Abstract:
Social accountability is an approach to building accountability that relies on civic engagement, in which citizens participate directly or indirectly in demanding accountability from service providers and public officials, which contributes to education quality. Despite their major roles in improving education quality, the practices of social accountability mechanisms were found to be ineffective in the Ethiopian context. The aim of this study was to explore the role of social accountability in improving education quality in primary schools in Lume Woreda. The study used a mixed research approach. Simple random sampling was used to select households, and three kebeles of Lume district were purposively selected due to HUNDEE-Oromo Grassroots Development Initiative local CSOs implementing the Ethiopian Social Accountability Project in the selected primary schools in the sampled woreda. A sample size of 139 respondents was selected from the Lume district, and the sample size was determined using the Yamane formula. Questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions, and observation were used to collect data. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics quantitatively and by narration and interpreting the meaning of words qualitatively. The findings of the study identified that there were moderate practices of social accountability mechanisms in the sampled study area (M = 3.36; SD = 1.41), respectively. The study identified that challenges such as ineffective social participation (M = 3.5, SD = 1.25), and the prevalence of ineffective relationships between the state and stakeholders (M = 3.7, SD = 1.22), highly affected the practices of SA projects, while ineffective implementations of SA policies and principles (M = 3.43, SD = 1.31), moderately influenced their implementations in the study area. The study disclosed that social accountability projects played moderate roles in improving education quality in the study area (M = 3.38 and SD = 1.4). From the point of view of this study, it is recommended that further study be conducted and that there should be adequate participation in the SA program in the sampled study area.
