Evaluation of the Decentralization of the Educational Regional Services Administration from 2000 until Today

Abstract

This article evaluates the course of decentralization of the educational administration during the last twenty years through the study of the organization and operation of the central administration in relation to the regional and local services. The first part briefly presents the operation of the educational system, through which the factors that make its decentralization necessary are highlighted and follows a brief historical overview of the decentralization of education in Greece from 2000 until today. The second part presents the results of a qualitative research (content analysis) of a representative sample of circulars of the central administration (Ministry of Education), issued throughout this period, which provides guidelines to the regional services for the implementation of the existing educational policy. The research concludes with significant results on the dynamics that have developed in the system, during the aforementioned period, in terms of the course of its organization, focusing on the management functions (planning, organizing, leading and control) of regional services and the lack of key features of the decentralized model found in them.