decisions are typically made closest to where they will have an effect and the central government takes a subsidiary function performing mainly those tasks that cannot be as effectively dealt with at the school level they are responsible for choosing approaches to student assessment except for the central part of secondary school leaving examinations designing and implementing teacher appraisal processes conducting their own quality care and acting upon feedback by the inspectorate there is considerable attention on reducing administrative burdens on schools and limiting reporting requirements that generate paperwork but have little bearing on actual practice as described by scheerens there is a tradition of bottomup reforms where schools are offered incentives to join networks exploring new practices rather than having changes imposed from the top down