Philipsburg:--- The committee that was established to investigate the functioning of the Department of Public Education submitted their report on December 11th, 2012 to the cabinet of the Ministry of Education, announced Minister of Education Silveria Jacobs.
The Education Minister announced on Wednesday at the Council of Ministers' weekly press briefing that the report has to be discussed with the Council of Ministers before she can elaborate on the details of the report. Minister Jacobs said that the conclusion of the report falls in line with some of the alarms they have been experiencing. It has shown that there is an alarming lack of knowledge in the Division of the Department of Education regarding laws and policies and even with common procedures when preparing advices.
The Minister explained that based on the committee's report, there exists the wrong description of tasks for the staff members. There are instances where there is a lack of responsibility of the staff and this has led to some of the challenges that the schools are being faced with. The committee also found ineffectiveness and inefficiency and poor productivity due to the lack of communication within the division and staff bureau, thus this has negatively affected the management of public schools, teachers, students intake, appointment of teachers, maintenance of buildings, cleaning of schools, purchasing of learning materials and necessities, payments of salaries, and services granted to pensioners.
Minister Jacobs said as result of the above the services provided by the Division of Public Education are inadequate and are below expectation, all of which precipitated the investigation. The Minister said the findings and recommendations given by the committee in its report will be discussed with the Council of Ministers on Tuesday January 29th and a plan of action will be worked out with the relevant stakeholders to ensure that improvement takes place in an acceptable manner. The Minister assured that she will not release more information on the content of the report until it is fully discussed with the Council of Ministers. She said that her Ministry will do all that is necessary to ensure that proper services are granted
SMN News managed to obtain some information from the report that was submitted by the committee to the cabinet of the Education Minister. In the conclusions of the report, the committee stated that after carefully analyzing its findings, the committee concludes that certain recommendations must be taken.
The Division of Public Education must be restructured with shared managerial responsibilities taking into account the redefinition of the structure and its staff. Regarding public schools, school managers, teachers, students, and parents, the personnel of the entire Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports needs training in the Educational laws so that they know when they should apply certain laws and to also interpret the laws in their day to day operations. Training must also be provided on personnel matters to ensure that the staffs are abreast with the laws and policies. A manual for the Division of Education should also be established as it relates to "manners" and this manual must be respected. A review and outline must be done on how the staff has to prepare advices, while they should know the chain of command when preparing advices for the Ministry.
Suggestions were given to the Minister of Education to organize a workshop on team-building, thereby enhancing the motivation of the staff at the Division of Public Education. Workshops should also be organized to develop proper communication and service skills. One of the points that have to be addressed in this workshop is body language. The Minister is now tasked with ensuring that short term policies are in place when it comes to acquiring learning materials for schools. The committee believes that government should establish a foundation to deal with such matters since the current process and procedures have de-motivated several school managers. The committee feels that if this part of the Division of Public Education is outsourced to another body then it would alleviate the stress and burden that is currently placed on the Ministry. They also suggested that an audit be conducted at the Division of Public Education.