The Local Fabrication of School Statistics

Actors, Practices and Issues at Stake in a Primary School in Benin

Bibliographic Data

ID15720656
AuthorsFichtner (0000-0002-0855-0248, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume48-49
Issue2
Pages43-65
Publication date2018-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropologie & développement (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2276-2019 • E-ISSN: 2553-1719
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/anthropodev.666
OpenAlexW2756177293
LanguageEN
References cited20

Based on 12 months of ethnographic research in a primary school in rural Benin in 2012/13 and 2014, this paper focuses on the “little arrangements” organised around the local fabrication of school statistics which arise from the interaction between demands at international level, and strategies given room for manoeuvre at local level. Based on two key variables central to international policies of Education For All, namely school enrolment and repetition rates, this study shows how the actors involved in the school arena represent, govern and “do the school” through the production of these numbers. The data demonstrates that school statistics reflect the results of micro-political strategies to enhance budget allocation and school reputation, and reflect the bureaucratic (self) control of the actors involved, rather than being reliable instruments that can inform or measure macro policies of development

Bureaucracy · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnography · Macro · Mathematics education · Measure (data warehouse · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Regional science · Reputation · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Psychology · School Choice and Performance

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