Report-driven management accountability in primary school curriculum implementation in Ethiopia: is it driving or diverting teachers’ focus?

Abstract

The study explored teachers’ reflections on management accountability relationships between
School Management Bodies (SMBs) and teachers for curriculum implementation in primary
schools. An exploratory case study type and a multiple case study research design were
employed. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and documentary reviews. The
findings reveal that accountability, as conceived by the teachers, is a necessary commandment
that promotes reporting, increases the workload to perform urgent work, and fosters greater
fear. The result affirms that SMBs primarily hold teachers accountable for the preparation of
student-related reports driven by top-down administrative commandments to satisfy the needs
of the district education offices to routinize the teachers’ roles and facilitate accountability at
a great level. The study also indicates that lowering teachers’ efficiency was the most
compelling pressure as a consequence of holding teachers accountable. This study discloses
that rigorous penalties were exercised only for teachers’ code of ethics rather than for failures
observed during curriculum implementation that contributed to diverting teachers’ focus from 

classroom curricula practices. The study recommends that the government should re-
conceptualize the shift in teachers’ practices and design an innovative educational

accountability policy that will intrinsically drive teachers to classroom curricula practices.