SUMMARY

The purpose of this paper is to promote discussion of ways to reconcile the processes of educational “decentralization ” under way in many countries of the world with the objectives of greater equity. For this, we begin by showing the ambiguity of the concept of “decentralization ” and its limitations as the single guiding concept for configuring and regulating all educational services. We put forward various rationales for and types of decentralization. Secondly, we state that educational decentralization has five paradoxical effects and we maintain that they all accentuate inequalities, especially social inequalities, but also variations between municipalities, provinces and countries. Thirdly, we propose some ways to avoid these paradoxical effects or at least to prevent them from gaining a hold