

such as the resource-based, the transaction-cost and the evolutionary approach, but specifically

takes the idiosyncrasies of technology (i.e., technical competence) as well as management into

account. Through notably strong economies of scale, scope, speed and space associated with the

combination of different technologies and resources, the technology-based firm is subjected to

specific dynamics in its growth and diversification and shifts of businesses and resources. In

particular, a technology-based firm tends to engage in technology diversification, thereby becoming

multitechnological. As such the technology-based firm has incentives to economize on increasingly

expensive new technologies by pursuing strategies of internationalization on both input and output

markets, technology-related business diversification, external technology marketing and sourcing,

R&D rationalization and technology-related partnering.

Conference sub-themesThe conference will run over of a variety of sessions, such as plenary, workshops, posters and presentation sessions on the following sub-themes:Theme I: Indian Higher Education: Past, Present and Future Theme IV: Governance, Autonomy and

Accountability of Indian Higher EducationHistorical PerspectivesStatus of staff and students in Indian Higher Education Trends in Indian Higher EducationPolicy and governing goals of Indian Higher EducationRegulatory FrameworkGovernance and AdministrationE-GovernanceMeasurement of ExcellencePromoting Quality, Excellence and Equity and InclusivenessAcademic Autonomy Political Authority in Governance of Higher EducationTheme II: Need for Re-engineering in Indian Higher EducationTheme V: Role of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in Indian Higher EducationReengineering in Higher Education: Reinventing Teaching and LearningReengineering: A Process of Transforming Higher EducationThe Role of ICT in Education SectorMedia, Technology and Class RoomsICT Strategy in Higher EducationKnowledge Packaging in Digital FormDevelopment of a Roadmap to Achieve Excellence in ICT Higher EducationNew Functions of Higher Education and ICT to Achieve Education for AllEnhancing the Quality and Accessibility of Higher Education through the use of Information and Communication TechnologiesInformation Technology Management Communications Management Theme III: Benchmarking: The Need of the

HourTheme VI: The challenges of ICT in Learning Process Benchmarking in Indian Higher EducationCase Studies on BenchmarkingPrinciples of Good Benchmarking in the Development of Higher EducationBenchmarking ProcurementPractices in Higher EducationBenchmarking in Higher Education: Approaches and MethodologiesQuality Assurance Practices in Higher Education Motivating Students to LearnRedesigning Curriculum and Pedagogy in Higher EducationEmployability with EducationLearner-Centric Higher EducationResearch in Higher EducationTechnology-Enabled Teaching, Learning, Evaluation and ResearchOrganizational Communication The Information SocietyThe Knowledge SocietyVirtual CommunitiesCommunity-Based EducationHigher Education: Vision of the New World Realities in the Pursuit of KnowledgeGlobal Higher Education: Issues and Challenges

Interactive Wireless Solutions for Next Generation Education System

Vishav Vikram Kapoor1, Manmeet Singh1, Aarthy Krishnamurthy2, and Hrishikesh Venkataraman1,2 

1Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT), Gandhinagar, India - 382007

2 Performance Engineering Laboratory (PEL), School of Electronic Engineering,Dublin City University (DCU), Dublin 9, Ireland

Email: vishav_kapoor@daiict.ac.in.akrishnamurthy@computing.dcu.ie,hrishikesh@ieee.org

Abstract

The emergence of Internet and portable devices like Laptops/PDA's and mobile phones have bought a great change in the communication and entertainment world. However, unfortunately, the teaching and learning methodologies in the secondary schools and pre-university colleges in India have remained almost stagnant over the last several years. There have been few rigorous efforts, especially, in Europe and USA to enhance the education system using the latest technological tools. However, the outcome has not yet been very desirable. This work aims to use the mobile phones and other handheld devices as e/m-Iearning pedagogical tools in order to enhance technology-enabled interactive learning, keeping in mind the affordability and usability of proposed technology in emerging economies/developing countries like India, China, etc. We have developed a prototype for "interactive wireless education solution" with two independent yet complimentary components- clicker response system and m-Iearning application, in order to cater to two different spectrums of users. The low-cost clicker response system is developed primarily for students in schools and colleges, while the m-Iearning application is being developed for students in colleges and professional institutions, keeping in mind the fact that most of the students today in these institutions have Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. This not only enables interactive learning using wireless devices but also provides multimedia-based bi-directional transfer of information between the students and the teacher. 

Key words: Bluetooth, clicker response systems, e/m-learning, RF technology

Study of Defect Amplification Index in Domain Variant Business Software Application Development through Fault Injection Modeling

Paloli Mohammed Shareef1*, M. K Srinath2, and S. Balasubramanian3

1Trimentus Technologies, Chennai, India.2Mahendra Engineering College, Mahendrapuri, India.

3Anna University - Coimbatore, Coimbatore, India.Email: pmshareef@gmail.com,sri_induja@rediffmail.com, s _ balasubramanian@rediffmail.com.

Abstract

A planned insertion of faults or errors into software in order to determine its response and to study its behaviour is understood as Fault Injection. Fault Injection have proven to be an effective method for measuring and studying response of defects, validating fault-tolerant systems, and observing how systems behave in the presence of faults. The approach offers both accuracy of fault injection results transparency of the system dynamics in the presence of faults. The objectives of this study are to measure and study defect leakage, analyse amplification of errors and study "Domino" effect of defects leaked. The approaches endeavour to demonstrate the phase wise impact of leaked defects, through statistical analysis of defects leakage and amplification patterns of systems, built in domain (education, e-governance, retail, systems) variants using the same technology (C#. Net), and through a causal analysis carried out on the defects injected.

Keywords: Fault Injection, Dominos Effect, Amplification Indx(AI), Defect Leakage and Distribution

Incident Management in Urban Transportation: Application of Data Mining

Seyed Hessameddin Zegordi1*, Mohammad Aghdasi2, Hoda Davarzani3

and Nasim Ghanbar Tehrani4

1,2,3,4Industrial Engineering Department, School of Engineering,Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran, 

3Engineering Logistics, Department of Industrial Management and Logistics,Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

Email: {zegordi.aghdasim.davarzani.nasim.tehrani}@modares.ac.ir,3hoda.davarzani@tlog.lu.se

Abstract

Better understanding of the impacts of an incident may help analysts to design more appropriate incident management strategies. Very little is known to date about the usefulness of applying data mining in traffic and transport related research, although data mining has contributed its usefulness significantly in other fields. This research is intended to discover the relationship between motor vehicle accidents and the comprehensive information about people, vehicles, and conditions recorded in Police Accident Reports using data mining techniques. The data obtained from the traffic police's accident database, are first clustered using the K-mean method. Then, by exploring the extracted patterns and rules, some refinements in behaviors are proposed. So by using this innovative method, regardless of the constraints of this study, useful knowledge about the enhancement of safety of driving and roads and managing the accidents are provided.

Keywords: Urban Transpotation, Data Mining, Incident Management, safety.

DIESEL© Framework-An Integrated Approach (of TOC and Six Sigma)To improve Software Testing Productivity

Prasad Revur*, and Soujanya KVLMahindra Satyam, Hyderabad, India.

Email: {Prasad_Revur.Soujanya_KVL}@mahindrasatyam.com

Abstract

There are many methodologies available for continuous improvement and quality improvement. This paper proposes a new framework called "DIESEL" integrating Six Sigma methodologies and Theory of Constraints(TOC) approach to be used as a Continuous Improvement tool for improving quality and productivity in software testing. This also helps us to exploit the complementary benefits of both the approaches to find solutions in a complex testing process. A Case study is presented illustrating the application of this framework in a complex Software testing project where the productivity was affected by a few constraints. The solution developed using this framework improved the productivity while living with the constraints.

Keywords: Six Sigma, Software Testing, Theory of Constraints, Productivity Improvement, Z Value, Machine Idle time, Theory of Constraints (TOC), DMAIC

(Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control), CRT(Current Reality Tree), FMEA(Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)

A Novel Approach to Interactive Transmission of Telemedicine Videos

Rituik Dubey, Ambrish Dantrey*, Vaibhav Sharma, Ankush Mittal and M.J. NigamDepartment of Electronics and Computer Engineering,

Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India.Email: rickyuec@iitr.ernet.in, a4ambrish@gmail.com,

vaibhuec@gmail.com, ankumfec@iitr.ernet.in, mkndnfec@iitr.ernet.in

Abstract

This paper considers an interactive telemedicine video transmission system which uses Region of Interest (ROI) based video compression scheme to enhance transmission efficiency and makes real time streaming of telemedicine videos possible. The system is an example of domain specific multimedia compression schemes, a research field which has not been fully explored yet. The scheme presented is based on observation that telemedicine videos generally have an ROI which is only a fraction of the overall frame area. Efficiency of the system is increased by using lossless compression on the ROI and lossy compression on regions apart from the ROI. On the initial frame called the template frame, the ROI is determined interactively by doctor herself and image registration is used for automatic determination of ROl on other frames. The scheme presented can be extended to other domains apart from telemedicine with modifying the ROI detection method.

Keywords: Telemedicine, Region of Interest, Lossless Compression

Online Social Interactions amongst Indian women in IT

Suneet KheterpalCentre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali, India

Email: suneetkheterpal@rediffmail.com

Abstract

The cyberspace seems to appeal many women for the possibilities it offers for connecting, networking and sharing information. In a bid to understahd the usage of Web 2.0 as a social networking medium by technical women for personal as well as professional reasons, an exploratory study was conducted on married Indian women working in the field of Information Technology. While the professional reasons to access the social networks outweigh the personal reasons, few women are also discussing about themselves, their ambitions and desires. This is a good indication considering the fact that most Indian women keep their likings and personal life to themselves. Patterns and styles of interaction on the online social networks provide a glimpse into the overall portrait of the emerging Indian woman.

Keywords: Women in IT, Social Interactions, Social Networking, Web 2.0, Indian women and online social networking

Behavioral Pattern Generation and Analysis: Application of Enhanced Closeness Factor Algorithm for Effectual Forecasting

Parag A. Kulkarni1, and Preeti Mulay2 *1Capsilon, Pune, India.

2Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune, IndiaEmail: Paragakulkarni@yahoo.com, Vnv2004@redifJmail.com

Abstract

Many organizations today have more than large databases; they have databases that change dynamically. In many classification systems this represents a huge problem, since changing data may lead to poor results in the absence of proper retraining. This paper aims at constructing the knowledge model incrementally for a dynamically changing database. It intends to solve the problem intrinsic to incremental Clustering, and obtaining a faster and more accurate result. It presents a clustering model, including initializing clusters, modifying the previously discovered knowledge using the new data without retraining the old data, and maintaining clusters and related behavioral patterns in pattern-database, for further re-use. To handle this proviso, we propose innovative incremental clustering method for incremental learning. To accommodate new data on arrival every time, to handle unlabeled data and to understand which cluster to update, requires knowledge amassing and learning based on the same. This proposed new incremental algorithm clusters continuous input, and outline research directions to deal with very large data sets. The proposed work called "Enhanced Closeness Factor Algorithm for Effectual Forecasting" [ECFAEF] and is based on finding closeness among data series. The outcome will be useful for forecasting and decision making, analyzing generated patterns and their behavior. ECFAEF is a smart algorithm which catchless exceptions in behavioral patterns, very easy to implement and understand.

Keywords: incremental clustering, k-means, incremental learning, semi-supervised learning.

An Empirical Investigation on Concerns, Opinions and Attitudes of Web Shoppers

Prashant D. Amin1* and Bijal Amin2 1Elecon Engineering Company Limited, VV Nagar, India.

2Parul Institlute of Engg. and Tech., Vadodara, India.Email: prashantbijalamin@gmail.com, bijuzaveri@gmail.com

Abstract

According to Internet World Stats, there were 45 million Internet users in India representing 3.5 per cent of the population as on January 2009. This was up by 700 per cent compared to 2000. (lnternetWorld Stats, January 2009). A brief review of Information Technology (IT) indicated that more than 70 percent of Internet users used Internet for sending and receiving e-mails followed with

information search, chat sessions, and instant messaging .. The marketing implications of this research study can be assessed at two levels. First, at the level of the five dimensions viz., convenience, security concerns, personality, user experience and prices that the female online shoppers used to evaluate the relatively new marketing medium. Second, at the level of using findings on female online shoppers' demographics and expectations to design and strengthen its communications strategies.

Keywords: Online Shopping, E-commerce, Internet users, World Wide Web, Shoppers, Personality, User Experience, Information Technology, Convenience

Aligning Network Security Audit with ISO 27001

Jayant SinghIT Security Consultant, SecurE yes, India. 

Email: er.Jayant_singh@yahoo.com/jayant.singh@secureyes.net

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to relate my freshly gained knowledge about the IS027001:2005 standard and its controls to a network security audit scenario. The paper tries to align the network security audit recommendations to corresponding controls in the IS027001127002 standard [1] [2]. To achieve this I have taken a case-study of a business network for which network security audit was performed by our penetration testing team of SecurEyes. SecurEyes is focused information security consulting organization having head office in Bangalore, India. For purpose of this paper, the alignment of the audit recommendations and the applicable IS027001:2005 controls were done in the final report generated as part of the deliverables for the network security audit. Benefits of these controls include increased productivity, maximization of corporate assets, compliance with privacy regulations, protection from legal liabilities, preserving network bandwidth and resources.

Keywords: ISO, lEO, ISOIIEG 27001, ISOIIEG 27002, Vulnerability, Gompromise, Attacker, Malicious User, Information Security.

Indexing Of AIML Grammar Files in Response System

Ankush Khanna, Abhishek Garg and Ankur JainDept. of Computer Sc. & Engg.

Lingaya's University, Faridabad, India.Email: ankushkhanna1988@gmail.com,

abhishek.garg.cse@gmail.com, jain20056@gmail.com

Abstract

When a response system is based on Artificial Intellig"ence Markup Language (AIML), it uses a compiler for processing the AIML grammar files for giving the appropriate responses. A compiler is being used that uses php and XML Dom for giving appropriate response to the user queries. At the time of user query, the compiler will search in a number of files of AIML grammar, which increases the complexity, ambiguity and processing time. To improve upon this, the technique of indexing can be used. In this paper, a way of indexing the grammar files is being presented. By doing the indexing part, the compiler

does not need to search all AIML files and will only search the related files according to the entries in the index table, thus reducing the complexity and processing time.

Keywords: AIML, template, response, srai, pattern, artificial intelligence, response system, PHP (Hypertext Processor), indexing

 

1Knowledge Superpower: Education Technology Management and Information Technology Strategy DrR.C.Chhipa* and Prapti *Centre for Air & Water Modalling, Computer science and engg, School of Engineering Std Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur -302 025 Website: www.gyanvihar.org ; Email- chprcc@rediffmail.com : cawm@gyanvihar.orgABSTRACT By increasing the access to information and augmenting the process of information exchange and thereby minimizing transaction cost, fast processing, information & communication technology (ICT) offers the potential to increase efficiency, productivity, competitiveness and growth in various business social life and education. The Education technology is so important and accompanying innovations technology and that therefore it has profound influence on human sustainability an economy. Comprehend the manifold ways in knowledge superpower ICT enabled education technology contribute more effectiveness in education technology. In the context of globalization, the ability to harness this technology can improves the capabilities as the new source of wealth is not harnessed the developing countries

face the threat of further falling behind the developed countries, thereby accentuating the inequality across countries. In India there is an increasing awareness of the multiple roles of information technology in which ICT could play developmental role in empowering manpower of the country. Digital inclusion and Knowledge Management of education generates productivity through human resource mobilization. Deliberately aim of information technology is to spread as widely privileged segments of society through which education Technology can be employed for effective teaching .E-education is more flexible, have need based academic programmes, learner group modular programmes and also flexible in term of place, pace & duration. Education technology bring a challenging task to make strong industrial base and successful commercialization of technologies and well socialization application because it have the qualities of self learning, face to face counseling and practical, Audio-video, teleconferencing and radio and interactive radiocounselling,assignment and feedback and projects as instrumental methods of education. In addition educational organizations are also convinced of the potential role of IT on the socio-economic transformation. A number of initiatives towards harnessing ICT for increase the literacy and increase the technical manpower Effective and integrated studies support service network, resource sharing, mobilizations and networking. Accordingly, technical manpower of many folds can be increased in varied professional courses and specifically of private institutions which are well equipped institutions. Education technology can organize training courses

and provide technical assistance to administrators, managers and technical experts who can then fabricate and sustain the various professional programs. 2 Digital inclusion (DI) as e-Education to meet complexity and deliberate over the latest for policy developments for teaching techniques , have aimed at not only to deliver information and communication technology ( ICT ) but also access targeted groups and provide various types of support for learning and capacity building in India . For effective education technology IT Strategies must be employed to make participants aware and understand Value Creation through digital inclusion, to make participants understand the concept of DI based systems applications, to acquaint tools, techniques and information to conceptualize, to implement such innovative programmes in the area of digital inclusion and their management Training for trainers is also undertaken so that they can formulate projects, implement and manage them. Today's technological advancements have developed more efficient means of harnessing and using e-resources which judiciously gaining popularity. They offer us alternatives to existing conventional system of knowledge and their integration for better digital inclusion. The more we use digital techniques of education, the more we benefit the citizen of India and definitely strengthen our capabilities, security, create jobs, and improve the economy. Further inclusion of Eeducation and make an IT based Programmed Strategy. KEYWORDS: Education technology, Technical Manpower, IT Strategy, Digital inclusion. *Author for correspond and e-mail: chprcc@rediffmail.comINTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW For digital inclusion in India use the overall direction, standards and consistency

across the resources and flexibility to drive this plan. Requirements and initiatives must be strategic priority to ensure the alignments. India is now in a stage when it can take pride of having a strong network of S&T institutions, skilled manpower with innovative potential and a strong industrial base backed by equally efficient financial institutions. Accordingly, Govt’s portals and websites are catering to wide variety of citizen centre services. Further vital role in implementation of for the common public are given. A clear vision, for strategy and their implementations are the crucial to mitigate risks associated with the inclusion. E-education initiatives within the Governments, presently give enhancement in the aspiration level in IT strategy as managerial and technological challenges are the consequence for effective digital inclusion. Forimplementation and assessments of these Government take all possible measures for spreading e-education throughout the country , covering all the sectors with a view to provide hassle free, transparent and efficient service to the education community. For achieving this goal, the government has the approach toward digital inclusion as IT 3strategy and application of technology management effectively to increase capacity in technical manpower in different areas. Initiatives for connectivity for e-education projects which are varied in purpose and typically project provides means for increased access to computers, network and the Internet as a source of information by which education. RESEARCH & DEVLOPMENTS Education technology management practically is to build capacity for

increase technical manpower by application of e-education. By implementation of education technology higher education is coping with the growing cost of information technology security and with the tensions between preserving confidentiality, ensuring data integrity, and maintaining an academic environment in which information is easily available to authorized users. EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY Role of teacher is evolving along with growing awareness of how true learning takes place. “The teacher” (both in the classroom and in e-education) breaks into a multiplicity of roles involving different types of expertise: inspiring, guiding, evaluating, and supporting learners in an increasingly complex society. Depends on the learning process. The actors may vary depending on student/teacher relationships, which blur together when there is more focus on the learning environment rather than on the roles individuals play within the environment.Workarounds when the system fails. ICT’s contribution to better teaching and learning in which models are useful in linking specific types of ICT to pedagogical elements conversational framework and extended by others. Framework provides a way the organize prior pedagogical analysis. It is not a way of classifying and delivering a verdict about quality in terms of use of new media forms; rather it is a way of linking and relating media types to learning and teaching interactions. To make a value judgment about specific teaching or learning strategies or theories, but instead ask a particular technology is appropriate for a specified purpose. The Institute for the future scenarios as a way to get a fresh scenarios about the

future of e-education, three educational fields: primary/secondary schools, universities, and corporate settings in three vast geographic regions: Analyzing E-Education required analysis of education in general, with technology as a tool for (not a driver of) optimum learning conditions. For capacity building and quality higher education requires framework of National Open Knowledge Grid combined with Technology Enhanced Learning will break this impasse and give strategy focused development a major thrust. 4Effective Education Technology and ITS Strategies Information Communication and Technology plays an important role to provide effective information related services to citizen and can helps to expand education, strengthen the education technology in more efficient means of harnessing and using eresources which judiciously gaining popularity the increasingly digital workplace, and raise educational quality teaching and learning into an engaging, active process connected to real life. Appropriate use of different ICT enabled technologies help to expand access to education, strengthen the importance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, and raise quality and to help in teaching and learning as connected to education. Tools and activities for education technology To build tools and facilitate for educational communities that support teaching and learning including training. To Work with faculty and students for and brainstorm To share information’s and disseminates among different institutions in which approach of” teachers teach and students learn “.taken can be solved

To apply knowledge of web technologies and design to create powerful and tools that support faculty and students in their teaching and learning process To write software codes and doing design works, including transfer of proprietary knowledge to chip’s micro-architecture and physical design. Higher value-creation opportunities for education community Educational services providers have to increase their capabilities and expand their volume. Expertise in product development, testing and sustenance and complemented with clear understanding of information technology and enables most value chain product architecture and design. Market trend suggesting that the domestic Talent pool is shrinking in the India because of less accessibility to e-education To enjoyed a culture of open access to information and free flow of information To challenges as concerns about information security. 5To promote software enabled to address their ICT problems and thereby enhance their own competitiveness OBJECTIVES OF THE IT STRATEGIES: Information has been continued to be accumulated in many fold and the in context, with key determining the external environment. Up gradation of computing facilities and connectivity and promotion of technology enhanced e-education and which concerned with the technological infrastructure to fulfill object of the information strategy and which concerned with how the information services are organized. Information strategy acts as academic strategy in which information is required to support the key goals, of the education strategy, critical assumptions and changed environment and perceptions. Information technology strategy is concerned with

applications and platforms like, the 'nuts and bolts' of how to provide the information, to face the problem and enhanced education technology. IT strategies are important concerns to knowledge superpower by use of education technology management use following contexts. Software industries in India gain recognition in the early eighties as companies started taking up software projects at customer sites. Further, internet access transformed computers from mere computing machine to derived information age including telecom expansion modified the eeducation and other e-business tecnologies.Such as: Important teaching Skills Set induction programmes, Stimulate variations, Probing questionnaires with deep thinking Illustrators with examples, Closure ending the session, Lecture communication skill, Explanation techniques for concepts, principles Use of black board’s accessibility, Use of audio visual aids, Value addition systems Ability to convey listening skills in education people Class management Techniques Increase pupil participation Recognizing attending behavior of students Home assignments and workouts Importance of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) the acquisition of knowledge and skills 6 India’s knowledge economy gets benefits from the export oriented ICT growth, while the use of 'ICT for knowledge superpower seems to have not received the attention it deserves in education technology. Thus India’s strategy has been one of promoting software technology enable with knowledge superpower and find out other developed

countries to find out their education problems. Thereby expand access to education,enhance their own competitiveness, and make capacity buildings so far as active process connected to real life.Today's highly globalized economy; increase in the competitiveness has adverse impact on domestic developments in education as compared with the world ranking of our institute organizations and to underline the need for providing greater focus on the education technology in our future IT strategy and comprehending social product for competitiveness with developed countries and increase productivity, growth and human welfare by use of ICTs to prove and help in strengthen of digital inclusion. To raise educational quality transmission of a prescribed set of information from teacher to student over a fixed period of time and increase digital workplace,Information and communication technology (ICT) sector in India and their implications in transforming the country into knowledge economy which must be empowered with ICT infrastructure, policies, and present status within the framework of India Vision 2020 along with various activities with Digital inclusions Mental access (motivation) is required first. Once this has been achieved, a person can mobilize material access (hardware). This will lead to skills access and incorporates strategic, instrumental and informational skills. We did not agree with this linear progression since our sense was that a more networked, relational perspective would be more useful. However, we had to agree that there were certain conditional aspects to ac Importance of ICT for the overall development of IT to improve the living standard and of the 40 percent of the population which lives below the poverty line, the government must play.

ICT initiatives in India to increase Technical Manpower Existing ICT projects for development have been implemented against the backdrop. Recommendations made by the National Task Force on IT & Software development. To combat the Challenges which covers the problem of lack of education and illiteracy in India? Software development with various recommendations covers wide range of issues. Development of hardware system for education technology. To promote the growth of IT enabled industry, particularly software projects have effectively 7implemented with the diffusion of ICT to the specific issues involved in for knowledge superpower. Existing ICT initiatives have been made in a context to explicit policy on digital inclusion for development, which takes into account the national and regional specifics with emphasis on a realistic assessment of what ICT could do in present socio-economic aspect to increase technical manpower. To Acquaint and understand Value Creation through DI For capacity building and quality higher education requires framework of National Open Knowledge Grid combined with Technology Enhanced Learning will break this impasse and give strategy focused development a major thrust. This allows for the necessary interdisciplinary approach across relevant multiple institutions, industry and organizations that is needed to achieve the results in the emerging knowledge driven economy. To make participants understand the concept of DI based systems and its applications Terms such as “real access”, “thick conceptions of access” and “social inclusion” give some indication as to the change in thinking about access to ICT.

To acquaint with Tools, Techniques and Information Development and Implement such innovative programmes That would be required to conceptualize, develop and implement such innovative programmes in the area of digital inclusion and management of different departments Learner Group Modular Programmes Strong Industrial Base and Successful Commercialization of Technologies Seekers get benefit in terms of easy access to information for learning’s some centers provide opportunities for direct interface New models of innovation chain and new paradigms of the science and industry contacts have begun to emerge. The trends of techno globalism are bringing in a silent revolution in India. It is rapidly becoming a global R&D hub. More than 300 companies have set up their R&D centers. KNOWLEDGE SUPERPOWER 8Information technology strategies for India will help transformations of knowledge superpower, because of immense contribution to economic and industrial development which produced high quality skilled technical and managerial manpower as capacity building to India. To achieve economy goals to improve their competitiveness Economic scenario and growth patterns against the background of emerging technologies are the empowered business. Some researchers stress the economic importance of ICT, stating, for example, Access to information technology is crucial for governance and economic development Others possibilities which ICT enable, and prefer the term ‘knowledge democracy’ rather than ‘knowledge economy’ because of the participatory and social dimensions with which ICT is increasingly associated. ICT by contribution in output, employment, export earnings. On account of the production of

ICT related goods and services which are confined to just one segment of the economy. Knowledge creation and acquisition in a country, and availability of human resources with education enabled technologies reflects the in intellectual content which are embedded in imports from other knowledge-based economies. Knowledge-based economies must ensure a stable political and economic at same time talents will find it conducive to apply their knowledge and flourish in India. Knowledge-based economy is basically an economy that creates, disseminates and uses knowledge to enhance its growth and development, which depends on the creation, acquisition, dissemination and application of knowledge Higher and Technical education has been growing and knowledge based industries are now occurring at the central stage in development .There are now number of universities are increased after the inclusion of digital era in which many medical ,agriculture and certain other technical and professional colleges ad universities are increased. DIGITAL INCLUSION AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT OF EDUCATION Past few years, concepts of the digital divide and theories of access to ICT have evolved beyond a focus on the separation to include just physical access to computers. Digital inclusion induced development through enhanced productivity, competitiveness, growth and human welfare on account of the use of this technology by the different sectors of the economy and society. Contribution of ICT towards development is due to the growth of ICT and on account of ICT diffusion which requires a strategy for expansion of above and refers

contribution in output, employment, economy enhancement and production of ICT services confined developments. 9Given the scope of the project – with hundreds of possible variables – we refined the process to include a range of possibilities for each variable, and then developed four plausible scenarios TECHNIQUES FOR TRAINING AND CAPACITY BUILDING Quality improvement in education through modernization of syllabus ,networking of institutions, Networking through LAN ,WAN ,Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET ) would also leads to increased academic activities uniform curriculum course initiatives and teaching methods and trainings by the help of education technology. Digital inclusion programmed are designed for different training techniques as their employees, people teaching community, training techniques programmes are included related Professionals, Academic institutions, Business institutions and who possess an interest in digital inclusion , Training techniques are as follow (i)Lectures/interactive sessions (ii)Group Discussions (iii)Case studies/Group exercises (iv)Brainstorming sessions/ Experience sharing (v) Training Support materials/ Handouts Power-point Presentations. Such projects of teaching techniques and training contribute a broader goal of digital inclusion in education and contribute fostering participatory democracy with superpower in knowledge. ADDITIONS FOR CAPABILITY BUILDING WITH DI Our country's S&T grew in broad directions of the nationally strategic areas of under the Atomic Energy, Space, Defense and such areas; do not work adequately closely

with 'outside' institutions, particularly boosting education and research in basic sciences, technology and management that is crucial for the steady supply of high quality manpower for their future needs. In some areas, we do not have a clear root institution to undertake the leadership. The cost to the country due to the poor quality of education offered in the existing educational system to the country which led to a shortage of competent scientists, technologists, thought leaders and professionals. As a country, we neither have 10To play the new role in education technology, capacity building is required to enhance the skills of education community’s librarians and other information workers to provide education development and information to users. We require to first understanding why our present system of higher education is not effective, because of the problems faced by our higher education and research institutions. How we induct technology assisted collaborative system of education across colleges and premier institutions to enhance the quality of education very substantially in the country's numerous colleges and universities. Information Systems and Services Architecture: This provides the most crucial skeletal ICT framework for the NOKG architecture. It facilitates all the user groups, their activities related workflow and services framework. There needs to be some degree of consistency across shared resources serviced and maintained by the different parties. The NOKG architecture needs several studies and reference implementation that fall under the broad class of Advanced Informatics. In view of the specificity their future prospective are correlated with IT

strategies and education technology management accordingly. Further following additions are added: (i) Sharing of knowledge, experiences, technology, infrastructure and resources for best utilization. (ii) Enhancement of computer skills and internet skills (iii) Eliminate geographical barriers of language, areas (iv) Various protocols of networking TCP/IP and user datagram protocol (UDP) (v) Convenience of reading material online (vi) Flexibility to teacher techniques by education technology for uploading the latest development in digital inclusion Realize e-learning especially to trainer and professional education (vii) Integrity of all institution, research institution regulatory bodies academicians, Professional (viii) Technology based competency to establish the context of education technology (ix) Meet current system architecture for proper integration (x) Selection criteria, evaluation, ranking of used software and hardware’s for different areas of education: primary, secondary, college.higher and technical education. (xi)Researchers have started considering the conditions or criteria for access and broadened the concept with additional components. (xii)E-education covers a vast territory: lifelong learning at all ages and venues, from the home to work, with learning inside and outside institutional settings. 11CONCLUDING REMARKS More we use digital techniques of education, than more we benefit the people of India and definitely strengthen our capabilities, security, create jobs, and improve the economy. The knowledge economy and the growth of knowledge management are essential competency of education system because industrial technology depends to utilize the

skills they have to meet corporate objectives. Information management of both internal and external information, alongside the contribution to information competence and the ability to contextualize information, contributes excellence in education system more effectively through collaboration and partnership. Further inclusion of E-education with IT based Programmed strategy with. Array of information data, architecture decision with technology choices and Technology sourcing with security and networking will defines the knowledge superpower.Keywords: Governance, corruption, education, education systems, educationperformance, indicators, education expendituresJEL Classifications: I2, I21, I22, 128, O29AbstractThe impacts of education investments in developing and transition countries are typically measured by inputs and outputs. Missing from the education agenda are measures of performance that reflect whether education systems are meeting their objectives; public resources are being used appropriately; and the priorities of governments are being implemented. This paper suggests that good governance can serve as an entry point to raising institutional performance in the delivery of education services. Crucial to high performance are standards, information, incentives and accountability. This paper provides a definition of good governance in education and a framework for thinking about governance issues as a way of improving performance in the education sector. Performance indicators that offer the potential for tracking relative education performance are proposed, and provide the context for the discussion of good governance in education

in the areas of budget and resource management, human resources, household payments,and corruption perceptions. What we do and do not know about effective solutions to advance good governance and performance in education is presented for each area, drawing on existing research and documented experiences.31. IntroductionThe impacts of investments in education in developing and transition countries are typically measured by inputs and outputs. Focusing on inputs (e.g. number of teachers or textbook provision) or aggregate education outcomes (such as literacy rates, enrollmentand average years of education attained) while important does not capture performance, whether resources are actually deployed, or how effectively they are used. Performance is difficult to measure but it is critical to do so if education systems are to achieve their objectives and to ensure reasonable returns to public investments. This paper suggests that using good governance as an entry point can help to focus on performance in education service delivery, and in turn, provide policymakers and program managers with a basis upon which to raise performance.What is good governance and why does it matter?Good governance in education systems promotes effective delivery of education services. Critical are appropriate standards, incentives, information, and accountability, which induce high performance from public providers (Box 1). Sound provider performance in turn, raises the level of education outputs (e.g. school retention) and can contribute to improved outcomes (e.g. student test scores). This paper focuses on incentives, information, and accountability, that does not mean that standards are unimportant, rather

these are implicit in the discussion throughout. Improved public performance is one means to enhance returns to public education investments. It can also reduce disparities in education provision if targeted properly.1The paper provides an overview of governance and performance issues in education, and attempts to identify what we do, and do not know about effective solutions to advance good governance and high performance in education, drawing heavily on the existing work of many researchers, specialists, and practitioners. The paper defines governance, presents a governance framework, and proposes a set of indicators to track education sector performance across countries and over time. The aim is to improve sectoral performance, complementing other education system efforts not addressed here, such as curriculum development, teacher training, and textbook design.Moreover, good governance can discourage corruption, an outgrowth of poor governance, which directly affects performance of the education sector. The remainder of this paper elaborates on the themes of good governance and performance, and the ways in which they apply to education.What is good governance? Kaufmann, Kraay, and Mastruzzi (2004; 2007) define it as the “traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised for the common good”, which includes the process of selecting those in authority, capacity of the government to manage, and respect for the state (Annex 1). While desirable and perhaps necessary for the economic and social wellbeing of countries, these factors are neither necessary, nor sufficient to ensure effective public provision of education. Good

governance in education requires enabling conditions: the existence of standards, 1Equity in access to education is not discussed in this paper.4information on performance, incentives for good performance, and, arguably most importantly, accountability (Box 1).BOX 1. GOVERNANCE AND PERFORMANCE FUNDAMENTALSStandards are transparent and publicly known criteria or benchmarks used to assess and inform education policy, provision, and performance.Incentives are any financial or non-financial factors that motivate a specific type of behavior or action, and can be positive or negative, i.e. encourage a certain behavior or deter it.Information in the form of clear definitions of outputs and outcomes combined with accurate data on performance and results collected at regular intervals enables sanctions to be imposed when specified standards are not met. Accountability refers to the act of holding public officials/service providers answerable for processes and outcomes and imposing sanctions if specified outputs and outcomes are not delivered.Ackerman (2005) describes accountability as “a pro-active process by which public officials inform about and justify their plans of action, their behavior and results, and are sanctioned accordingly.”2In education, poor governance results in inefficiency in service provision, and in some cases no service at all. Lack of standards, information, incentives, and accountability can not only lead to poor provider performance but also to corruption, the “use of public office

for private gain” (Bardhan 1997: 139). However, the line between poor governance and corruption is often blurred. Is poor service a function of corruption or simply of mismanagement? Improving governance and (thereby) discouraging corruption in education ultimately aims to increase the efficiency of education services so as to raise performance, and ultimately, improve student learning and labor productivity.Accountability requires that public servants have clear responsibilities and are held answerable in exercising those responsibilities, and if they do not, face predetermined sanctions. Without sanctions there cannot be any real accountability. Despite its importance to effective delivery of education services, real accountability is rare in most public education systems worldwide. Good governance also requires effective incentives at all levels of the education system, and both benchmarks for and information on performance in order to induce and sustain desirable behavior.The political economy context of education plays an important role in determining whether the ideas and analysis presented here have a chance of implementation. Indeed, some of the performance issues outlined in this paper stem from special interests that have captured the agenda and undermine performance. What is intended here is to focus on factors that help foster good governance and high performance in education systems. 2Ackerman distinguishes accountability from transparency and responsiveness, which have elements of importance but are not substitutes for accountability.5Translating good governance into actionThis paper identifies the key incentive and accountability issues that underpin education

sector performance. In this section the conceptual framework for possible indicators that can be used to track performance in education service delivery is outlined. We are interested not simply in whether there is consultation or not between different stakeholders but also that the public sector reaches an acceptable standard of performance. That performance entails basic functioning of the education system so that teachers are hired based on merit, administrators and teachers show up daily, adequate numbers of books are available, funds are budgeted and allocated transparently, incentives are set to promote good performance, and corruption is discouraged. Without these basic ingredients the broader education system objectives cannot be attained.For effective service delivery, central public policymakers must have a set of objectives that are clear to lower levels of government, which then translate policy into viable programs that can be implemented by local government and service providers. For instance, (1) ministries of finance and parliaments set budget levels and broad education priorities; (2) ministries of education define specific educational objectives and translate those objectives into education programs; and (3) depending on whether the education system is centralized or decentralized, central or local government implements by constructing schools, hiring teachers and so on. This process must contain appropriate incentives, performance information, and accountability mechanisms at each level of theeducation system if the desired performance standards are to be attained and sustained (Figure 1).Performance is determined by the nature of these relationships across policymakers, policy

implementers, and direct providers. How things get done, and performance at the provider level, are informed by overall health policy but is defined through the specific policies and procedures of the education bureaucracy at central and/or local levels. These policies and procedures have built-in incentives, implicit and explicit, which drive performance in education service delivery, and can work at cross purposes or be mutually reinforcing.The lines of accountability directly influence the effectiveness of performance incentives. Teachers hired, paid, and deployed by ministries of education become accountable to central government, not to local government, the community, or parents, as these entities have no financial or other leverage to hold teachers accountable. The distance between provider and central government/ministries of education can therefore become very long, and as a result, real accountability through these channels can evaporate (WDR 2004c).6FIGURE 1. OVERVIEW OF THE GOVERNANCE PROCESSMinistry of education:Education policyLocalgovernmentProviderperformanceService delivery quality &EducationoutcomesBeneficiaries &Stakeholdersdirection of incentives direction of accountability

direction of potential accountabilityParliament:Government policydirection of influenceSource: Authors.While education providers remain technically accountable to the ministry of education, local governments, citizens and other stakeholders, in reality, they are typically not. This is in part due to the fact that provider accountability is unclear but even if accountability isclear, inadequate authority, lack of appropriate incentives, and absence of information on performance makes education systems difficult to manage and high performance hard to attain. Education ministries’ authority, and therefore, ability to hold line ministries accountable is often very limited, and this applies to parents and local governments as well. Figure 1 captures these relationships, and the direction of incentives and of accountability,between different levels of government, and between government and providers, and the roles of stakeholders and beneficiaries outside government. To improve governance and subsequently the performance of education systems it is critical to identify the weak points that contribute to poor performance and corruption. The governance process outlined in Figure 1 indicates where governance failures tend to occur. For example, pervasive teacher absenteeism in developing countries is a symptom of governance failure due to little or no accountability of teachers to employers or parents. Budget leakages, where public education funds fail to reach intended recipients, offers another sign of governance failure due to some combination of mismanagement, lack of

incentives to track funds, weak information systems that thwart the ability to track funds, and absence of mechanisms that would hold officials to account.72. Good Governance in Education: Measuring PerformanceMeasuring performance is critical to establish benchmarks for efficiency, compare performance across time and providers, and assess effectiveness of public education investments. Real accountability hinges on having well-defined standards and adequateinformation about performance in education provision to enable policymakers and program administrators to improve service delivery.The performance indicators proposed in this paper are generic enough to be adapted to different settings and can serve as a basis for cross-country and within country comparisons over time, and offer a menu of options. These indicators provide a starting point, drawing on existing data relevant to the education sector, which can be adopted to measure performance in education systems in developing and transition countries. Table 1shows these indicators, which can be used to detect and assess performance in education systems, and also serves as an overview of the types of governance challenges discussed in this paper (aggregate-level governance indicators are discussed in Annex 1).Only indicators for which at least some data are available are shown, other indicators of performance but for which there are very limited data are discussed in the text. Each indicator is defined here and its salient features briefly discussed, the indicators are then elaborated on in each relevant section under the aggregate groupings: budget and resource management, human resources, household payments, and institutions.Budget and resource managementHow funds flow through the government bureaucracy offers insights into the operational

effectiveness of the government’s financial management functions. While sector specificmeasures are preferable, how well the overall system operates provides a benchmark for the education sector as financial management tends to be less efficient in education ministries than in either ministries of finance or on average across ministries (although there are exceptions). Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) indicators are expert ratings of budget performance designed to track budget credibility, transparency, and the performance of key institutions involved in the budget cycle. They effectively provide an overall assessment of how well the budget process works. While these indicators currently only exist for overall public financial management, the process of developing sectorspecific indicators, including for education, is ongoing.Budget leakages are the discrepancy between the authorized budget for education and the amount of funds received by intended recipients. Leakages may occur at multiple stages in the education system: outflows from one level to inflows at the next level, inflows and outflows within a specific level; and leakages across multiple levels. Sometimes leakages are reported for broad expenditure categories, e.g. total public education expenditure, other times for specific expenditure areas such as payments to school teachers in a particular local district. One common component of total budget leakages is payroll irregularities associated with ghost workers, those listed on payroll but who no longer (or never did) work for the Ministry of Education or a lower level of government. Ghost workers are typically 8measured as the discrepancy between the number of teachers on payroll and the number of

teachers employed as listed on employment records. Payroll irregularities can also result in workers who are not paid because employment records fail to include them.Human ResourcesTeachers claim a substantial share of total public education funds and pose a significant management challenge given the difficulty of allocating and supervising a large cadre of public sector workers. The indicators discussed below aim to capture the performanceproblems associated with the overall teacher selection process, and with subsequent performance of teachers once hired. Job purchasing refers to the purchasing of public positions, which bypasses hiring based on objective criteria. Indicators are typically based on perceptions of the extent to which personnel hiring decisions are influenced by illegal payments, measured as the share of respondents who regard job purchasing to be common or very common, and in rare cases the “cost” of a particular job. These perceptions often differ depending on the position of the respondent in the education hierarchy making it important to use a cross-section of individuals. Related to the purchasing of posts are nepotism and favoritism in hiring. The former is defined as the illegal preference given to a relative; the latter as the illegal preference given to any person without consideration of relative merit or other objective factors. Mainly anecdotal and occasionally some perception-based evidence is available on the prevalence of nepotism and favoritism.Teacher absenteeism is defined as the proportion of teachers (and/or administrators) contracted to be working on site during the period(s) of observation but who are not present and captures the underperformance of education providers and, depending on the

reason for absence, fraud associated with unexcused absences. Teacher absence data can be collected by various means: surprise visits, direct observation at schools, attendance records kept by school administrators, or other methods that document actual and expected attendance (see Patrinos and Kagia 2007 and Rogers and Vegas 2009 for comprehensive overviews).It is extremely difficult to reflect teacher performance in a single, direct indicator since any individual teacher’s performance depends not only on her training, skill, and effort but also on those of her co-workers, the availability of necessary equipment and materials, and student characteristics. Instead, indirect measures such as assessments of the existence and effectiveness of incentive and accountability mechanisms faced by teachers can provide insights and be useful for designing improved arrangements.Household paymentsInformal payments in education are charges for education services meant to be provided for free, or paid “under-the-table” directly to public officials or teachers to obtain specific favors. These are generally measured as the fraction of survey respondents reporting that they made payments to a public education entity for education services intended to be free of charge. Household surveys and perception surveys of citizens and public officials are the most common sources of information. More detailed surveys may also include the average value of payments made, to whom, and for what specific service. Types of 9informal payments include but are not restricted to payments for admission, advancement, preferential access to resources, and specific grades.TABLE 1. PERFORMANCE ISSUES AND INDICATORS FOR EDUCATION

AREA ISSUE KEY INDICATOR(S)Budget processesPEFA indicators track budget credibility, comprehensiveness, transparency, execution, recording, reporting, and external audits and scrutiny.Budget leakagesDiscrepancy between budgeted public education funds and the amounts received by education providers.Payroll irregularities Discrepancy between payroll roster and health workers on site.Job purchasingFrequency of illegal side-payments/bribes influencing hiring decisions and of payments for particular assignments.Teacher absenteeismFraction of teachers contracted for service but not on site during the period(s) of observation.Informal payments Frequency of iIllegal charges for publicly provided education services.Academic fraud Fraction of respondents perceiving academic fraud involving payments.Involuntary private tutoringFrequency of teachers charging for private tutoring of academic material omitted from the required curriculum.Perceptions of corruptionFraction of households, public officials, or experts reporting corruption in the education sector.Relative ranking of education sector on corruption indices.Institutional quality The Country and Policy Institutional Asessements (CPIA) for education.Source: Authors.BUDGET AND RESOURCEMANAGEMENTHUMAN RESOURCESCORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS

HOUSEHOLD PAYMENTS10A special case of informal payments are involuntary private tutoring payments, fees paid for supplementary tutoring in academic subjects meant to be covered during regular school hours but intentionally omitted (tutoring of material that is omitted due to, for instance, a genuine lack of time are not involuntary). Some data on payments for all private tutoring (voluntary and involuntary) exist but data on involuntary private tutoring payments are very difficult to obtain. Given the prevalence and growth of private tutoring in many developing countries, more information is needed to assess the extent of informal (illegal) payments versus legal private tutoring payments, a crucial distinction for assessing inappropriate behavior.Academic fraud by its nature often goes undetected and few data are available. Academic fraud includes but is not limited to: cheating on examinations, result falsification, credentials fraud, and diploma milling. Here the focus is on academic fraud that entails informal payments for which perceptions of academic fraud based on surveys of students, teachers or experts are the best source of data (Hallak and Poisson 2007).Corruption PerceptionsAggregate measures of corruption and institutional quality are difficult to create given the breadth of relevant factors. Kauffman, Kraay, and Mastruzzi (2007) have developedgeneral indices of corruption that integrate the results from multiple perceptions surveys (see Annex 1). Some education sector specific indicators of corruption and institutional quality also exist, and complement the aggregate measures. The World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), assesses

overall institutional quality and also by sector, including for education. But the CPIA includes a broad range of issues, some which affect performance and some that do not, and the degree of variation across countries is limited. Perceptions of corruption in education are generally reported as one of the following: the fraction of citizens, public officials, or experts perceiving worse-than-neutral corruption outcomes, an average of all scores across interview categories, or respondents’ ranking of how corrupt the education sector is relative to other sectors. While these perception measures are imperfect they complement the disaggregated indicators discussed above. Perceptions matter because people may change their behavior, including education decisions, based on theseperceptions even if incorrect, and where perceptions are largely negative, this suggests the need to examine the performance of education service delivery more carefully.Potential data and information sources for the indicators outlined above are shown in Table 2. Some of the data and information are readily available and based on administrative data. Others draw on large surveys, some of which have only been conducted in selected countries (e.g. Quantitative Service Delivery Surveys (QSDS) and Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS)). Living Standard Measurement Surveys (LSMS), other household surveys, and public expenditure reviews exist for more countries but are administered intermittently. Still, such surveys offer a wealth of data and the basis for useful analysis that can shed light on education service delivery performance.11TABLE 2. SOURCES OF PERFORMANCE DATA IN EDUCATIONGOVERNANCE AREA ISSUE INDICATOR(S)

Budget processes° Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability indicators° Focus groups with public officials, recipient institutions, and civil society° Interviews with public officials, recipient institutions, and civil societyBudget leakages° Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys° Public Expenditure Reviews° Focus groups with public officials, recipient institutions, and civil society° Interviews with public officials, recipient institutions, and civil societyPayroll irregularities ° Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys° Public Expenditure Reviews° Focus groups with public officials° Household surveysJob purchasing° Official administrative records combined with facility surveys° Focus groups with public officials and teachers° Governance and Anti-Corruption Country Diagnostic surveys Teacher absenteeism° Quantitative Service Delivery Surveys° Surprise visits° Direct observation° Facility records° Focus groups with headmasters and parents° Interviews with headmasters and parentsTeacher performance° Direct observation° Facility surveys° Focus groups with teachers, students, and parents° Administrative recordsInformal paymentsAcademic fraud

Involuntary private tutoringPerceptions of corruption° Governance and Anti-Corruption Country Diagnostic surveysInstitutional quality° WB Country Policy and Institutional Assessements (CPIA)Source: Compiled by authors.INSTITUTIONS ° Household surveys ° Focus groups with providers/students/parents ° Interviews with providers/students/parents ° Governance and Anti-Corruption Country Diagnostic surveysBUDGET AND RESOURCEMANAGEMENTHOUSEHOLD PAYMENTSHUMAN RESOURCES12The set of indicators discussed above are unevenly available and only sometimes enable comparison across countries, or over time, and even less often across regions and schools within countries. However, when they are available they provide important insights into governance challenges and performance issues in education. Ideally, data for indicators such as these should be collected on a regular basis and be made publicly available to provide the basis for improving incentives and accountability in education, and ultimately performance.The remainder of this paper places each indicator from Table 1 into context describing the underlying governance failure and performance problems, and presents available evidence on potential solutions to address these challenges.3. Budget and Resource Management

Without funding public education services grind to a halt. The flow of public funds and the ability to manage funds at the provider level thus become the first level of concern for performance of the education system. Where funds originate, consistency in disbursement and financial management combined with spending discipline at the school level are the broad categories of concern in budget and resource management. Effective incentives and accountabilities across the government, from the Ministry of Finance through the Ministry of Education, and across all entities involved in dissemination of funding to education providers are crucial, and therefore, this section is concerned with how well funds movethrough the institutions shown in Figure 1.Weak governance structures, characterized by low capacity to plan, allocate and execute budgets; weak internal controls; poor management and supervision of funds; absence of external accountability (including audits); and distorted incentives that considerably increase the opportunity for mismanagement and corruption, affect the funding received by education providers, and thereby the delivery of education services. Table 3 outlines some common vulnerabilities in public financial management (PFM) systems by area.Public financial management has well-developed standards and benchmarks for performance that are widely endorsed. Ensuring sound financial arrangements that limit leakages is the first step in building a high performance public sector, including education, and effective incentives and real accountability are the backbone of successful arrangements.13TABLE 3. OVERVIEW OF VULNERABILITIES IN PUBLIC FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Vulnerabilities• Absence of clear rules on hiring• Absence of management controls, internal controls• Absence or weakness in internal audit, external audit• Absence of treasury payroll matching• Absence of records, weak record record keeping• Absence of management mandates for and review of regular financial reports• Absence of nonpayroll expenditure controls• Absence of inventory control, asset registry• Weak procurement system• Absence of management oversight and review of payment and procurement practices• Cash or in-kind transfers• Weak or no record keeping• Absence of clear procedures for processing • Failure to follow procedures• Absence of clear laws, regulations, rules for eligibility, criteria• Absence of nonpayroll expenditure controls• Absence of management oversight and review of payment and procurement practices• Weak procurement systemSource: Adapted from Dorotinsky and Pradhan (2007).Capital expendituresEmployee compensationGoods and servicesTransfersMeasuring budget performanceIt is difficult to assess budget performance directly but some very useful process indicators exist based on the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) framework. This uses a comprehensive set of 31 indicators to assess overall performance of public financial management systems (PEFA Secretariat 2005).3

Table 4Indicators especially relevant to education are shown in . 3At the time of writing, PEFA assessments had been carried out in 100 countries, out of which about 40assessments are publicly available.14TABLE 4. SELECTED PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AND FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY (PEFA)INDICATORS RELEVANT TO EDUCATIONPredictability and control in budget executionBudget credibilityBudget comprehensiveness and transparency° Predictability in the availability of funds for commitment of expenditures° Aggregate expenditure outturn compared to original approved budget° Transparency of intergovernmental fiscal relations° Recording and management of cash balances, debt and guarantees° Composition of expenditure out-turn compared to original approved budget° Public access to key fiscal information° Effectiveness of payroll controls° Competition, value for money and controls in procurement° Effectiveness of internal controls for non-salary expenditure° Effectiveness of internal auditPolicy-based budgeting Accounting, recording and reporting External scrutiny and audit° Orderliness and participation in the annual budget process° Availability of information on resources received by service delivery units° Scope, nature and follow-up of

external auditSource: PEFA Secretariat (2005).The PEFA indicators are rated from 1-4 with + modifiers (4 indicating strongest performance).4The PEFA indicators are useful for identifying where in the budget process governance and performance problems exist. For example, a poor score on the aggregate expenditure outturn compared to original approved budget indicator may be a sign of poor management, inadequate monitoring of processes, and/or of weak disbursement systems. In any event, there is a clear absence of accountability in financial management. If a country scores low on the effectiveness of payroll controls indicator, the problem of payroll irregularities may be serious. A low score on availability of information on resources received by service delivery units indicator suggests some combination of inadequate transparency, poor recordkeeping, low budget management capacity, and insufficient accountability.Scores for three PEFA indicators especially relevant to education: (1) aggregate expenditure compared to original approved budget (in some countries there are large discrepancies suggesting that allocated resources do not reach service providers), (2) effectiveness of payroll controls (a particularly critical issue for education given that the payroll costs in education are the largest among government sectors), and (3) availability of information on resources received by service delivery units. 4The PEFA indicators are rated from A (best) to D with + modifiers, here we have converted them into numerical values for ease of exposition.15

Data for five countries are shown in Figure 2 to illustrate relative performance across these three areas. Bangladesh scores relatively poorly on all three indicators; the Dominican Republic scores the worst on aggregate expenditure outturn compared to the original approved budget; Macedonia scores comparatively poorly on information on resources received by service delivery units; and Mozambique and the Ukraine both score poorlywith respect to the effectiveness of payroll controls. PEFA indicators can thus be helpful in pinpointing and prioritizing areas where action is needed to strengthen budget processes and help bolster good governance in PFM.FIGURE 2. SELECTED PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AND FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY (PEFA)INDICATORS FOR FIVE COUNTRIES, 2005-074 3 2 1 0Selected PEFA budget performance indicatorsBangladesh Dominican Republic Macedonia Mozambique UkraineAggregate expenditure outturn compared to original approved budgetEffectiveness of payroll controlsAvailability of information on resources received by service delivery unitSource: PEFA Secretariat (various years).Budget LeakagesWeaknesses in budget management can result in funds never arriving at their intended destination due to mismanagement, arbitrary reallocation or theft, and where allocated education funding is not disbursed, or is diverted en route from the point of disbursement to schools, education provision tends to suffer.Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) and Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs) areimportant means to track funds and scrutinize the flow of public resources in educationacross administrative layers (Engberg-Pedersen et al. 2005; Reinikka and Smith 2004; 16Savedoff 2008).

5PETS can be a useful tool for determining where leakages occur in the flow of funds, and what types of flows are more vulnerable to leakage in a particular country. There are several potential leakage points as illustrated in Tracking inflows, understanding spending, and identifying where governance failures may arise, PETS and PERs complement what PEFA evidence reveals about government-wide performance, thereby offering an important diagnostic on budget management and possible leakages. Figure 3: discrepancies between budgeted and disbursed funds; differences in outflows from one level to inflows at the subsequent level; differences between inflows and outflows within a specific level; and leakages across multiple levels in the chain of budget allocations (Savedoff 2008).FIGURE 3. OVERVIEW OF POTENTIAL LEAKAGE POINTSLevel and Recorded Information Potential LeakageAbsenteeism, TheftLevel 1BudgetedAuthorizedDisbursedLevel 2InflowOutflowLevel 3InflowOutflowFacilityInflowOutputsDiversion Policy ChangesDiversion, Theft, AdministrationDiversion Diversion Diversion, Theft, Administration

Diversion, Theft, AdministrationLevel and Recorded Information Potential LeakageAbsenteeism, TheftLevel 1BudgetedAuthorizedDisbursedLevel 2InflowOutflowLevel 3InflowOutflowFacilityInflowOutputsDiversion Policy ChangesDiversion, Theft, AdministrationDiversion Diversion Diversion, Theft, Administration Diversion, Theft, AdministrationSource: Savedoff (2008).The much cited study on Uganda by Reinikka and Svensson (2004) provides an example of extensive budget leakages; in 1995, on average, only 22 percent of capitation grants reached primary schools. The leakage of these funds was likely due to a combination of non-disbursement for bureaucratic reasons, diversion of resources to purposes other than education, and private capture by local officials and politicians.Evidence from PETS in other countries further illustrates the extent of leakages in primary education (Table 5). Certain types of funding, discretionary as opposed to rules-based, and

in-kind and cash flows, may be more susceptible to leakages. In Zambia, leakages of fixed 5For access to available PETS by country see http://go.worldbank.org/HSQUS4IS20. Also see Savedoff(2008).17school grants were estimated at 10 percent compared to 76 percent for a discretionary nonwage grant program in 2001 (Reinikka and Smith 2004).A PETS for Tanzania in 1998 showed that merely 43 percent of non-wage funding destined for primary schools reached schools with the remaining 57 percent going to noneducation sectors and private capture. Similarly, a PETS for Ghana found that in 2001 only 51 percent of grants made it to end-users. The 49 percent that did not reach schools were seemingly lost between line ministries and districts at the point at which public funds were converted into in-kind transfers (Reinikka and Smith 2004).TABLE 5: BUDGET LEAKAGES OF NON-WAGE FUNDS IN PRIMARY EDUCATION IN SELECTED COUNTRIES, 1995-2001Expenditure program Leakages (%)Uganda (1995) Per capita student capitation grant 87Zambia (2001) Discretionary non-wage grant program 76Tanzania (1998) Non-wage spending in (multiple programs) 57Ghana (1998) Non-wage spending in (multiple programs) 49Papua New Guinea (2001) School fee subsidy 16-29Zambia (2001) Fixed school grant 10Source: Instituto Apoyo and World Bank (2002); Reinikka and Smith (2004); World Bank (2004a).Most education PERs address governance and performance problems, explicitly or implicitly, and contain information on performance and potential solutions to identified governance weaknesses and performance challenges.A PER for Sierra Leone describes a stark case of leakages but also hints at a possible solution. Schools receive a per student fee subsidy each term but there were serious

problems in ensuring that the subsidies actually reached schools. Two different methods were used to transfer the subsidy to schools. The first allocated the subsidy to the Education Secretaries and to the District Education Offices, for onward transfer to schools. The second used a third-party, KPMG, to distribute the subsidy directly to the schools (World Bank 2004b).The first method led to substantial leakages with merely 45 percent of the funds disbursed centrally, and 28 percent of teaching materials, reaching schools during the last two terms of the school year 2001-2002 (Transparency International 2004). When funds were instead transferred via KPMG during the first term of 2002-2003, 78.8 percent of funds disbursed centrally reached schools, and 98.6 percent of the funds actually transferred to KPMG reached schools, and about 70 percent of teaching materials (World Bank 2004b; Transparency International 2004). A 10 percent service charge was paid to KPMG, and some transportation costs were incurred, thus the loss between central disbursement and KPMG was no more than 10 percent (Sewell 2004).The difference in the amount of the subsidy received under the two delivery methods is stark. However, some anecdotal evidence suggests that now leakages occur after schools receive funds, rather than en route (World Bank 2004b). This underlines the importance of 18having effective incentives, accurate and up-to-date financial information, and accountability mechanisms at all levels of the education system so as not to shift leakages from one level to another.Payroll irregularitiesTeachers listed on payroll and being paid but who no longer, or never, worked at a school

are manifested as payroll irregularities, and are made possible by the absence of accurate and updated employee records, functioning information systems, payroll controls, and internal and external controls (e.g. payroll audits). The flipside is not uncommon, where teachers who are on the payroll do not receive their wages (or receive them with great delay).Multiple reasons account for the discrepancy between employee records, actual numbers of teachers employed, and teachers listed on payroll. Lists of public sector teachers are sometimes kept by multiple agencies (e.g. the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and schools) and are often infrequently updated. Where teachers have left, died, or retired, and those separations are not recorded there is a disconnect between official records and actual teacher numbers. Such problems may be the result of administrative error or fraud, and suggest the need for efforts to strengthen both personnel and budget management, and accountability. Poor scores on the PEFA indicator effectiveness of payroll controls (Table 4) may imply the existence of ghost teachers on payroll.Some of the estimates of the prevalence of ghost workers that are available come from Uganda, Honduras, and Papua New Guinea. Ghost workers were estimated to account for approximately 20 percent of primary teachers in Uganda in 1995, by 2005/06 this share had declined to 4 percent (World Bank 2007c). In Honduras, 2.9 percent of education staff and 4.6 percent of primary school teachers did not exist in surveys from 2000 (Dehn, Reinikka, and Svensson 2003).In Papua New Guinea, there was notable discrepancy between the number of teachers on

payroll and those on school rosters for a sample of 205 schools surveyed. Figure 4 shows how the different gross and net rates were computed. The total number of teachers listed on payroll was 5,982, out of these 1,534 teachers were on the surveyed PESD schools’ roster and also on the payroll; 346 teachers were on payroll but not on any of the surveyed schools’ roster, a gross ghost teacher rate of 15 percent.19FIGURE 4. GHOST TEACHERS IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA, 2002Source: World Bank (2004a).Another area in which poor governance often results in resource leakages and corruption is public procurement. This is due to the uniqueness of the public procurement process in that (1) private sector participants who are stakeholders in the outcome of the process directly participate; (2) large, discrete amounts of public expenditure are involved; and (3) it entails significant discretion on part of public officials (PEFA Secretariat 2005). When governance is weak, manifested by the lack of a clearly regulated procurement process; little or no accountability; weak incentives for public officials involved in the process to ensure an efficient and fair process; and inadequate oversight and controls, the opportunity for inefficiencies and corruption is exacerbated (Ware et al. 2007).In the education sector, poor governance provides opportunities for leakages and other irregularities in procurement for the construction and maintenance of school buildings, the purchase and distribution of textbooks, the acquisition of school supplies, and the delivery of school meals. For example, in the Philippines, a 1998 audit found that the Department of Education had bought US$320,000 worth of textbooks that were overpriced by bidders, not fit for use, or simply not delivered (Leung 2005; OECD 2006). A combination of

factors, including non-transparent procurement rules, inadequate controls, and the inability to effectively hold public officials with significant discretion over procurement decisions accountable, led to the collapse of public sector performance.20Potential solutionsBetween inputs and outputs, and between outputs and outcomes, are the institutional and public sector actions that define performance. The budget and resource management solutions aimed at improving governance and thereby education sector performance listed below vary in scope and design but all share common elements: the need to put in place effective incentives, increase oversight, and introduce accountability. Performance based budgetingOne potential way to address poor governance in public financial management is performance based budgeting, which links allocated funds to measurable outputs or outcomes to improve resource allocation and resource-use efficiency to enhance the quality of public expenditures and, ultimately, public service provision (OECD 2007; World Bank 2008). Two main characteristics set performance-based budgeting apart from traditional budgeting systems: “the greater focus on the achievement of public program objectives and their alignment with government policies” and “an emphasis on holding senior officials accountable for deliverables – often with an accompanying change in the nature of expenditure controls, away from detailed ‘line item’ input controls to one where managers are held accountable for both results and the use of inputs” (World Bank 2008: 6). Only some qualitative evidence on the effectiveness of overall performance-based budgeting in improving performance exists for developing and transition countries, and evidence for the

education sector in particular is lacking.Increasing internal transparency: information and its systematic applicationInternal transparency, which ensures that information and data are recorded accurately and on a regular basis, and are available to decision makers on demand, is a vital component of good governance in budget and resource management. When internal transparency is strong, monitoring of management is more effective and detection of irregularities in the budget process easier. To strengthen internal transparency typically requires the creation of effective information management systems, training of staff in their application and use, and, crucially, the introduction of incentives for accurate reporting of data and their use.The importance of getting incentives right is illustrated by the Sierra Leone example. Comparing EMIS data on student enrollment with those from two other sources and from random checks it became apparent that some districts were significantly over-reporting their student numbers as school principals had strong incentives to over-report but no incentives to report accurately (Hamminger 2008).Improving internal controls: oversight, audits, and simplification Management control and oversight are necessary to implement financial and budget rules, establish civil servant accountability, and improve performance. Audits can detect a range of financial irregularities and provide information on means to rectify problems when incentives to follow up and respond to audit findings are in place. To help minimize the time and cost of audits, education and finance ministries can undertake record simplification and procedural streamlining. Improved oversight, follow-through on recommendations, and institutionalization of audit procedures can promote progress in

these areas.21Strengthening external accountability mechanisms: parental and community involvementImproved access to information on education budget allocations and disbursements for stakeholders (e.g. parents and civil society) can complement initiatives such as those mentioned above. This is particularly relevant to primary education (whereas at tertiary level there is less potential for influencing policy or its execution). These measures have been shown effective in Uganda where a campaign publishing monthly inter-governmental transfers of education funds in the main newspapers and posting details of primary education funds transfers on notice boards in schools and district centers provided parents with information, which enabled them to hold local officials and providers accountable for funds transfers (Reinikka and Svensson 2005). Still, this type of action arguably only works when parents and communities have the ability and means to discipline providers if they perform poorly, and also tend to depend on the education and income levels of parents. More evidence is needed to determine how and when access to information can help strengthen external accountability.Payroll cleanup and managementRegular updating of employee lists and payroll commitments is a basic management tool and is a high priority for education systems, which have large numbers of employees. While politically difficult and not inexpensive, accurate, up-to-date employee records are a critical starting point for improving staff management and reducing payroll irregularities. Physical verification where teams visit points of pay and verify that teachers on payroll

exist and are being paid the correct salary can be carried out. A less costly method is to have auditors carry out spot checks at schools to verify that teachers on payroll exist. Uganda has undertaken several payroll cleanups and has seen a decline in the share of ghost teachers from roughly 20 percent in 1993 to 4 percent in 2005/06 (World Bank 2007c). However, it is not possible to determine how large a share of this decline is attributable to payroll cleanups although they have likely contributed.Tracking the flow of fundsPERs and PETs in the education sector can provide information on where budget leakages take place during the flow of funds. Quantitative Service Delivery Surveys (QSDS) provide a useful complement since they track services instead of flows of funds, providing further information on areas that are prone to leakage. Once the main governance weaknesses contributing to leakages have been identified priority actions can be outlined. For instance, education PETS for Tanzania and Uganda served to determine at which administrative level of the education system leakages were most likely to occur (locallevel) and a Zambia PETS addressed what type of funding, rules-based or discretionary was more vulnerable to leakages (discretionary funding) (Savedoff 2008).22Outsourcing disbursement of funds to independent third-partyContracting out disbursements to an independent third-party can substitute or complement government efforts, and are particularly useful in fragile states with little existing capacity to ensure that public funds reach their destination. In general, contracting out should be a temporary strategy until public financial management systems have been sufficiently strengthened (see Sierra Leone example in Budget Leakages section).Making it easier for end-users to access goods and funds

Facilitating the receipt of education funds by making disbursement directly to front-line providers may help ensure that schools receive funds if check and balances are in place to avoid frontline providers capturing public funds (instead of officials at higher levels in the education system). In Kenya, a primary education project arranged to have textbook grants transferred directly to primary school bank accounts. School Committees could then purchase books locally (World Bank 2003). Recent INT audits showed virtually no leakages.Introducing (and enforcing) clear and transparent procurement rulesEstablishing clear and transparent procurement rules including clear and objective criteria for prequalification and bidding procedures with explicit specifications to avoid hidden wires (specifications in proposed bids that are written in such a way as to benefit certain manufacturers or a single group) is crucial to assure competition and efficiency. Introducing e-procurementE-procurement allow governments to use information technology in the procurement process to create more transparent and efficient arrangements for bidding on and awarding of contracts by improving access to information, increasing efficiency, and promoting competition, ultimately lowering costs and raising the quality of purchased education goods and services. The introduction of e-procurement (for all sectors) has been highly successful in reducing costs and corruption in several countries including the Republic of Korea, Mexico, and Chile (Ware et al. 2007).External monitoring of procurement: engaging stakeholdersIn countries where central governments do not have the resources or capacity to monitor

each local school district to check if supplies reach schools, participation of civil society and community volunteers in monitoring the procurement process can improve the procurement and delivery of school supplies. These volunteers can also serve as checks ongovernment officials and agencies engaged in the procurement process. One example is the national textbook delivery program, Textbook Count 1-2-3, in the Philippines started in 2003 to address corruption in textbook procurement (Leung 2005; OECD 2006). The program ensured that the tendering process selected the best qualified suppliers relied on volunteers from the Scouts, the National Movement for Free Elections, church-based and other local groups to monitor, and in some cases physically deliver textbooks to schools. The program succeeded in decreasing the cost of each textbook by roughly 50 percent and in providing nearly all schools with timely supplies of textbooks (Department of Education 2007).23Acting on findings of corrupt behaviorRandom forensic audits in which auditors select specific procurement projects and scrutinize actual submitted invoices, check on the quality and quantity of contracted supplies, investigate whether a contractor actually exists and so on, can help government detect irregularities and deter firms from inappropriate behavior. If audits detect corruption but the prospects of being disciplined are small or non-existent, corrupt officials and firms will not be deterred from further corrupt behavior. The stringency of sanctions for procurement fraud varies substantially across countries, from dismissal to prison in Hong Kong to virtually none in Bangladesh (ADB/OECD 2006). For effective sanctioning, a

complaints system staffed by independent investigators with the authority to scrutinize contracts is necessary, and when corruption is discovered, publication of sanctions can serve to deter other firms and officials from wrongdoing. Establishing voluntary disclosure programsThe creation of voluntary disclosure programs that allows contractors to report on corruption in exchange for immunity or milder sanctions and do not prohibit reporting firms from participating in bidding on future contracts, can help reduce procurement corruption. Several countries already have some version of such programs, e.g. Argentina, Brazil, and Pakistan, and so far there has been some success in discouraging procurement irregularities (Ware et al. 2007).4. Performance of Human ResourcesTeachers represent one of the largest groups of civil servants, and as a result, the educationsector claims a substantial fraction of national budgets. Because education is labor intensive, human resource management and the performance of teachers largely define the scope and performance of education service delivery. How public sector teachers are recruited, deployed, monitored, and perform is governed by underlying education system incentives and lines of accountability. Hard evidence on these topics is scarce; most of the available measures of teacher performance are negative and include indicators such as absenteeism and reliance on bribery or personal contacts to obtain jobs and promotions. This section outlines the main governance issues and potential performance indicators, and examines existing evidence and possible solutions to the persistent challenges facing human resource management in education.

Designing recruitment and assignment to improve performanceCivil service regulations and recruitment systems are intended to ensure a professional, politically neutral workforce with appointment and promotion based on transparent civil service regulations and pay scales. With those advantages can come disincentives for performance including compression of pay differentials that make rewards minimal, promotion based on seniority rather than performance, lack of mechanisms to monitor effort, and limited or no freedom of managers to reward and discipline staff. Civil service 24reforms can address some of these limitations but pose political and operational difficulties.Teacher performance can be enhanced through policies that promote the recruitment, hiring, transfer, and assignment of adequately trained staff; appropriate performanceincentives; and effective accountability mechanisms. While it is relatively simple to outline the processes, implementation is complex. Without consideration of these components human resource management becomes susceptible to some combination of political manipulation, mismanagement, nepotism/favoritism, and fraud, which tend to compromise performance. A modified version of the teacher education and development framework designed by the US Educational Testing Service (ETS) summarizing how high-performing country systemsscreen for high-quality teachers is shown in Table 6. These systems include the following components: standards for entrance into and exit from teacher education programs, certification requirements, and minimum academic qualifications (Wang et al. 2003).6

TABLE 6. POTENTIAL CONTROLS FOR TEACHER TRAINING AND HIRINGIntensity of controlsEntry to teacher educationExit from teacher educationTeacher certification HiringHigh Must exceed threshold levels on subject area examinations, advanced level national examinations or university entrance examinations.Systemwide exit examinations in subject areas and on other topics.Systemwide examinations.Pass of national examination with high score required; additional tests required locally.Medium Must exceed threshold levels on school exit examinations or national examinations.Institutional examinations in subject area and on other topics.Some evaluation of teaching is required and is reviewed by statutory authorities.Decision is made by

state authorities or national ministry with set thresholds for passage required on multiple criteria.Low Must pass a basic skills test.Degree requirements, perhaps plus a basic skills test.Degree requirements only.Up to individual school.Source: Adapted from Wang et al. (2003).Note: Criteria can be high-standard where candidates are required to satisfy a certain criterion to continue. A mediumstandard criterion is one that a candidate has to satisfy but, which is easier to satisfy than other regulations. A low-standard criterion is a minimum or voluntary requirement.These components are useful for controlling the quality of the flow of teachers into and out of teacher education systems, and into public sector jobs. The existence and application of controls can help avoid or reduce irregularities such as favoritism and nepotism in hiring and sale of teaching posts (e.g. hiring based on national test scores), and bribery (e.g. certification based on systemwide examinations). Clearly, the number of controls, their 6High-performing countries are those whose eight-graders performed as well or better than American students on mathematics or science in TIMMS 1999; these countries were Australia, England, Japan, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands and Singapore.25design, intensity, and where along the teacher education pipeline they are implemented will vary across countries depending on country circumstances (Table 6).

Hiring and assignment: discouraging favoritism, nepotism, and purchasing of posts Favoritism is the illegal preference given to any person while nepotism is the illegal preference given to a relative (Hallak and Poisson 2007). Favoritism and nepotism often do not involve bribes whereas purchasing of posts does. In the latter case, a teacher may, pay an official to be hired, or to get a specific position (e.g. urban rather than rural). Hiring and appointments are susceptible to both forms of corruption when the recruitment process is not transparent, rules are not made public, and there are no credible sanctions for inappropriate behavior.Teachers sometimes perceive the promotional process in their country to be nontransparent and unfair because posts are not advertised, which creates distrust in the recruitment system. In some countries, education administrators are recruited based on party affiliation, or teachers based on union membership, for example in Mexico (Hallak and Poisson 2007). Unsurprisingly, there is little systematic evidence on the incidence of favoritism and nepotism in the recruitment and appointment of teachers.Bribes sometimes play a key role in the selection process. In some countries, teaching posts can be “bought” from school committees or board members, purchasing of posts. As a consequence, teacher recruitment and selection processes hinge on the ability and willingness to pay for teaching positions rather than on competence and suitability. It may also lead to newly hired teachers requesting payoffs from students and parents to recoup what they had to pay for their position. As long as recruitment criteria are convoluted, or systematically bypassed, and there are no monitoring mechanisms in place there is a risk that less qualified teachers and

administrators will be appointed because no one is accountable for the quality of hiring,with likely adverse effects on teacher and thereby student performance.Some available perceptions-based data on the purchasing of posts suggest that this practice is quite common in some countries (Table 7). The average share of respondents who perceives job purchasing in education as common, or very common, ranges from 10 percent in Benin to 77 percent in Paraguay. In Colombia, job purchasing is perceived as more common among superiors (40 percent), than among peers and subordinates (20 percent for each) whereas in Peru the opposite is true.7 7These are perceptions so attention should mainly be paid to relative rankings rather than magnitude.Clearly, the patterns of perceived purchasing of posts are highly variable across countries.26TABLE 7: PUBLIC OFFICIALS’ REPORTS ON THE EXTENT TO WHICH EDUCATIONPERSONNEL DECISIONS ARE INFLUENCED BY ILLEGAL PAYMENTS, 2000-2006Among superiorsAmong peers Among subordinatesAverageBenin (2006) 13.9 7.4 9.0 -Colombia (2002) 40.0 20.0 20.0 -Ghana (2000) - - - 18.4Guinea (2005) - - - 26.2Paraguay (2006) - - - 77.1Peru (2001) 25.0 38.0 33.0 -Sierra Leone (2002) - - - 24.3Zambia (2003) 30.8 24.7 22.9 -Source: World Bank Governance and Anti-Corruption Diagnostic Surveys (various years).

Job purchasing in education is common or very commonReducing the scope for irregularities in teacher deployment With teacher deployment the problem is not necessarily the lack of qualified teachers, though that may also be the case, but the resistance of teachers to be assigned to remote or rural areas. Risks to health and safety, language barriers, poor living conditions, and fearsof not being able to participate in professional development programs and networking opportunities are important factors in teachers’ reluctance to transfer to faraway schools(Mulkeen, Chapman, Dejaeghere, Leu, and Bryner 2005). Consequently, there are times when teachers resort to paying bribes to avoid a posting in a remote area or secure an attractive posting (Chapman 2005).The effect of this problem is particularly evident in post-conflict societies. For instance, 40 percent of teachers in rural schools in northern Namibia are qualified compared to 92 percent in the capital Windhoek. In Uganda, two-thirds of primary school teachers in urban schools are qualified, while in rural schools only half are (Bennell and Akyeampong 2007).With bribes paid to secure appointments, and less qualified teachers deployed to remote schools, the quality of education tends to deteriorate.Teacher unions influence teacher managementTeachers’ unions serve an important role by protecting teachers’ rights, and in many countries they possess a strong bargaining position and actively lobby to affect education policy, including teacher recruitment, deployment, and transfer criteria. Sometimes teachers’ unions are directly involved in the recruitment and deployment of teachers, which can undermine public efforts to raise performance by weakening incentives and

accountability when the interests of teachers do not coincide with those of other stakeholders (such as government, parents, and students).For example, in Mexico, unions are typically given the responsibility of nominating individuals for vacant teaching posts. In half of all Mexican states teachers’ unions allocate all teachers (Álvarez, Garcia Moreno, and Patrinos 2007), and government officials merely have the power to check whether a candidate fits the basic requirements of the position 27(Hallak and Poisson 2001).8Also, in Mexico, Álvarez, Garcia Moreno, and Patrinos (2007) found that students in states with lower levels of conflict between state authorities and teachers’ unions and higher teacher wages performed better in terms of average PISA mathematics scores (This arrangement arguably reduces the competitiveness of the teacher selection process, which can result in greater accountability to unions than to the employer, parents, or students, with possible adverse effects on teacher performance.Figure 5). For instance, test scores were highest in states with low levels of conflict between state authorities and teachers’ unions and with high teacher wages, and lowest in states with high levels of state-teacher’s union conflict and high teacher wages, implying that simply paying teachers more may not affect student performance as measured by test scores. Students in states with strong accountability systems (e.g. testing, report cards, and school rankings, and the dissemination of results) performed even better.A case of teachers’ unions influencing the level at which accountability exists in the education system is the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) examined by Kingdon and

Muzammil (forthcoming).9These are but some examples of the difficulties that may arise when different stakeholders have conflicting interests. Nevertheless, accommodating and working with teachers unions to improve performance is a highly desirable, and arguably necessary, element to improve human resource management in education.In the mid-1960s school teachers’ unions lobbied to have local government schools come under state government management; in the early 1990s the UP government announced decentralization reforms including the transfer of the authority of teacher appointment for publicly aided schools from the Secondary Education Selection Board to the schools themselves, a measure strongly opposed by the unions and never realized; in 2006 teachers’ unions vehemently opposed the Model Right to Education Bill, which aims to give school management committees at each school significant powers (e.g. teacher appointments, disbursement of wages, and disciplinary action) and to introduce a school-based teacher cadre (under this system once teachers are appointed they cannot request a transfer for any reason). The Bill remains under consideration. 8In Mexico all public school teachers are unionized (Alvarez, Moreno, and Patrinos 2007).9In UP, 85 percent of all primary and secondary school teachers working in state-funded schools (government and aided) are unionized based on a survey of 570 teachers in rural primary and secondary schools in five districts in UP conducted by Kingdon and Muzammil (forthcoming). The extent of union influence is reflected in the trend or real wages for teachers; between 1973 and 1996 real wages for teachers

grew at an annual rate of 5 percent compared to a real growth rate of 3 percent per year of GDP per capita.28FIGURE 5: PISA MATHEMATICS SCORES AND LEVEL OF TEACHER WAGES AND INTENSITY OF TEACHERS’ UNION-STATE AUTHORITY CONFLICT IN MEXICO383391410382385377351346300320340360380400420Low-Low Low-Medium Low-High Medium-Low MediumMediumMediumHighHighMediumHigh-HighStatus of level of state authority-teacher's union conflict and teacher wagesPISA mathematics scoreSource: Álvarez, Moreno, and Patrinos (2007).Using information to introduce accountabilityThe effective management of human resources in the education sector is not only dependent on clear standards and regulations, appropriate incentives, and effective accountability mechanisms but also on the availability of and access to accurate and up-todate information about staff and school needs. This information is critical to monitor teacher assignments and performance although the decision on what information should be used to measure personnel and school needs, and the subsequent collection of that

information, is a challenge. A study of teacher management information systems in Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, and Uganda examined the personnel data collected, processed, and available at nationwide level (Göttelman-Duret and Hogan 1998). In Uganda, a computerized management information system made it possible for the government to identify 25,000 ghost teachers. In Botswana, the information system allowed the government to accurately monitor the number of teachers employed and the salary each received. South Africa was able to improve its personnel and financial management by using an electronic Personnel and Salary system.Despite the successes, these information systems suffered from problems, especially in terms of the capacity to maintain and further develop the systems. Creation of databases and computerized systems is the first step; making sure that the information stored is 29accurate and up-to-date is another, more challenging step. In the case of these countries, collection of information was annual, and data were only processed and disseminated one year after they were entered into the system thereby severely reducing their usefulness in terms of policy and monitoring, and making it difficult to hold officials, schools, and teachers accountable for performance. Other weaknesses that are common in many countries include: incomplete data; difficulty updating individual records due to lack of monitoring mechanisms; no collection of data on teacher turnover and transfers; lack of uniformity in measures used; and absence of adequate databases and records at the provincial or district levels (Göttelman-Duret and

Hogan 1998). In addition, when capitation grants are tied to the number of studentsenrolled, local officials and principals have an incentive to report exaggerated enrollment numbers in order to receive more funding (World Bank 2007c).BOX 2. INFORMATION AND INCENTIVES FOR PERFORMANCE IN PUNJAB, PAKISTANThe Punjab Education Sector Reform Program (PESRP) is an interesting example of a program to promote good governance in education to improve school performance through information gathering and oversight, incentives linking school rewards to performance, and accountability through competition.The PESRP program has helped decentralize the highly centralized, province-levelDepartment of School Education, responsible for service delivery in over 63,000 schools with more than 500,000 employees. Teacher recruitment, performance management, and even minor disciplinary issues were all centralized at the provincial level. The absence of incentives and accountability in this highly centralized system undermined the quality of service delivery (World Bank 2004d). One of the components of the PESRP program aims to improve education governance by strengthening teacher management, school councils, and monitoring and evaluation. To improve teacher management the program is “(i) changing the terms of contracts with new teachers from standard civil service recruitment to site-specific, fixed-term contracts, with almost 20% of the teaching staff already recruited through such contracts; and (ii) introducing district monitoring mechanisms to curb absenteeism and monitor local schools. Transparency in teacher recruitment, postings and transfers is being enhanced through (i)

new merit-based recruitment criteria, based on a point system, which favors recruiting women and local candidates; and (ii) temporarily freezing transfers of education management staff, during the first year, to provide continuity” (World Bank 2004d: p. 17).The provincial and district governments have undertaken several measures to empower school councils including “(i) an agreement on the role of School Councils included in the [terms of partnership] (TOPs); (ii) the issuance of guidelines by the provincial government clarifying the role of [school councils], including their authority to undertake small procurement of works; and (iii) contracting NGOs for provision of capacity support to school [councils] in six districts during the first year” (World Bank 2004d: p. 18). Building upon this pilot, the Government is expanding the capacity building program to strengthen school council capability across all 35 districts.Finally, to build monitoring capacity the Government of Punjab has “(a) developed district education profiles and established baseline indicators of education performance for the 30reform program; (b) agreed on monitoring targets with the districts and included them in the TOPs; (c) established a Program Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) in the Provincial Education Department; and (c) approved an education awareness campaign for disseminating information about the reform program” (World Bank 2004d: p. 18).As part of the effort to strengthen monitoring each school (a total of 63,000) receives an unannounced monthly visit by an inspector from the independent monitoring unit, and the data collected on school performance are matched with school information systems and

cross-checked with implementation systems. The information is then reviewed at district level and aggregated at the provincial level to enable monthly performance assessments.The performance evaluation index currently consists of twelve components: teacher absenteeism, transfer of funds to school councils, free textbook provision, enrollmentattendance gap, non-teaching staff absenteeism, school inspections by District Education Department staff, meetings of the District Review Committee, illegal fees, school cleanliness, missing facilities schemes progress, school utilities functionality, and teacher training (Shakil 2008). The index components are revised periodically to reflect the requirements for monitoring of various aspects of the sector.The frequent monitoring of school performance has enabled the introduction of incentives in the form of awards to the best performing district managers for school investments, but there are no sanctions for poor performance, the accountability element is partial. The information on performance in each district is disseminated to all other districts introducing an element of competition among education managers. However, the information is not disseminated to the public, doing that in the future could help introduce the basis for external accountability where community and parental groups pressure for better performance. Figure 6 shows the index for the five best and worst performing Punjab districts in November and December of 2007.31FIGURE 6. VARIATION IN SCHOOL PERFORMANCE IN PUNJAB, NOV-DEC 2007Five best performers0102030

405060708090Lahore Lodhran Rawalpindi Sahiwal JhelumNov-07 Dec-07Five worst performers01020304050607080Gujranwala Khanewal Layyah Attock D.G.KhanNov-07 Dec-07Source: Shakil (2008) based on data provided by the Department of Education, Punjab, Pakistan.A successful example of using student performance on achievement tests to oversee school performance comes from Mexico. States that implement their own student assessments in addition to international PISA assessments disseminate results to the schools and the public; engage with schools on their test performance to find ways to raise scores; and design strategies and policies for improving education in the state based on that information have students performing significantly better on both PISA mathematics and reading tests (Álvarez, Garcia Moreno, and Patrinos 2007). The competition, external scrutiny, and engagement on policy and program issues of specific schools offer a form of school accountability to state education officials. It also improves transparency and

oversight, which together help to promote better performance. Effectively the 32accountability arises through the increased transparency and involvement of the community (despite the lack of sanctions).To make information systems work it is not sufficient to put new systems in place but also to introduce incentives at each level, whether at local government or school level, to collect, accurately report, and actually use the available information. Once accurate data are available on a regular basis, sustained monitoring and periodic third-party validation are typically required; the resulting information can then be used to introduce incentives and hold providers accountable and, ultimately, improve teacher and school performance.BOX 3. DOES SCHOOL-BASED MANAGEMENT IMPROVE INCENTIVES, OVERSIGHT, AND ACCOUNTABILITY, AND ULTIMATELY, PERFORMANCE?The last few years there has been a surge in decentralization and thereby a delegation of decision-making power from central government to the community and school levels in many countries with the objective of increasing the effectiveness and responsiveness of resource allocations and to improve performance. Because decision-makers at the central level may be too far removed from schools to ensure that spending is appropriately targeted and managed, decentralization is seen as a way of bringing decisionmaking to the local level where officials, in theory at least, have better information on school resource needs, and face greater pressure from communities to effectively deliver education services (assuming there is local voting) (Wößman 2003; World Bank 2007a).To evaluate the impact of school-based management on education performance and

outcomes it is important to be clear about which decisions (human resources, supplies, finances) are decentralized, and to whom (school officials, parents, teachers), since different combinations of decisions transferred, and to different parties, can produce different outcomes (De Grauwe 2005). Moreover, de jure decentralization does not always translate into de facto decentralization. Finally, the circumstances under which schoolbased management is introduced matters.In Madagascar there was concerted effort to decentralize to the level of the community and to allow parents to make decisions, however, teachers’ promotions and service location were determined centrally (Brinkerhoff and Keener 2003) and accountability remained centralized and parents’ authority was dissipated.Some studies report a positive effect of school-based management on student attendance and performance. In post-conflict El Salvador, student attendance was higher in the EDUCO schools managed by local parent committees than in regular schools, and standardized test scores were similar to those in regular schools despite students coming, on average, from more disadvantaged backgrounds (Jimenez and Sawada 2000).Students in schools with greater autonomy in Nicaragua had higher test scores than students in non-autonomous schools (King and Özler 2001). This effect seemingly worked through schools’ authority over teacher staffing, monitoring, and evaluation, suggesting that school autonomy contributed to improved student performance through its impact on teacher quality.A study on Brazil used panel data at state level for the period 1981–1993 to estimate the impact of school autonomy in the form of transfer of funds to schools; election of school 33

principals; and the setting up of school councils, and found that school autonomy reduced drop-out rates and repetition rates (Pães de Barros, Ricardo, and Mendonça 1998).Another study assessed the impact of Mexico’s Quality Schools Program (PEC) program, a voluntary, urban-based program open to all public schools and found that school-based management reduced repetition, drop-out and failure rates (Skoufias and Shapiro 2006).Gertler, Patrinos, and Rubio-Codina (2006) assessed the impact the Support to School Management (AGE) program in Mexico, which consisted of financial support and training to parents associations at rural primary schools in deeply disadvantaged regions. The schools received AGE over the period 1998-2001 with the objective of increasing the influence of parents, teachers, and principals over how the schools were run. The main impacts of AGE was a significant reduction in grade failure and in repetition rates. However, there was no statistically significant impact on student drop-out rates.Another study on the effect of a school-based management program, PROHECO,10An important issue to consider when assessing the impact of school-based management is the potential difference between de jure and de facto school autonomy. Even if power is transferred to “all” schools, some schools will find it easier to use their new powers than others, which will be reflected in any evaluation results. That is, the results will not cleanlycapture the impact of school-based management itself but also the effect of some schools being better able to use their new powers (Gunnarsson et al. 2006).in

Honduras, found a direct positive impact on teacher behavior, which in turn improved student learning outcomes as measured by student test scores (Di Gropello and Marshall 2005).Gunnarsson et al. (2006) found that parental participation and school supplies have statistically significant and positive effects on 4th grade test performance, whereas school autonomy had no impact. They argued that SBM works when communities have the necessary capacity and will to manage schools, but fails when communities lack the required skills, authority, and information.Available evidence suggests that school-based management at the primary level in some cases increases attendance and reduces drop-out, repetition, and failure rates. However, the evidence on the impact on student test scores is less encouraging. Overall, the research on primary level school-based management suggests that it is effective if parents have authority over funds and/or teachers, which allows them to hold providers accountable (Lewis 2004). Why and how often are teachers absent?Teacher performance directly depends on teachers being present during contracted hours,yet absenteeism a chronic problem in many education systems in developing and transition countries, is often unmeasured, and sometimes completely overlooked (Lewis 2006). When it is widespread, it can severely limit access to and quality of education, and when absences are unauthorized it constitutes fraud. Here, teacher absenteeism is defined as unauthorized absences by teachers during contracted hours. 10PROHECO stands for Proyecto Hondureño de Educación Comunitaria.34

Unauthorized absenteeism, teachers failing to show up for work, arriving late and leaving early, constitute a major drag on education resources and have a direct negative impact on student performance (Wößman 2003; Suryadarma et al. 2006). One estimate puts the direct financial cost of teacher absenteeism at 10-24 percent of recurrent primary education expenditures (Patrinos and Kagia 2007). Estimated financial losses range from US$16 million in Ecuador (0.05 percent of GDP) to US$59 million in Uganda (0.86 percent of GDP) to more than US$2 billion in India (0.29 percent of GDP) (Patrinos and Kagia 2007). Estimates for Uganda suggest that reducing teacher absenteeism by one-fifth would generate savings of approximately US$5.1 million (World Bank 2007c).The effect of teacher absenteeism on student learning is difficult to assess but is no doubt substantial and some evidence on this is presented below.11Low pay per se does not appear to be the reason for the high and endemic teacher absenteeism observed in developing countries. After all, private sector teachers who oftenearn notably less tend to be present at least as often, if not more frequently, than their higher earning public sector counterparts (PROBE 1999; World Bank 2007d; Kremer et al. 2005; Das, Pandey, and Zajonc 2006).Some recent evidence also suggests that parents are less likely to send their children to school when they expect high teacher absenteeism because the opportunity cost of their children’s time becomes too high (Rogers and Vegas 2009).12An important factor affecting teacher attendance is the quality of school facilities and the

availability of teaching materials. A World Bank study of teacher absenteeism in six countries showed that well-equipped schools with better infrastructure had absentee rates roughly half that of schools with poor infrastructure (Chaudhury, Hammer, Kremer, Muralidharan, and Rogers 2006). Implicitly good infrastructure provides an incentive for higher level performance. Interestingly, household evidence suggests that parents are also more likely to send their children, especially girls, to schools with better infrastructure (King and van de Walle 2007).Moreover, within schools, higher paid teachers (e.g. head teachers), on average, tend to be absent more frequently than lower paid teachers (Rogers and Vegas 2009). This points to two other possible explanations for absenteeism: the absence of performance-based incentives and the inability to hold teachers accountable for their attendance and performance. Yet, existing evidence (see below) suggests that performance-based incentives on their own do not work well but teacher accountability is also required.The extent of the problem of absent teachers is highlighted by the World Bank study of Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, and Uganda, which used surprise visits to a random sample of schools, and recorded an average absentee rate of 19 percent for primary school teachers (Chaudhury et al. 2006). Teacher absenteeism in an additional set of countries, for which relatively recent data are available, ranges from 11 percent in Peru and 14 percent in Honduras to 30 percent in Senegal (Table 8) (Benavot and Gad 2004; Chaudhury et al. 2006; Reinikka and Smith 2003). These data are based on direct

11Indirect costs stem from the opportunity cost of students’ time and the potential loss of human capital due to missed instruction. While estimates of these indirect costs do not currently exist, they are arguably large.12In a study of Pakistan, private school teachers were found to be absent 1.8 days per month compared to 3.2 days for public school teachers (Das, Pandey, and Zajonc 2006). Wages of public sector teachers in Uganda are 60 percent higher than those of private sector teachers (World Bank 2007c).35observation, which is important given the frequent discrepancy between reported (e.g. records kept by headmasters) and observed absentee rates (Rogers and Vegas 2009).TABLE 8. PRIMARY TEACHER ABSENTEEISM SELECTED COUNTRIES, 2001-2004Absentee rate (percent)Bangladesh (2002) 16Ecuador (2002/03) 16Ghana (2003) 19Honduras (2001) 14India (2002/03) 25Indonesia (2002/03) 19Papua New Guinea (2002) 15Peru (2002/03) 11Senegal (2004) 30Uganda (2002/03) 27Zambia (2002) 17Unweighted average 19Sources: Benavot and Gad 2004; Chaudhury et al. 2006; and Reinikka and Smith 2003.More detailed evidence on absenteeism provides additional insight. The average absentee rate for primary teachers in Honduras is 14 percent (Table 9). Further indicating the extent of the problem, 40 percent of teachers are absent one month or more each year; teachers

even self-report that they work 30 hours a week instead of the stipulated 37 hours (World Bank 2005a). Part of the problem is that absenteeism is frequently not considered a serious problem by school officials. In the 2000 school census only 7 percent of surveyed school principals in Honduras considered absenteeism a problem; the subsequent lack of sanctions for failing to show up for work is therefore unsurprising (World Bank 2007b).TABLE 9. TEACHER ABSENTEEISM IN HONDURASLength of absenceAverage annual teacher absence 16 daysTeachers with no month absent 60%Teachers with 1 month absent 26%Teachers absent 2 months or more 14%Source: World Bank (2007b).One very important aspect of absenteeism is its duration (Table 9); whether a teacher is absent for one day, or ten, or thirty likely has very different effects on student learning. A survey in Papua New Guinea found that, on average, teachers were absent 15 percent of the time, out of these absent teachers 30 percent had been absent for one day only but 25 36percent for seven days. In Honduras the average annual duration of teacher absences was even longer, 16 days (World Bank 2004a; World Bank 2007c).A nationally representative study of public primary schools in Peru, based on two separate, unannounced visits to a random sample of schools, found that teachers were absent 11 percent of the time, with absentee rates being higher in poorer and remote areas (Alcázar et al. 2006). The study examined the reasons for teacher absence and found that better infrastructure (also see Kremer et al. 2005), and a school being located in a richer community were associated with lower teacher absenteeism. Parents in richer communities

are typically more educated and thus likely better able to monitor teacher attendance and discipline teachers if they fail to show up. Teachers born and working locally, non-contract teachers, and the competition from private schools were also correlated with lower absentee rates.Oversight without any ability to hold teachers accountable seems to have little value; distance to the nearest Ministry of Education Office, or the share of schools within the province recently inspected, were not significantly correlated with teacher absenteeism in Peru, nor was Parents’ association monitoring (Alcázar et al. 2006). The likely reason is that teachers who fail to show up for work do not face any sanctions. These results suggest that under existing incentive and accountability arrangements, monitoring alone is not effective (see Box 5).The main reason for widespread teacher absenteeism is arguably the exceedingly low probability of being disciplined; an explanation consistent with the Indian teacher compensation structure described by Pritchett and Murgai (2006), see below. While punitive action for teacher absences is provided for in official regulations in many countries, in practice, disciplinary action is rare. In a recent survey of almost 3,000 Indian government-run schools with an average 25 percent teacher absentee rate, only one headmaster reported firing a teacher for repeated absence (Chaudhury et al. 2006). Data on teachers’ disciplinary records in Mozambique further suggest that sanctions for misbehavior, including absenteeism, are uncommon: in 2004 there were approximately 46,600 primary teachers but only 58 disciplinary actions were taken: 23 five-year

suspensions, 7 permanent dismissals, 20 demotions, and 8 fines (Mulkeen and Chen 2008).BOX 4. MONITORING ALONE IS NOT ENOUGHOne increasingly considered method for reducing teacher absence is monitoring, which can take several forms. (1) external monitoring where an employee in the education system is assigned the job of monitoring teachers but, which may lead teachers to bribe monitoring inspectors; (2) impersonal monitoring but this may fail to identify legitimate absences; and (3) beneficiary control where those with an interest in the delivery and quality of education services, e.g. parents, monitor teachers is a less costly option but is ineffective if parents lack the authority and means to discipline absent and/or underperforming teachers.In Kenya, external monitoring of a program, pre-primary school headmasters monitored teachers was evaluated. Teachers with good attendance were given a prize (a bicycle), if their attendance was poor the money (for the bicycle) remained with the school (Banerjee and Duflo 2006). Kremer and Chen (2001) found that prizes were given to all teachers because all were recorded present an adequate number of times. Surprise visits to the 37schools showed equally high absentee levels in treatment and control schools. Headmasters had simply marked teachers as present, either to avoid confrontation, or because they felt that the teachers “deserved” the prize. This particular experience suggests that in education systems with weak governance structures characterized by little or no accountability, incentives may not work as intended.In Udaipur district, India, Seva Mandir, a non-governmental organization, introduced impersonal monitoring to deal with teacher absenteeism (Duflo, Hanna, and Ryan 2007).

Schools were randomly selected to receive a camera with tamper-proof data and time function with instructions for teachers to take a picture of themselves and their students at the start and end of every school day.13A beneficiary monitoring program in Kenya to reduce teacher absenteeism through monitoring and transfer of certain authorities to local school committees was implemented in 36 randomly chosen schools. After 12-months the teacher absentee rates in treatment and control schools were not statistically different (Banerjee and Duflo 2006). It may be that insufficient authority was delegated to the school committees. Teachers received a financial bonus based on days attended, and paid a penalty for each day missed above the minimum number of days required attendance. During the monitoring period the absentee rate was reduced from 44 to 21 percent in the treatment schools mainly due to the financial incentive, not the monitoring (Duflo, Hanna, and Ryan 2007).By itself monitoring may not be very effective in reducing absenteeism but combined with incentives and disincentives it can generate performance improvements. As discussed below, monitoring in conjunction with other measures such as financial rewards can positively affect measurable performance including teacher attendance.A few studies attempt to evaluate the impact of teacher absenteeism on student learning outcomes. Das et al. (2005) evaluated the impact of teacher absenteeism on student learning as measured by fifth-grade test scores on English and mathematics tests using data for 182 schools in Zambia at two points in time, 2001 and 2002. Their main measure of teacher absence was head-teachers’ reports of teacher absenteeism in the 30 days before

the survey. For students whose teachers were absent 10 percent of the time compared to students whose teachers were not absent, there was a sharp decline in learning as measured by standardized test scores. But the reduction in learning when the absentee rate rose from 10 percent to above 10 percent was smaller, implying a potentially non-linear effect of teacher absenteeism on student learning. For the sub-sample of students who were taught by the same teacher during the two years in which they were tested, a 5-percent increase in their teacher’s absentee rate decreased their learning by approximately 4 percent of the average learning gains during the two years.14Suryadarma et al. (2006) also examined the relationship between teacher absenteeism and student learning using a nationally representative sample of students in Indonesia. They used data on public primary school teacher absenteeism obtained from direct observations, 13A valid day is one in which the start and end of the day photos are separated by at minimum of five hours, and a minimum number of children are shown in both photos.14For the sub-sample of students who were not taught by the same teacher over the two years there was no statistically significant relationship between teacher absenteeism and student learning.38and fourth-grade students’ scores on mathematics and dictation tests in 2002 and 2003. The tests were administered by the researchers making it impossible to tamper with the test results. In addition, the tests were not announced in advance, thereby avoiding the problem of teaching to the test. Suryadarma et al. (2006) found that higher teacher absenteeism

(average teacher absentee rate for each school), and a larger share of permanent teachers were both associated with lower test scores in mathematics but not in dictation. This suggests that the loss of instructional time due to absent teachers translates into lower student learning, and that teachers who feel more secure in their job may feel that they do not need to exert extra effort as there are no personal costs for poor performance.Motivating teachers to raise their performance Teacher performance matters for student performance; the evidence shows that students ofbetter teachers consistently achieve better learning outcomes (Hanushek 2003; Rivkin, Hanushek, and Kain 2005; Umansky 2005). Unfortunately, it is very difficult to tell the difference between good and bad teachers. Observable characteristics such as education attainment, experience, and wages are often very similar. More variable characteristics that are less easy to observe, including teacher effort, may be far more important for student performance in many contexts.Many teacher performance problems stem from weak governance systems that fail to reward good performance and discipline teachers who under-perform. For teacher performance to reach and remain at acceptable levels, effective incentive structures, oversight mechanisms, and teacher accountability are key.Financial and non-financial incentives that motivate teachers are listed in Table 10. The list is not exhaustive but indicative of the wide range of factors that influence teacher performance. For example, teachers may exert more effort if this improves their standing in the local community. A good work environment also tends to improve teacher

performance (IIEP 2006). These incentives are country-specific and should be viewed as tools to raise performance.TABLE 10. TEACHER INCENTIVES TO PERFORM, OR NOTNon-financial incentives Financial incentivesCareer development prospects Employer power to fireGood work environment Job securityIntrinsic motivation Pay levelPrestige in local community Performance payProfessional recognitionStudent/parent appreciationSource: Adapted from Vegas and Umansky (2005).Note: The ordering of incentives does not indicate importance. Work environment includes things such as number of hours worked per week, class size, availability of teaching materials, and the physical condition of classrooms/schools.The evidence on the effect of pay on teacher performance is mixed (Kingdon and Teal 2002; Vegas 2002). In a study of teacher recruitment and retention in Sub-Saharan Africa 39where teacher attrition rates are high, teachers indicated that although higher pay would encourage better performance, improvements in working conditions, better deployment systems, and more professional development opportunities, were deemed equally important in promoting job satisfaction and retention and motivating teachers (Mulkeen, Chapman, DeJaeghere, and Leung 2007).In a recent study Pritchett and Murgai (2006) document weaknesses in India’s public sector teacher compensation system: little or no ability to fire teachers; high pay relative to comparable professions; pay does not vary with performance; and the degree of overpay compared to private sector teachers and other similar professions is higher at the early stages of teachers’ careers. The lack of pay incentives combined with virtually no teacher

accountability (it is virtually impossible to get fired and even disciplinary action is rare), does nothing to encourage existing teachers to increase their effort, or invest in adapting more effective teaching methods.Another much debated teacher incentive is performance-based pay. Overall, the evidenceon performance-based pay is mixed, and some evidence indicates that it can in some cases lead to unintended and undesirable changes in teacher behavior. For example, if teacher performance is evaluated based on students’ test scores, teachers may teach to the test rather than, as intended, provide their students with lasting, widely applicable skills. Or worse, teachers may focus their attention on students most likely to improve their test scores at the expense of students at the bottom and top of the test score distribution (Umansky 2005).Glewwe, Illias, and Kremer (2003) examined how primary school teachers in Kenya changed their behavior in response to a monetary bonus received if students improved their performance on standardized tests. Their results suggested that there was no change in teacher absenteeism, the frequency of homework assignments, or in classroom practices but that there was an increase in test taking tutorials, which had a positive but short-lived impact on student test scores.Using a randomized trial in Andhra Pradesh, India to evaluate the impact of bonus payments, both individual (teacher) and group (school) based, Muralidharan and Sundararaman (2008) found that bonus payments (3% of teacher pay) significantly improved student performance.15

15The sample consisted of a representative sample of 300 rural, government schools with 100 schools in each treatment (individual- and group-based) school and 100 schools in the control group (Muralidharan and Sundararaman 2008).The bonus payments were based on students’ average improvement on independently administered tests and at the end of the two-year program test scores for students in program schools was 0.28 standard deviations higher in mathematics and 0.16 standard deviations higher in languages compared to test scores for students in control schools. The improved student performance was seemingly the result of genuine learning since the students performed better on both mechanical (meant to capture rote learning) and conceptual (meant to capture deeper learning) tests. The students in schools participating in the incentive program also performed better on tests in subjects not part of the program, implying positive spillovers from the program. During the first year of the program schools with individual- and group-based incentives performed equally well, 40however, in the second year, the schools with individual-based incentives performed markedly better, perhaps because it is typically easier to monitor and hold an individual teacher accountable for performance than a group of teachers.Potential solutionsRaising teacher performance requires the introduction of effective incentives, means to assess or audit performance, and accountability mechanisms. How to do this in practice remains a challenge but some initiatives have shown promise. A review study by IIEP (2006) suggests that financial incentives matter but have to be accompanied by some

combination of accountability mechanisms and/or non-financial incentives such as training opportunities, a good work environment, and availability of resources as discussed above.Making regulations clear and transparentThe quality of public school teachers partly depends on the type and number of regulations that are in place (when enforced). Adoption of context-based regulations can help improve performance by addressing the specific needs of any given education system, i.e. if more attention is given to one aspect, for example, teacher education, certification, or recruitment (Table 6) over another, based on which contributes the most to inefficiencies in the sector. However, clear and transparent regulations are only a first, necessary but not sufficient step to improve teacher quality. Without appropriate incentive structures and accountability mechanisms, regulations become irrelevant. For example, India has a good track record in recruiting and hiring qualified teacher but coupled with weak incentives and virtually no accountability, teacher performance remains relatively poor (Pritchett and Murgai 2006).Transparent recruitment and promotion systemsTeacher knowledge and awareness of how the recruitment and promotion processes workare vital to attract strong candidates. At the basic level, advertising of higher posts to teachers already in the system contributes to the perception that the hiring and promotion process is fair and transparent. Hiring and promotion by selection committees is preferable to the actions of a single administrator, and decisions of the selection body are more credible if they are open to questioning and clarification. Participation of communities and

parents in the selection committee, either as voting members or simply as observers, offers transparency and fairness in the recruitment and promotion process.Innovative hiring mechanisms and incentives for remote postsTo ensure the distribution of experienced teachers to rural and remote areas incentives for relocation must be sufficiently attractive and transfer systems transparent. Education reform in the city of Bogota, Colombia introduced a more transparent system for transferring teachers. Under the new deployment procedures, transfers were only to takeplace at the end of the school year, all transfer requests were centralized, and software that incorporated relevant criteria to assess school needs and teacher characteristics, was introduced in order to increase transparency (Hallak and Poisson 2007). Given the resistance of teachers it took several years before all transfers were made under the new system. A comprehensive benefits package (housing, insurance, hardship allowances, 41family relocation, and opportunities for continuing education and training) and/or rotations with defined service periods can also serve to make remote and rural areas more attractive (or at least more acceptable) to qualified teachers. Another, potentially complementary strategy is to hire local teachers under the presumption that people with roots in the area will be more willing to return and remain in the area. Some evidence from Punjab, Pakistan, suggests that female teachers who live in the community in which the school they work at is located have lower absentee rates (Ghuman and Lloyd 2007).Leveraging information to improve provider performanceCollecting and managing education data accurately and in a timely fashion at all levels of the education system allows service providers, whether local government, school official,

headmasters, and teachers, to be held accountable for their performance (if the relevant stakeholders have the means to impose sanctions). But incentives are needed for the agencies at all levels of the education system to record data since unless data collection and use are required and enforced, data collection tends to become erratic or even stop.Combining monitoring with incentivesMonitoring attendance is necessary but not sufficient for discouraging teacher absenteeism. Offering financial (e.g. financial bonuses and penalties), and non-financial incentives (e.g. a good work environment or professional recognition) for regular attendance combined with accountability measures (real probability of being transferred, demoted, or otherwise disciplined) can help address persistent absences (see Box 5).Performance pay combined with accountabilityWell-designed financial incentives based on performance have the potential to improve teaching quality if teacher performance, on which rewards and penalties are based, can be measured accurately, and if combined with accountability. The major challenge is implementing such schemes on a large scale and following through on accountability. In India, performance pay for private sector teachers is associated with better student performance but this is not the case for public sector teachers (Kingdon and Teal 2002). This implies that there is some factor in the private sector that elicits a response to performance pay that does not exist in the public sector. It may be that the accountability(possibility of being fired or demoted) in the private sector makes the performance payincentive effective, which may also allow the private sector to set wage levels below those of the public sector.

School-based teacher managementSchool-based teacher management can increase accountability at the primary school level by making the teacher selection process transparent and merit-based and by giving school councils authority to hire and fire teachers (and administrators). However, school-based management does not tend to work unless local school councils have the authority to hold teachers and schools accountable for their performance by rewarding or penalizing teachers according to their performance. It is a largely primary school strategy, not easily applicable at higher levels of education where parents are typically less involved (see Box 4).42Introducing standardized examinationsStandardized examinations can help raise and maintain education standards at all levels of the education system, inform resource allocation decisions, and assign accountability for student performance by comparing student performance to national and/or international standards. If a student performs poorly it can be determined whether this is due to the effort and ability of the individual student, or to poor teacher performance if the whole class performs relatively poorly (PROBE 1999; Kellaghan and Greaney 2001).Contract teachers instead of civil servantsOver the last few years several countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, have experienced rapid rises in enrollment and given budget constraints have started hiring contract teachers who are typically paid less, receive no benefits, and have short-term contracts, rather than regular (i.e. civil servants) teachers. The evidence on the effect of contract teachers on education quality is ambiguous. In some countries (e.g. Niger, Togo,

and Guinea) there seems to have been a negative effect of contract teachers on student performance, in other (e.g. Cameroon, Madagascar, and Senegal) students of contract teachers performed better than those of regular teachers (Santibañez 2008). Thesedifferences may be the result of contract teachers being hired by the public authorities inthe countries where they seemingly affected student performance negatively, and by parents’ associations and local communities in countries where they were associated with better student performance thereby strengthening accountability, and also that contract teachers face incentives to perform well in order to become regular teachers.5. Household PaymentsInformal household payments stem from the lack performance fundamentals: incentives are wrong, information absent, and accountability missing (Box 1). These informal payments – illegal charges for education services or supplies meant to be provided for freeor to obtain specific favors – are surprisingly widespread in education although objective evidence is limited. Institutional performance as outlined in Figure 1 deteriorates when informal payments drive financing and delivery of education services. Indeed, the perpetuation of informal payments suggests a breakdown of public sector operations and undermines good governance, provider performance, and equal access to publicly funded and delivered services.Weak governance structures characterized by lack of appropriate incentives, oversight, and accountability, contribute to poor performance in service delivery and create opportunity for under-the-table payments for access to services, upgraded services and, in some

instances, jobs (see previous section). Service providers can charge informally when users do not know what services they are entitled to; providers have discretion over how resources are allocated; and users are willing to pay to receive better or faster services (CMS 2006; Lewis 2000).The cost of education to households as reported in household surveys is significant even when children attend free public schools. Costs include some combination of uniforms, 43parent teacher association (PTAs) fees, transportation, textbooks, and general contributions (Bentaouet Kattan and Burnett 2004). These required fees can make schooling too costly for some households, effectively preventing parents from sending their children to school. Parents may in addition have to pay informal fees for a variety of services: access to school, advancement to the next grade, to pass examinations, access to library resources, or for their children to be taught the stipulated curriculum after school-hours, and so on.What is the extent of informal payments?There is considerable anecdotal evidence on informal payments in education but there are relatively few data considering the likely prevalence and magnitude of informal payments in many developing and transition countries. Household surveys and citizen report cards provide some useful insights.Across five types of fees in public primary education for 79 countries: tuition, textbook, uniforms, PTA and community contributions, and school-based activity fees, one-third of all fees collected were informal (Bentaouet Kattan and Burnett 2004). In CIS countries, Burnett and Cnobloch (2003) estimate that informal payments, on average, finance half of all public education.

In household surveys the average share of users of education services who report making informal payments varies substantially within and across regions (Table 11). The largest differences are in South Asia where 25 percent of service-users in Nepal report that they made informal payments compared to 92 percent in Pakistan. In Latin America reported informal payments are least frequent in Colombia (close to 2 percent), and most common in Haiti (60 percent). Relatively fewer service-users report informal payments in SubSaharan Africa, from 2 percent of users in Madagascar to 20 percent in Namibia (Afrobarometer 2006; AmericasBarometer 2006; USAID Vitosha various years; andThampi 2002). But anecdotal evidence suggests significantly higher under-the-table payments in Sub-Saharan Africa where the abolishment of user fees has led to huge class sizes and some parents have resorted to paying teachers to give their children an advantage. The notable variation in the frequency of informal payments across countries may be due to them varying in nature making cross-country and even cross-country comparisons difficult. However, without better data any conclusion is speculative only.The household burden of informal payments can be seen in terms of their relative share of average income. This varies substantially across countries: from 4.4 percent of half monthly per capita income in Bulgaria, to 143 percent in Ghana, to an astounding 380 percent in Pakistan (Table 11). In the case of Pakistan, 92 percent of parents reported making informal payments (all types) for education, combining this with the large amounts paid, the scale of the problem is enormous and may help to explain why private primary

schools have seen the fastest growth over the last decade, and this applies to girls’ schooling in particular (Lloyd, Mete, and Grant 2007). Even in countries where informal education payments are smaller in absolute terms, they can still constitute a large share of total household expenditure.44TABLE 11. INCIDENCE AND MAGNITUDE OF INFORMAL PAYMENTS FOR EDUCATIONSELECTED COUNTRIES, 2000-2006Informal payment(% of half monthly per capita income)% of households that make informal paymentsAlbania (2005) 46 35Bulgaria (2001) 4 16Tajikistan (2003) 23 9Colombia (2006) n.a. 2Guatemala (2005) 38 8Haiti (2006) n.a. 60Paraguay (2006) 23 7Peru (2001) 6 7Bangladesh (2002) 87 40India (2002) 76 34Nepal (2002) 139 25Pakistan (2002) 380 92Sri Lanka (2002) 86 61Ghana (2000) 143 24Madagascar (2006) 38 7Mozambique (2004) 57 16Namibia (2006) n.a. 20Zambia (2003) 9 6Note: Data for each region are from the same survey where possible to ensure consistency across countries in how the question on informal payments was asked.Sources: World Bank LSMS (various years); World Bank Diagnostic Survey (various years); and Thampi (2002).Charging for admission, advancement, and specific gradesIn some developing countries informal fees are charged at all levels of education to

guarantee admission, for grade advancement, to graduate, to receive higher marks, and to pass exams. In several countries, which officially prohibit school fees, households still report payment of fees. Out of 79 countries surveyed, tuition fees were collected in 30 countries although they were only legal in 19 of them (Bentaouet Kattan and Burnett 2004).16Citizen report cards, users’ assessment of the performance and quality of education collected through survey questionnaires can be used as a possible basis for increasing accountability of public officials, schools, and teachers if higher level officials act on the In China, out of 3,000 primary and 1,500 secondary schools audited in the Jiangxi province in 2003 there were 125 cases of illegally collected school fees with a value of US$2 million. At the national level, more than US$20 million in illegal school fees were collected at primary and secondary level. For the 18 higher education institutions audited, 15 per cent of all fees charged were illegal (UNDP 2008). 16These included Benin, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Colombia, Bosnia, Latvia, Russia, and Egypt.45information and findings. However, in practice, it is often difficult to punish such corrupt behavior.17A report card survey of primary education in eight subdistricts of Mymensingh district in Bangladesh conducted in 2000 showed that households were paying for a variety of education services all meant to be provided for free. 6.2 percent of respondents reported

paying for admission and 5.3 percent for primary school textbooks (Karim 2004). Out of students who had passed their final examinations, 2.3 percent reported paying to be promoted to the next grade, however, this only occurred in one of the eight subdistricts (Sadar). In Bangladesh, the government does not pay for primary schools to hold examinations so instead teachers charge students; approximately 96 percent of students reported paying to sit the first term, second term, and annual examinations respectively, implying that informal payments to sit examinations are systematic.Thus, report card surveys can be very useful in collecting information on patterns of behavior in the school system, including frequency and type of informal payments. But for the information to have any impact on performance and corruption, effective accountability mechanisms, that include the authority and means to impose sanctions, must exist. The findings from the Bangladesh study were widely disseminated but had a limited impact: after having been informed of irregularities taking place in their offices many primary subdistrict education offices introduced transparent and standard fees for examinations and, subsequently, many teachers reported that they no longer had to pay bribes to obtain services (Karim 2004).When incentives for good performance are weak or lacking, there is little or no oversight, and accountability is non-existent, informal payments to access examination questions in advance, or to pass or receive a certain grade, can become the rule not the exception. Hallak and Poisson (2007: 231) define examination fraud as “any prescribed action taken in connection with an examination or test that attempts to gain an unfair advantage.” The

practice of paying for advance test information, to pass, or for a particular grade, has serious implications. When results can be purchased, resources are allocated to students able and willing to pay instructors, which undermine education objectives and put those without funds at a disadvantage.There is little hard evidence on the extent of informal payments for gaining access to examination questions in advance, or receiving a specific grade but anecdotal evidence suggests that these practices are widespread. At one extreme, public announcements in Georgia notified students of the payments required to pass courses (MacWilliams 2002). Focus groups consisting of secondary school students and graduates in Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, all highlighted the need to pay teachers to receive good examination marks (OSI 2006). Another stark example of cheating on examinations is provided by indirect evidence from Uttar Pradesh, India. The average annual pass rates for exams of the UP High School Exam Board over the period 1988 to 1991 ranged from 46 to 61 percent, however, when police were stationed at examination centers in 1992 to discourage cheating, the pass rate dropped to 17 percent (Kingdon and Muzammil 2003). 17Citizen report card surveys are based on stratified, random sampling to make sure that results are representative of the underlying population.46Perception-based surveys carried out in Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, and Serbia show that academic fraud involving informal payments is perceived as widespread. Roughly between 27 and 36 percent of interviewed students believe that admission scores can be changed if

students are willing to pay professors. Between 35 and 45 percent think that their faculty does not follow the official admission selection process (Table 12). Survey respondents when asked, estimated the share of students who have paid to take an exam, or to receive a specific grade to be 1.5 percent in Croatia, 3.8 percent in Serbia, 6.5 percent in Bulgaria, and a high of 28 percent in Moldova (Hallak and Poisson 2007).TABLE 12. STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF ACADEMIC FRAUD SELECTED COUNTRIESShare of students who perceive that: Bulgaria Croatia Moldova Serbiathe official selection process is bypassed in their faculty37.1 35.1 38.4 44.9there is possibility for admission test scores to be changed illegally32.9 27.5 36.1 36.3there are illegal activities concerning students ranked in the admissions list26.6 32.2 60.9 39.0there are illegal changes in the quotas of those who do and do not pay20.3 25.2 47.1 32.8Students' perception of: Bulgaria Croatia Moldova Serbiathe share of students who have paid for taking an exam or receiving a certain grade6.5 1.5 28 3.8the share of students who were illegally admitted to the university/faculty18 18 40 15.1Source: Adapted from Hallak and Poisson (2007).Many countries have national assessment systems but these are mostly ineffective in reducing the extent of informal payments to pass, or for specific grades, when there are no penalties for examination fraud.Involuntary private tutoringIn addition to formal and informal school fees, and illegal payments to pass, advance, or

for specific grades, households sometimes spend a non-negligible share of their incomes on private tutoring. While some tutoring is voluntary and reflects parental interest in bolstering their children’s performance, it can be abused by teachers when parents feel forced to finance private tutoring on omitted parts of the curriculum to ensure that their children pass (Bray 2003). Information on such practices is scarce, and what does exist emerges mainly from qualitative surveys.In a survey of schools in Morocco, 70 percent of teachers at the senior secondary level said that they were unable to cover the full curriculum during regular school hours; 70 percent of teachers at this level also reported that they offered private tutoring (Bray 1999). This raises concerns that teachers may intentionally omit important topics from regular instruction in order to supplement their incomes with earnings from involuntary private tutoring.47In Azerbaijan, Georgia, Mongolia, and Ukraine, “respondents reported that some teachers pressured their students to take supplementary private tutoring with them after school hours; in some instances, the pressure included threatening students with lower grades if they refused to take private tutoring” (OSI 2006). A recent empirical study of private tutoring in Nepal suggests that secondary school teachers who engage in private tutoring teach less during official school hours causing students to perform worse as measured by test scores (Jayachandran 2008).18Potential solutionsReplacing informal with formal user feesInformal payments are a form of corruption, which can reduce the quantity and quality of

education services. In health, the introduction of formal fees while ensuring that providers continued to receive some additional earnings, have shown promise in reducing the level of informal payments in Kyrgyzstan and Cambodia (Kutzin et al. 2003; Barber, Bonnet, and Bekedam 2004). Formal contributions that are transparent and may make teachers and principals more responsive to parents, is an alternative that deserves attention and experimentation.Using campaigns to inform parents about education entitlementsOften parents and students are not (fully) aware of what their education entitlements are, for instance, they do not know whether primary education is meant to be provided for free or not, or if there are fees they do not know the correct amount. In either case, the lack of information facilitates the charging of informal payments by education officials and teachers. Public dissemination of information on school fees (amount and frequency), the need to pay officially, and to receive a receipt, can potentially help reduce the extent of informal payments when parents and communities have the knowledge and ability to refuse payment. There is no direct evidence on the effect of school fee dissemination on the extent of informal payments for access to education but some related evidence on the positive impact of information being made available to communities for the reduction of leakages exists (Reinikka and Svensson 2005).Penalties for cheating on examinationsThe introduction of financial or professional (e.g. dismissal and expulsion) penalties for both students paying to access examination information in advance and those selling this information (e.g. test providers and teachers) could, if enforceable, help reduce cheating.

6. Corruption PerceptionsAs noted in the previous section, informal payments, a form of corruption, reflects a breakdown of good governance and undermines service provision. Indeed, corruption brings into question the viability of the governance process summarized in Figure 1, and 18Students in schools that offer private tutoring score approximately 0.1 standard deviations lower on the national secondary exam.48suggests that accountability of service providers is either not enforced or non-existent. Perceptions of corruption are useful for tracking overall corruption but must be complemented by more objective measures, such as those discussed above, to identify specific levers that can help raise performance.Perceptions of the education sector and education service delivery provide a guide to how public services are performing. While perceptions of actual performance or corruption are not necessarily accurate, they can affect the behavior of providers, parents, and students. Their ability to cover households as well as providers and the private sector makesperception surveys useful. They also signal how well public investments in the sector are perceived, which in turn tends to influence utilization and public support for publicly financed education. The alternative to perceptions surveys is household surveys, which are more costly and time consuming but provide more extensive evidence and context. Corruption perception surveys by the World Bank, AfroBarometer, AmericasBarometer, and Transparency International among others, focus on specific sectors including

education, and provide perceptions of the extent of corruption in the sector. Results are typically reported either as the share of citizens, business people, experts, or public officials reporting worse-than-neutral corruption outcomes, or as an average of all scores. Corruption in education, as measured by perception surveys, varies substantially within and across regions (Figure 7). In Sub-Saharan Africa, the share of households perceiving the education sector as corrupt ranges from 5 percent in Madagascar to 36 percent in Nigeria, In Latin America from 18 percent in Paraguay to 51 percent in Honduras, and in Eastern Europe from 10 percent in Bulgaria to more than 33 percent in Serbia.Countries with better institutions should in theory be less corrupt. The World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) offers a measure of institutional quality. It includes a subcategory, building human resources in education, which “assesses national policies and public and private sector service delivery that affect access to and quality of education, ECD, training and literacy” (OPSC 2007: 3). The scores range from 1–6 (6 indicating higher quality institutions) and are based on the assessments of education experts working on the country against a sample of regional benchmark countries. Average regional CPIA scores for building human resources for education are shown in Figure 8. In 2007, Europe and Central Asia had the highest average regional score followed by Latin America and the Caribbean and South Asia; Sub-Saharan Africa had the lowest average score. There is, of course, significant variation across countries within each region. While not perfect, such scores reflect both policy and execution of policy and the

institutional quality of the entities providing education services and therefore, provide a sense of education performance and honesty of government.49FIGURE 7. SHARE OF HOUSEHOLDS PERCEIVING EDUCATION AS CORRUPT IN SELECTED COUNTRIES, 2002-06 (PERCENT)0 10 20 30 40 50 60Madagascar (2005)Cape Verde (2005)Tanzania (2005)Lesotho (2005)Kenya (2005)Bulgaria (2002)Albania (2002)Zimbabwe (2005)Senegal (2005)Botswana (2005)Uganda (2005)Malawi (2005)Ghana (2005)Croatia (2002)Romania (2002)Paraguay (2006)South Africa (2006)Mali (2005)Montenegro (2002)Zambia (2005)BIH (2002)Macedonia (2002)Guatemala (2005)Mozambique (2005)Namibia (2006)Serbia (2002)Nigeria (2005)Haiti (2004)Colombia (2002)Honduras (2002)Share of households perceiving education as corrupt (percent)Note: Data for each region are from the same survey to ensure consistency across countries in how the question on informal payments was

asked.Sources: Afrobarometer Round 3 (2006); SELDI (2002); and World Bank Governance and Anti-Corruption Diagnostic Surveys (various years).50FIGURE 8: CPIA SCORES FOR BUILDING HUMAN RESOURCES IN EDUCATION BY REGION, 20073.03.23.43.63.84.04.2East Asia andPacificEurope andCentral AsiaLatin Americaand theCaribbeanMiddle Eastand NorthAfricaSouth Asia Sub-SaharanAfricaCPIA scores on building human resources education 2007Note: Unweighted average CPIA scores for question 9b, building human resources in education, by region.Source: CPIA Review (2007).Another approach to capturing perceptions of education sector institutions and performance is client satisfaction surveys. Satisfaction surveys complement evidence on perceptions of and experience with corruption and education service delivery performance.Recent survey data from Indonesia has been used to examine whether client satisfaction surveys can guide policy. The findings suggest that perceptions data are not as useful for

directly informing policymaking as they are for providing insights to policymakers on the priorities of citizens, and on the acceptability and effect of specific reforms such as decentralization (Dasgupta, Narayan, and Skoufias 2009). Still, high scores on perceived corruption and low scores on perceived institutional quality and performance all provide red flags and indicate the need to assess possible corruption and shortcomings in education service delivery and financing.7. ConclusionsThe role of good governance in raising education provision performance is important and provides a useful entry point for discussions of policy, programs, and implementation. Considerable work exists on how to design sound education programs – quality of inputsand budget and financial management for example. Much of that knowledge informs countries’ education agendas. However, the challenge of translating those concepts into functioning and effective education systems is a harder and more complicated step. Itmoves into the realm of political economy to align the interests of different stakeholders,51and ensure that they face the appropriate incentives and accountabilities to perform as intended. The gap between good ideas and evidence-based programs on the one hand, and education performance and outcomes on the other, is often significant. The governance agenda focuses on the elements of implementation, the factors that drive performance and make sound technical designs successful in a public context. In effect, good governance offers tools for the middle-ground between program design and its execution.This paper provides a definition of good governance in education and a framework for

thinking about governance issues as a way of improving performance in the education sector. Performance indicators are proposed that offer the potential for comparison, andwhose collection is not overly complex or costly, and that have relevance at the national level as well as at the school level. These indicators, when available, are useful tools for cross-country comparisons and for tracking relative education performance, and provide the context for the discussion of good governance and performance in education. The crucial elements for good governance and high performance include standards, incentives, information, and accountability, all of which support implementation. The paper reviews budget and financial management issues; examines human resource policies and performance; discusses the issues surrounding informal payments for education services; and briefly summarizes the evidence on corruption perceptions in education. This review of ideas and evidence is intended to contribute to the design of projects, and assessment of options for improving education service delivery performance.While virtually none of the indicators or evidence applies to all countries, they provide abasis for measuring performance. Experiences from other countries are useful in designing programs or conducting analytic work where performance is an issue. This paper is not meant as a catalogue of the possible but rather as an effort to define and analyze the governance and performance issues in education while realizing that much more work needs to be done to understand how to raise education sector performance.52ReferencesADB/OECD (2006), Curbing Corruption in Public Procurement in Asia and the Pacific.

ANNEX 1. SELECT AGGREGATE GOVERNANCE INDICATORS

Governance encompasses multiple aspects. These include the capacity of the government to formulate sound policies, manage resources, and provide services efficiently; the effective processes that allow citizens to select, hold accountable, monitor, and replace government; and the respect of government and citizens for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions. Kaufmann, Kraay, and Mastruzzi (2007) break these down into six specific areas: voice and accountability; government effectiveness; control of corruption; regulatory quality; rule of law; and political stability and absence of violence. Of the six, the first four are directly relevant to good governance in education.Voice and accountability captures the extent to which a country’s citizens are able to participate in the selection of their government, as well as the extent towhich public institutions are held accountable. It allows citizens to express their preferences and be involved in the decision-making processes. This dimension also covers freedom of expression, freedom of association, and the presence of a free media. In education, asystem with a high level of accountability, one possessing checks and balances; transparent decision-making; access to information; and effective monitoring and evaluation, can improve resource management, reduce corruption, and enhance public service delivery, and ultimately, improve education quality.Government effectiveness is reflected in the quality of policy formulation and implementation, the effectiveness of public service delivery, the quality of the civil service, and the degree of policy independence from political pressures. In education, this dimension is concerned with, for example, the efficiency of education systems in areas such as licensing requirements; hiring procedures for teachers and school administrators; and the presence and enforcement of national and local statutes on delivering quality education for all.

Control of corruption captures the extent to which there are checks to ensure that public power is not abused for private gain or that there is no “capture” of the state by elites and private interests. In the education sector, forms of corruption include but are not limited to nepotism; purchasing of posts; irregularities in the procurement of education supplies and facilities; bribery in admission and examination; and teacher absenteeism.

Web based education system is quite popular among students,which is an outcome of advancement in multimedia technology. This leads to instruction-on-demand and helps the students to study during when he is on move oe desires to study in free time. Online examinations and online interviews are set to enter in a big way.

http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/jss/jss1281-83.pdf

Abstract:      Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are increasingly becoming crucial part of the education system. ICT has changed the style of functioning of the educational system and its governance. 

This paper is considering the rapid spread of ICT applications has brought about markedly drastic technological, social and economic transformations. These changes have caused educational institutions, administrators, teachers to rethink their roles, teaching and vision for future. The sustainability of a nation in the era of knowledge economy depends on the effective educational system. Productivity is an economics concept where productivity is considered as the comparative analysis of input and outputs. In educational system the inputs are teachers, students, classroom material, equipment of teaching, methods of teaching and outputs are quantity and quality of student learning. The proper integration of ICT with teaching/learning environment increases education and increased productivity. ICT provides various opportunities to educational learners and make teachers aware of their new roles & responsibilities in teaching and learning process. The growing use of ICT will change many of the strategies employed by both Teachers and Students in the learning process. The role of ICT the educational administration is recurring and unavoidable. ICT has enabled us to monitor and evaluate what is learned, how it is learned and when and where learning took place. It is also enable the educational management system to discharge various functions such as, conduction of exams, coordination between potential institutes, alumni network. ICT also work for nontraditional students by providing internet based education to them anytime and anywhere and these internet

technologies enables innovative ways of teaching e.g. Tata Sky educational system. ICT is going to play a vital role in bringing about qualitative change in every aspect of our life in general and that of governance of education.

Keywords: ICTs, ICT-Based/Virtual Education, Distance Education, Higher Education

JEL Classifications: NA