This research attempts to create a prototype information campaign for the Ministry of Education of Nicaragua. The topic selected is the process of decentralization, one of the government public policies.
The decentralization process consists of transferring the power of decision to the community (parents, teachers, students) from central to local institutions. The local institutions can be either at the level of municipalities (counties) or at the level of individual schools (autonomy). Therefore, the active participation of the community is essential for the success of this policy. The main goal of this policy is to improve the quality, efficiency and equality of basic and secondary education.
One of the efforts of the Ministry of Education has been to inform society about the process and the changes implied. But this attempt has not been satisfying. Although the decentralization process has had reasonable success in some areas of the country, in some others places, in particular the poorest areas, these changes have not yet taken place. Parents' participation and teachers motivation is lacking enthusiasm along with society's indifference. Misconceptions and misunderstandings are still an obstacle for the purpose of this policy. One of the probable explanations for this phenomenon are that the messages may not have been clear enough for the masses (information gaps), and that the policy needs to be restructure according to the needs of the users. This is a long process that requires major efforts from all participants in order to achieve its objectives.
The first phase of the proposed research was oriented to find what teachers, parents and students think, feel and say about the decentralization process, in order to discover wrong as well as correct perceptions that might have been generated in the past. Some of the techniques used in this phase are interviews, surveys, and collage tool kit (image representation).
In the second phase the information was interpreted in order to create the campaign strategy and planning, as well as the messages and advertising pieces. Consequently, the uses of communication techniques such as national symbols (identity) in the campaign's visual aids -television and radio spots, posters, street signs, brochures- can reinforce the message's persuasive impact to change behavior, restore the national pride and establish the development of the information channels of the process of decentralization in Nicaragua in a short period of time.