Strategic Review of the EDUCO Program - EQUIP123.net

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Strategic Review of the EDUCO ProgramJuly 2010Implications of the implementation of Option DThis option would constitute an enormous change in policy and in the system and would have to beimplemented carefully over an extended period of time. Implementation of this option would requirean enormous administrative, financial, organizational, and legal commitment, together with the politicalwill of the stakeholders in the education system.Just the hiring and training of a sufficient number of school principals is an ambitious initiative thatwould require financial as well as managerial support. The policy change and the transition processwould be confusing for the ACEs and the CDEs, parents, students, school teachers and principals, andthe communities and public opinion in general. To reduce problems there would need to be a substantialinvestment in a consultation, public relations, and communications plan. It would also be necessaryto carry out a large-scale support and orientation program for supervisors, school principals, teachers,students, and parents, so that they would understand the implications of the change and be proactivestakeholders. Inviting other actors, such as universities, the private sector, mayors and governors, thepress, and the international community, among others, can bring forces together and build significantconsensus around unifying the education system.To achieve the unification of the education system it is fundamental to work together with the teacherunions, so that they will be builders of this change, which will ensure strengthening the teachers andtheir pedagogic role and their incentives, for the clear purpose of improving learning. Administratively,MINED would have to look at each teacher individually to determine their status for including themin the new system. In this option, it would be necessary to invest in a strong social auditing system.Likewise, it would be necessary to invest in a transparent, efficient grievance and complaints system thatenables citizens, parents, teachers, principals, and students to feel that their grievances and complaintsare being addressed by MINED entities following clear procedures with time limits on the response.The system would require reviewing, in the light of clear standards, teacher performance and the role ofthe Teaching Profession Boards and Court, so that these entities are effective. This option requires anin-depth review of the legal framework: overturning the EDUCO executive decree, amending the TeachingProfession Law, reviewing the applicability of the regulations for basic education and for the conformationof teachers’ councils, and other MINED standards and regulations, to ensure a clear road inMINED guidelines. This transformation of the educational administrative system would require at leastfive years of transition and support.Option E. Eliminate EDUCOThis option would eliminate the ACEs, taking away their legal status, and turn all ACEs into CDEs.The labor relationship would no longer be between ACEs and teachers, but rather between MINEDand teachers. To some extent, this option, together with Option A, would have the least impact on thecountry’s education system. It would sacrifice the accountability of EDUCO without adding anything of42
Strategic Review of the EDUCO ProgramJuly 2010substance regarding quality; although it would create greater job stability, in exchange, however, for notdemanding anything more than the CDEs currently demand. It would not affect the schools currentlymanaged under the CDE model. The advantages and disadvantages of this option are as follows:AdvantagesDisadvantagesAccess toeducationIt is possible that once this approach is eliminated, poor,rural schools will be at a disadvantage for obtainingaccess to resources, help in creating a new school, orpriority for obtaining teachers. It would eliminate theexpeditious system the ACEs have to create teacherpositions and to create sections. It would affect the goalsof the Social Education Plan.QualityAdministrativeand institutionalmanagementHuman resourcesmanagementMoving all the schools into theCDE system would reduce theadministrative burden of MINEDon the processing agents, butthe bureaucratic burden wouldremain high.It would reduce the payment ofwages of 8,000 teachers becausethey would stop receiving moneyfrom severance payments, butthey would feel more stable.This option would probably substantially decreasethe quality of education in the ex-EDUCO schools. Itwould widen the gap of inequity and would decrease theprobability of meeting the Social Education Plan’s goals.This set of changes would eliminate the accountabilitystructure that exists in EDUCO without replacing itwith any functional alternative. All of the country’sschools would have weak systems for accountabilityand responsibility to parents and communities, with theconsequence that the tensions prevailing in the CDEswould now prevail in all schools. This would be a bigchange for the schools run by the ACEs. The ACEswould lose much of their power and the volunteer parentswould be left idle. It could affect the school environmentand have a negative impact on achieving the goals of theSocial Education Plan.Implications of the implementation of Option EEliminating EDUCO would require a substantial investment in time and resources by MINED to managethe change and its institutional and political costs. To prevent significant upheaval in the schoolsystem, a highly organized transition process would be needed. Implementing this option would involvea significant administrative process that could cope with the individual transfers of each one of the approximately8,000 teachers who would switch from one-year contracts to a different system. This would43
Page 1 and 2: Strategic Review of the EDUCOProgra
Page 3 and 4: Strategic Review of the EDUCO Progr
Page 41: Strategic Review of the EDUCO Progr
Page 83: Strategic Review of the EDUCO Progr

Strategic Review of the EDUCO Program - EQUIP123.net

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?