The government of President Dr. Irfaan Ali is now granting more authority to teachers and the management teams of educational institutions because he feels that bureaucratic procedures hinder the prompt distribution of desperately needed resources to students and schools.
Speaking during the opening of the new Victoria Lily Primary School in Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, the President declared that the Education Ministry’s new policy is to give schools more autonomy. According to him, this new approach is required to reduce pointless bureaucracy.
There is a system that is very centralized with too much bureaucracy and too (many) power brokers. “For example, the schools must go through the regional system to get basic, essential things to manage the schools and then you have bureaucratic delays. “You have, sometimes, the creation of little superpowers who believe that the authority that is given to them is to control how much chalk goes to a school,” the President lamented.
Because the existing system has not functioned adequately, a decision has been taken to give resources directly to teachers and the schools’ administrations.
This decision was first announced by Education Minister Priya Manickchand at a recent sitting of the National Assembly when the government side of the House sought $61 billion in supplementary funding to advance projects. Then, Manickchand defended the move, stating that teachers know best what their learners need.
The Head of State agreed with this rationale.
“We are going to directly disburse (resources) to schools and then hold you accountable… so that we also develop greater management capacity, capability and leadership at the local level and we have greater involvement of communities,” President Ali said this week.
With the government now directly disbursing resources, Dr. Ali called on the Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) to be more vigilant and help monitor the use of state funds.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ali said this management system will also be used in the healthcare sector.
“We’re spending too much money in this region for the type of results we are getting in healthcare.
“People will have to buckle up and buckle up fast because we are not going to tolerate any type of delivery in the healthcare system that does not bring the results that we are investing in,” an evidently agitated President Ali said.
