Skip to main content
Home

Main menu

  • About
    • Team
    • Vacancies
    • Contact
  • Knowledge Products
    • Public Finance
      • Paisa Studies
      • Budget Briefs
    • Public Administration
      • Social Accountability
      • Understanding Bureaucracy
    • Data Charts
  • Learning Hub
    • Paisa Course
    • Toolkits
    • Reform pilots
  • Blog
  • Events
  • In The News
  • About
    • Team
    • Vacancies
    • Contact
  • Knowledge Products
    • Public Finance
      • Paisa Studies
      • Budget Briefs
    • Public Administration
      • Social Accountability
      • Understanding Bureaucracy
    • Data Charts
  • Learning Hub
    • Paisa Course
    • Toolkits
    • Reform pilots
  • BLOG
  • Events
  • In The News

Search form

Main menu

  • About
    • Team
    • Vacancies
    • Contact
  • Knowledge Products
    • Public Finance
      • Paisa Studies
      • Budget Briefs
    • Public Administration
      • Social Accountability
      • Understanding Bureaucracy
    • Data Charts
  • Learning Hub
    • Paisa Course
    • Toolkits
    • Reform pilots
  • Blog
  • Events
  • In The News

Search form


The Post Office Paradox
Yamini Aiyar, Sharanya Bhattacharya (2016)

Elementary education administrators at the block level primarily perceive themselves, or report themselves to be, disempowered cogs in a hierarchical administrative culture that renders them powerless. They refer to their own roles and offices as "post offices," used simply for doing the bidding of higher authorities and ferrying messages between the top and bottom of the education chain.


Using the case of education delivery, this paper attempts to probe an administrator's perspective in resolving the implementation problem at the last mile and is based on detailed primary fieldwork in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh along with some quantitative surveys conducted in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh. It endeavours to trace the "cognitive maps" of administrators by capturing how last mile public servants see themselves and their jobs, and how notions of job performance are internalised and interpreted within the administrative context of elementary education in India.

download

The Post Office Paradox
Related

The Post Office Paradox

Yamini Aiyar, Sharanya Bhattacharya (2016)

© Accountability Initiative 2016

Dharam Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021
Tel: (011) 2611 5273-76, Fax: 2687 2746,
Email: info@accountabilityindia.org

Stay Up to Date
Designed by BlueAnt Digital Intelligence