Title: Accountability Theatre: Distinguishing Genuine Reform from Symbolic Compliance in Competence-Based Education Policy Responses
Authors: Dr. Arinaitwe Julius, Dr. Twinomujuni Rosebell, Ahumuza Audrey
Volume: 10
Issue: 8
Pages: 212-220
Publication Date: 2026/08/28
Abstract:
: Uganda's rollout of the Competence-Based Curriculum (CBC) at pre-primary and secondary levels, and the wider Competence-Based Education (CBE) reform agenda, created strong external pressure on schools and district education offices to demonstrate compliance with new pedagogical and assessment standards. This study investigated the extent to which schools' documented responses to CBE accountability requirements reflected genuine pedagogical reform as opposed to symbolic, ceremonial compliance decoupled from actual classroom practice - a phenomenon the study termed "accountability theatre." A cross-sectional, multilevel survey design was employed, drawing a stratified random sample of 360 schools nested within 30 districts across Uganda's four statistical regions. Data were simulated to approximate a Reform Depth Score and a Symbolic Compliance Index for each school, alongside school- and district-level covariates including CBE-specific training hours, funding adequacy, external monitoring visits, headteacher tenure, class size, school type, and locale. Univariate statistics described the distribution of school and district characteristics; bivariate analyses (chi-square tests and one-way ANOVA) examined associations between these characteristics and a four-category typology of policy response (Genuine Reform, Mixed Response, Accountability Theatre, and Passive Non-compliance); and a two-level linear mixed-effects (multilevel) model quantified the independent contribution of school- and district-level predictors to Reform Depth Scores while partitioning variance across levels. Findings showed that 54.4 percent of schools were classified as exhibiting genuine reform, while a further 34.7 percent showed passive non-compliance and smaller proportions displayed accountability theatre (3.9 percent) or mixed responses (6.9 percent). CBE-specific training hours, funding adequacy, and external monitoring visits were the strongest positive predictors of reform depth, while headteacher tenure was negatively associated with reform depth. The multilevel model returned an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.41, indicating that a substantial share of variance in reform depth was attributable to district-level differences in administrative capacity rather than to individual school characteristics alone. The study concluded that symbolic compliance was not randomly distributed but was systematically patterned by resourcing and district capacity, and it recommended targeted investment in teacher training, differentiated district-level monitoring, and the development of reform-depth indicators that move beyond documentary compliance checklists.