| The models of management applied and practiced locally in most instances may differ from what is found in text books.This observation was made recently by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Kellawan Lall,NFL Jerseys Wholesale, when he addressed a gathering of regional officials.That meeting, which was a collaborative attempt between the Regional Development and the Public Works and Education Ministries, was intended to foster closer collaboration between officials of the various departments in a quest to improve the delivery of education throughout the regions.Minister Lall, during his deliberations, said that while Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, managers and middle managers are all called upon to do a variety of things as it relates to their respective portfolios, they must however guard against compartmentalisation.“We need not put ourselves in niches or else we will end up with a terrible bureaucracy.When you are dealing with things like education, a situation where you have a paucity of resources, we have to be not necessarily ‘jack of all trades’, but we have to put our shoulders to the wheel in a general sense.”According to the Minister, he has observed on many occasions that people opt to stick rigidly to a routine and often would refrain from doing anything further, even after completing a mere two hours of work.Ministers, although they are involved in policy making, are very much aware of these occurrences. Being knowledgeable about the happenings in the various regions is essential if appropriate policies are to be derived and monitored, Lall asserted.In highlighting the fact that a lot of things undertaken within the education sector are not done by the Education Ministry or even the Education Department within the respective districts for that matter, the Minister emphasised that there is an urgent need for a collective effort to be engaged.“More than 50 percent of the things to do with a school, for example in Region Nine, have nothing to do with the Regional Department.The Public Works Committees, the Regional Executive Officers and the people dealing with payments…all these people contribute; they are not in the Education Department…”The Minister expressed the need for meetings to be held regionally in order to emphasise the collaboration that is essential to help bolster the delivery of education.And there is also a need for co-ordination, according to Minister Lall, who listed the movement of teachers and other education officials whether through promotions or dismissals.This development, he said, has already started at the level of the Regions and the central Ministries.“Minister Shaik Baksh (Education Minister) and I have a very good relationship. We talk about these things and we try to co-ordinate things and we need to continue along these lines.”Insufficient flow of information from the various education districts to the Central Ministry has been recognised as one of the major shortfalls within the education sector, a development which, according to Minister Baksh, could result in regional officials being sanctioned.This move, he said, comes as part of the collaborative effort of the Ministries in the quest to emphasise the need for optimum information flow from the various education districts.In order to meet this crucial demand, the Ministry of Education, according to Minister Baksh, has requested that Administrative Officers be placed in each region. And this, he said, is especially crucial to ensure that the respective regions have no reason to prevent them from efficiently reporting to Central Ministry.According to him, it has been observed that information flow from the regions is lacking immensely for one reason or another, a situation which has caused him to instruct that letters of warning be sent out.According to Minister Baksh, after three letters, which are usually directed to the Regional Education Officers (REDO) for explanation, the Ministry’s concerns will be directed to the Public Service Commission and disciplinary action is likely to follow.The Minister related that sanctions have already commenced in this regard, especially in the Georgetown Education District. |
