New year, same challenges in the education sector, Part 2

The Minister of Education


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The major challenge that education systems throughout the world face is that of improving the performance of these systems. The Minister under whose portfolio education falls is tasked with improving this performance. As such she/he has the responsibility to lead the policy development initiatives for this sector, initiatives that they (believe?) will cause improvement in these systems.

The Minister has a slew of policy experts from within and outside of the governmental system from whom to get policy advice. She/he draws on these resources, and let us assume that the Minister seeks the advice of experts who have or have had an intimate relationship with the education system as former or current school managers, teachers, education researchers, education officers, among other such experts.

Having got this critical bit of policy advice for which she/he has searched and found, she/he authorizes the creation of specific policies for the different areas in the education system on which her/his portfolio touches. So, for example, one such policy may be intended to improve the 'educational outcomes' of students at the pre-primary or primary or secondary levels of the education system. For these educational outcomes to be realized, this policy will have to be implemented, monitored and revised when necessary.

The Minister knows this, so she/he authorizes the relevant persons in the Ministry to 'run' with the policy initiatives. The Minister has high hopes that at least some of the changes that she/he has envisioned to improve the education system will be effected during her/his tenure in office. Instead, she/he  eventually realises that those whom she/he has authorised to 'run' with the policy initiatives have barely been crawling.

Challenges faced by the Minister

So, the Minister faces three major challenges to realising his goal of effecting whatever improvements to the education system that she/he deems to be necessary to drive performance:

  • Making Policies Relevant - One challenge is to ensure that policies for the education system are created based on the realities inherent in the system. If the policies that are created for the system are based on the realities of other systems, without major tweaking they are destined for failure or to yield unsatisfactory results.

  • Inspiring Staff - The second challenge that the Minister faces in realising her/his goals for the education system is that of inspiring those whom he leads to take the necessary action to achieve the desired results. This is indeed a challenge, because in education systems where accountability structures are weak, education systems in which people have almost 'bullet proof' employment contracts, education systems in which there is a militant union, and in systems where there is a reluctance to apply disciplinary measures and the employees know this, action or inaction means the same thing.


  • Educating staff - The Minister should not assume that the staff that he inherits knows their job and will do it.  She/he  has to ensure  that those who are tasked with developing policy and implementing policy fully understand the reasons for doing what they do and the benefits to accrue to them and society or sections of society from the policy. Therefore an education campaign targeted at the members of his team is not amiss.
    Improvement as defined by the Minister and his advisors will only be achieved if the Minister understands the challenges which come with his job and take action to overcome these challenges. How does she/he overcome the challenges? This is the one million dollar question, the answer to which the Minister has to search, taking into consideration the realities of the environment in which she/he works.



    Read part 3 of 'New year, same challenges in the education system' here. Read part 1 here.














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