The improvement of educational standards and performance, particularly in elementary, secondary, and high school education, is of major national significance around the world. Accordingly, the careful development of educational management systems and performance measurement techniques pose a number of detailed analytical problems that take on particular significance in the education sector and warrant further examination/study.

Interesting debates are also taking place concerning how to effectively set up an educational system to monitor and improve the standard of knowledge and information as a means of improving educational performance.

This report aims to examine how school educational systems operate and are run globally. Strategic Gears experts study the effects of both centralized and decentralized systems of education on educational outcomes. The report was written to better inform ministries, school staff, parents, students, and the public about education management systems (centralization and decentralization systems), their key traits, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.

The report looks at the practices of five of the top-performing nations in the PISA and TIMSS international tests -- Finland, Japan, Canada, South Korea, and Singapore -- that operate using either centralization or decentralization management systems. It also highlights the findings regarding their organizational structure, level of centralization, authorities delegated, and educational performance.

By comparing the performance of different countries with various school management systems, Strategic Gears’ benchmarking aims to provide others with best practices and lessons learned.