Governance of government middle schools in Beijing and Delhi: accountability mechanisms and stakeholder incentives

The importance of basic education in economic and human development has been widely recognized in both policy researches and practices across the globe. With impressive progress made in universalizing basic (especially primary) education since 1990s, the policy goals of improving the performance of the basic education sector have shifted gradually from expanding access to consolidating quality and inclusiveness, as reflected and underlined in the fourth of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG4). Whereas the goal of basic education has been duly updated reflecting and taking into account new situations and development, the relevant adjustment of policy measures to accomplish it is much slower.