PESHAWAR: The Elementary and Secondary Education (E&SE) Department is yet to implement the recommendations made by the working group two years ago for devolution of maximum financial and administrative powers to the school level.

Officials in the E&SE Department told Dawn that the provincial government’s working group on the elementary and secondary education had recommended the department to devolve maximum powers to the headmasters for making vital decisions at the school level in order to improve performance of the teaching staff.

Soon after its establishment the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led provincial government had formed working groups on the level of each department to recommend reforms.

After months of deliberations and consultations, the working group on education had finalised its recommendations about two years ago, but the education department is yet to start their implementation in the educational institutions.

Recommendations made by working group two years ago yet to be implemented

In their recommendations the experts on education, who were members of the working group, had asked the education department to do away with the administratively centralised system by devolving maximum financial and administrative powers to the school heads for improving conditions of the schools, the officials said.

The devolution of powers to the school head level for taking disciplinary action against the teachers not performing duties would definitely improve the quality of education in the schools, an educationist told Dawn.

Presently, he said, the headmasters couldn’t take action against the teachers and other supporting staff if they didn’t perform well.

“It is crystal clear that the teachers would not perform their duties if his immediate boss – headmaster – cannot take disciplinary action,” he said, adding that was why results of the government schools in the annual examinations were very poor.

A government school headmaster recalled that in the 1960s and 1970s the performance of the government schools was satisfactory because the headmasters had the powers to repatriate any teacher to the directorate of education for not performing his duty properly.

A headmaster is the immediate boss of the teachers and other staff and is in a better position to judge their performance if he is empowered to take disciplinary action against them and as such all matters inside the schools would be streamlined, he added.

He said that in fact the officials sitting in the provincial secretariat of the education department wanted to have all powers in their hands whether this was beneficial for the students or not.

He suggested that the education department should devolve maximum powers to the headmasters and also frame standard operating procedure for their accountability.

The officials said that the working group had also suggested devolving powers currently exercised by the provincial government to the district education offices. It had recommended that the district education officers (DEOs) should be empowered to transfer the teachers of all cadres up to grade-20.

Currently, the authority to issue the orders of transfer of teachers in grade-19 and 20 is with the chief minister, while the chief secretary has the powers to transfer teachers in grade-17 and 18.

They said that the working group had also recommended declaring headmasters of the high and higher secondary schools as the drawing and disbursing officers (DDOs) for the primary schools located in their vicinity.

They said that as DDOs the headmasters would be empowered to take disciplinary action and they could stop salaries of the primary teachers as punishment in case their performance was not up to the mark.

The education department also failed to devolve the powers of transfers up to grade-20 to the districts and declare the headmasters as DDO.

When contacted, a senior officer in the education department said that the devolution of financial powers for procurement to the headmasters was in the final stages.

“It is not possible to empower a headmaster to transfer his teacher from the respective school,” he said, adding that implementation of other recommendations of the working group was in process.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2015

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