Community-Based School Governance (CBSG)

One way to create democratic schools and learning environments is through decentralized school governance. CBSG has the potential to improve school functions and promote social cohesion. CBSG is a structural reform that redistributes decision-making power over schools from government bureaucracies to school-level decision-making bodies. Under CBSG, local stakeholders such as parents and residents, in conjunction with school leadership, take on essential roles related to school governance, replacing the dominance of bureaucratic elites or the excessive influence of politicians with narrow interests that serve a particular group within a community. Similarly, BiH has introduced CBSG as a way to increase local ownership and depoliticize education (de-ethnicize education), thereby enhancing the role of schools in promoting social cohesion. Therefore, CBSG deserves a detailed discussion of its potential and limitations in strengthening respective school functions.