Management and Governance
Governance and Management
Governance and management issues cut through all educational functions. Many of the issues of management related to individual organisations like the BTBB, BOC, BISE, PITE, DOC and DOS have been discussed in relevant sections, earlier in the document.
9.1.1. Current Situation 9.1.1.1.Political Support
This chapter focuses on the more overarching issues of the sector. These include political support to the sector, managerial efficiency, decision making support systems, community involvement and inclusion of parallel education systems like private schools and madrassas into mainstream education policy.
Education lacks an adequate number of champions at the political level in the province. Most political interest in the sector stems from either a corruption opportunity or political affiliations and links of individuals whose personal benefits undermine the department’s efficiency. This obstructs the impact of a lot of good intentions and capacity within the department. Teachers’ associations have been the main conduit for systemic political intervention in the department‘s routine management decisions resulting into crowding out of merit and professionalism.
9.1.1.2. Managerial Efficiency
Managerial efficiency is a function of individual capacity and institutional (organizational) practices and structures. The sector plan focuses on all three. Three types of personnel work in the department. Firstly the managers from elite generalist cadres of the civil services, both provincial and federal, secondly those from the teaching cadre and thirdly from the internal specialized cadres of the department like the officials of the BOC, BISE and the BTBB. Each of these cadres bring a different set of expertise to the management of the sector.
The generalist cadres have specialized training and experience of management but lack adequate comprehension of the education sector. The teachers and persons from the specialized cadres have no training on management. No specialized cadre of education managers exists in the system. Recently the department has moved a summary for creation of a separate management cadre. The BESP supports the decision of developing a specialized management cadre.
Individual managers, specifically in the field, have an input focused approach in line with that of the organization. Secondly quality issues remain a poorly understood area for most managers.
The second critical organizational problem is centralisation. Many of the routine managerial decisions have been centralized at the secretariat level. With almost 50,000 employees the department of school education cannot function with centralization of routine decisions like transfers and postings and everyday financial transactions. It not only dis-empowers the lower managers but adds unnecessary burden of operations at the policy level.
9.1.1.3. Decision Support Systems
Absence of a culture of data use combined with limitations of the data collected, in terms of coverage and quality, have entrenched a culture of decision making with minimum use of data. The low demand for data means that even for interested persons data availability on education is very limited.
Most of the decisions (and planning) focuses on inputs only. Output and outcomes based monitoring and evaluation process and resultant policy development and planning does not exist. This also reduces the demand for critical output and outcome level data. The latter are not available except for information collected by the Federal government’s Pakistan Social Living and Measurement Survey(s) (PSLMs) over the last 10 years. Here also more critical data like student learning outcomes or educational outcomes is not collected. In one year (2007-8) only data on education and poverty was collected.
Provincial education management information systems are expected to provide the more detailed data for the sector. Balochistan has the oldest Education Management Information System (EMIS) in the country. Despite almost twenty years of existence it suffers from serious supply and demand side gaps. Firstly the culture of low use of data marginalizes the importance of BEMIS. The organization has primarily operated through support from the development partners over the years. The government only pays for salaries of the staff. The user unfriendly packaging of data with limited or no analysis also impinges on the demand side. Secondly, the quality of data provided by it was questioned by all stakeholders. No independent third party validation has ever been conducted.
9.1.1.4. Planning
No structured document exists to manifest the priorities of the government. Although annual development plans are included in the budgets they simply collate development needs determined independently of overall sectoral needs or provincial development requirements. Recently the development funds allocated to legislators have further distorted the planning process as the latter invest in infrastructure without ascertaining the need from the government. Resultantly structures developed have to be funded by the department for maintenance and operations. Many a times poor feasibility of the investments leads to continuous wasteful hemorrhage of state sources.
9.1.1.5. Community Involvement
Community involvement efforts of the past have met with limited success. Various development partners supported Parent Teachers School Management Committees (PTSMCs) and the government over the past many years with mixed success. The key reasons for failure have been weak ownership of the government, head teachers reluctant to involve community and in many cases weak community response.
9.1.1.6. Gender Attitudes
The general marginalization of the females in the education sector also manifests in the governance and management domain. According to a UNICEF study on gender and governance in education the number of female managers in the sector is low and generally attitudes make them difficult to assert themselves. Even within main offices in Quetta they have no separate facilities like toilets and day care centres or equivalent systems.
Female teachers (and other employees) continue to exclusively undertake household work including child care. Schools, normally (and officially), do not provide any support.
9.1.1.7. Private Sector
The private sector size and spread in Balochistan has not been documented (officially) in recent times. Most persons in the education sector agree that it continues to grow although primarily with an urban bias. An office bearer of at least one private schools association claimed 1800 members. Actual numbers may be around 3,000 to 4,000.
The new growth of private sector has made the old 1962 law on regulation of private schools redundant. The law was primarily focused on issues of physical facilities and not the quality of education imparted. At present, practically, the sector functions in a policy vacuum. No set of uniform standards exists across the public and private sector. As the sector plan pursues standards their application across all sectors will be critical.
How does the department ensure that this large sector forms part of the effort to meet the targets of access, equity and quality? At present the sector functions independently, although the bulk of the private schools (other than elite schools) depend on textbooks prepared by the Balochistan Textbook Board. These schools need to register with the local district office for operations but the latter does not collate the data on registered schools. In the absence of information it might be difficult to develop a comprehensive policy on involvement of private sector in the implementation of state policy.
The madrassahs form the third main tier in the parallel education structures. It is perceived to normally admits the poorest children. Under the current security situation the domain has been management by Home Department and the education department may not be in a position to approach these institutions for reform without increased suspicion and potential risks.
9.1.2. Strategic Objective(s)
1. Transform intrusive political interference in administrative matters into support for systemic improvements 2. Improve managerial efficiency 3. Introduce a culture of data based decision making 4. Develop efficient planning processes 5. A functional monitoring and evaluation system 6. Ensure effective community involvement in the sector. 7. Gender aware and friendly work environment 8. Integrate private sector into the government’s policy framework
9.1.3. Strategies
1. Involve political leadership in oversight of the education sector’s performance and development. 2. Increase managerial efficiency through creation of a separate cadre for managers, provision of relevant training and decentralization of decision making. 3. Develop a decision support system through enhanced capacity of BEMIS. 4. Develop coordinated and integrated plans for development. 5. Establish a monitoring and evaluation process through the education sector plan. 6. Ensure effective community involvement in the sector through revival of PTSMCs 7. Introduce a gender balanced managerial approach by changing attitudes and creating gender friendly work spaces. 8. Include the private sector into mainstream education through development of a policy framework for the sector. 9. Supportive political intervention in the education sector
Three key steps are needed to involve the political leadership in educational reforms and to secure the department from intrusive non-meritocratic pressures.
a. Setting up of the provincial assembly’s standing committee on education. b. Involvement of key political figures in oversight mechanism of the sector plan. c. Involvement of the teachers’ association in the reform process to improve their professionalism.
Successful implementation of education policies (including the current Sector) will require inclusion of more political support than at present. The Sector Plan therefore recommends a push from the department and the Minister to move for the formation of a committee on education in the Balochistan Assembly and include key political champions in the oversight mechanism for implementation of the Sector Plan.
The plan also targets inclusion of teachers’ association in the reform process not only for their ownership but also to improve their own approach. The Plan envisages a transition from the current politically motivated approach of interference, which is counterproductive to efficiency, towards a professional organization with the aim of improving the standards of teachers, improve education and enhance the respect of the teaching profession. The associations will continue to be guardians of the teachers’ interests but not at the cost of merit and professional standards.
10. Increased managerial Efficiency
Three key strategies have been targeted for improvement of managerial efficiency in the sector:
a. Development of a specialized management cadre
The department has already approved the development of a specialized management cadre to ensure quality of management. However, it will be critical to train these managers according to the needs assessed on ground. Secondly a career structure will need to be developed.
b. Induction level training of the generalist managers
The managers from the generalist cadres should be provided induction level training on core education issues like quality, access, equity and their details as well as education planning.
c. Decentralisation of decision making to the lower tiers.
The Department of Education had already developed a decentralization plan but it was rejected by the central S&GAID Department responsible for rule making and interpretation the provincial government. A new plan based on comprehensive decentralization needs should be developed and engagement with S& GAID pursued.
11. Development of a Decision Support System
The Sector Plan recommends both demand side and supply side interventions to encourage data and information based decision making. In case of the former, the interventions lie mostly at the level of education managers and professionals. These include training packages for existing managers and professionals and inclusion of relevant courses in B.ed and ADE programmes.
On the supply side Sector Plan recommends a shift from a simple data bank to a management information system. These would require training of the current personnel and change in qualifications for future recruitments or postings at the senior level. Secondly the government should provide funds for operations.
The Sector Plan also recommends periodical validation of data and collection of information on all education institutions in the province: public schools, private schools, madrassahs, other public sector schools run by organisations outside the education department. Additionally BEMIS should collect data on quality like the BISE examinations and PEAC data. It should also maintain data on personnel and finances. BEMIS should effectively function as the repository of education data and where it cannot, or does not, collect data it should develop linkages with other sources like Home Department, BISE etc.
12. Monitoring and Evaluation System
The sector plan provides an opportunity to shift from an input to an output and outcome based accountability, planning and decision making. A structure for monitoring and evaluation will need to be developed within the department to ensure sustainability.
13. Coordinated and Integrated Plans
The purpose of the sector is introduction of the sector wide approach that will assist in integrated planning to utilise the linkages and synergies across various sub-sectors and activities.
The Sector Plan recommends a shift to coordinated need based planning. Individual development partner plans should be discouraged and included in the overall sector plan as per priorities determined by the government. This calls for a donor coordination process to be initiated in the province.
Funds to be utilized by members of the provincial assembly should be spent within the priorities determined by the Departments of Secondary and Higher Education, as the case may be, through the Sector Plan. Schemes from political leaders should not be accepted by the P&D without clearance from the concerned department, which should ensure that it falls within its own priorities.
14. Revival of PTSMCs
PTSMCs have the potential to play a major role in implementation of the Sector Plan. Effectiveness of PTSMCs and general education governance depends on overall societal comprehension of, and involvement in, education.
The BESP targets revitalization and expansion of PTSMCs in the province with the objective of involving community in education development, especially, school improvement plans.
15. Gender Balance in Governance and Management
Gender attitudes of education officials not only impact their immediate colleagues but also reflect in education policy, planning and implementation. BESP focuses on an improved gender environment in terms of social attitudes as well as the physical environment. As the females have a weaker position the strategies mainly focus on improvement of their situation. Firstly the attitudes of all employees (including females) will be targeted for changes in current gender attitudes. Secondly gender friendly work environment will be provided through provision of specialized physical facilities like separate toilets and day care centres.
16. Mainstreaming of the Private Sector
The sector plan recommends filling in the current policy vacuum through development of a framework in consultation with private school stakeholders to allow synergy, reduce gaps between students of the two sectors and adherence to minimum standards.
9.1.4. Overall Targets
Goal: Improve quality of education by enforcing good governance & put into effect well-informed management in Balochistan to utilize educational resources efficiently and effectively.
Targets: De-politicized and decentralized merit based management approach focused on student learning and welfare.
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