A STUDY OF THE CHANGING PARADIGM OF EDUCATION MANAGEMENT IN PUNJAB IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF DECENTRALIZATION

Abstract

Education was decentralized to the district governments under the Devolution of Power Plan in Pakistan in 2001. This research was designed to study the changing paradigm of education management in Punjab in the perspective of decentralization. The major objectives of the study were: 1) To assess the extent to which the following objectives of the devolution plan have been achieved: a) decentralization of administrative authority b) Public participation in decision making, c) Improvement of service delivery, and d) Measures against maladministration; 2) To investigate the opinions of stakeholders about the organizational changes and their implementation at district level, 3) To identify the specific elements of reform that seem helpful to improve the school management, and 4) To recommend the measures for the solution of problems and improvement of performance of the school educational managers in future. The study was significant for the understanding of the process of decentralization of education in Pakistan. The analysis of this study may highlight the major factors for success or failure of the decentralization process and would supply an important informational base for the planners and managers to make necessary changes to achieve the targets. This study was descriptive in nature. Thorough review of the relevant literature was carried out followed by surveys through questionnaires and interviews. Its population included all the school cadre management, head teachers and teachers in the Punjab province. Twelve out of the 35 districts of Punjab were included in the sample. From each district 42 schools were selected randomly. Principals / Headmasters / Headmistresses, and one teacher from each sample school and ten educational managers from each sample district were included in the sample. Thirty (30) Educationists/policy makers and planners were interviewed. The study was delimited to the management of school education in Punjab only. Percentage, Chi Square, t-Test, and ANOVA were applied for analysis and drawing the conclusions. On the basis of the findings of the study the researcher concluded that: a) decentralization of administrative authority did not happen, b) public participation in decision making regarding education, provision of missing physical facilities and resource mobilization has enhanced to some extent, and public access has increased mostly against the maladministration, c) improvement of service delivery is rare due to some misconceptions in the understanding of roles and responsibilities, confusion between provincial and district governments, and lack of capacity building measures, d) political interference has been increased in the administrative affairs and there are evidences of political victimization of the teachers and officers, e) significant differences have been seen in the opinions of educational managers of different districts in Punjab regarding the decentralization of authority, public participation in decision making, improvement of service delivery, and measures against maladministration. The researcher recommended that: 1) educational managers i.e. EDOs, DEOs, DDEOs and AEOs should be properly empowered. Their empowerment should be ‘teacher - specific’ not ‘scale - specific’, 2) planning, and financial decisions should be more decentralized, 3) SMCs/SCs and CCBs should be strengthened through proper training for this purpose, 4) roles and responsibilities of each and every level officer must be quite clear and well defined. It should be provided to them in written form, 5) a proper set up for training of educational managers and head teachers at district level be established, 6) job specific training for persons being deputed on some managerial post be arranged, 7) performance bonuses for the efficient educational managers, head teachers along with the teachers for their better performance be introduced, 8) proper accountability system for the elimination of corruption and maladministration be launched, 9) Monitoring and Evaluation Cell should be dissolved, 10) management cadre be separated from the teaching cadre, 11) no person should be directly posted on a higher post unless he/she has experience of lower level post, 12) minimize the political influence in the education management system and teachers / officers should be protected against the political victimization, 13) proper training for plan implementation and execution be provided to officers/ head teachers, and 14) monitoring committees should be formulated by selecting persons amongst the community including well reputed retired educational managers, head teachers and teachers.