A policy to establish School Based Management Committees (SBMCs) was adopted in Nigeria in 2005. Globally, an approach to educational reform in developing countries with a focus on community management of schools has been promoted by donors since 2000. There is, however, ambiguous evidence of impact on development goals. This thesis asks why community participation continues to be extensively promoted, despite the limited evidence of impact. The thesis examines SBMC policy and its enactment in Nigeria through case studies of ten schools in Kwara, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa states. Data was gathered initially from research through the DFID-funded ESSPIN project in 2009. This research explored how SBMCs were understood, and how they were implemented, from a range of perspectives. This research data was supplemented by additional interviews, documents and analysis. A critical approach to the concept of community is central to this thesis. Community carries strong normative values, often rooted in idealised notions of the past. The thesis focuses on the politics of communities and community participation, and the fact that development policy and practice tends to ignore the politics and to focus on community-based institutions as a technical fix, thereby ignoring the power dynamics and processes of exclusion within a community or community-based institution. Findings from data analysis show that since 2005, SBMC policy has been interpreted and enacted unevenly. This is partly explained by a crisis in education in Nigeria where growing enrolment has not been matched by increased resources and better teaching. A further explanation is that policy actors at federal, state and local government levels are active in interpreting, promoting or resisting the policy, depending on their own particular positions, motivations and incentives. For women and other marginalised groups, SBMCs serve largely to reinforce existing power relations, rather than challenging or changing them
