Development Council Should Be More Strategic

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Development Council should be morestrategic

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

It is good news indeed that the ational !uman "esources DevelopmentCouncil #!"DC$ has been rescued %rom obscurity and placed under the&inistry o% 'olicy 'lanning, (conomic )*airs, Child, +outh and Cultural)*airs, under the guidance o% the 'rime &inister himsel%

!"DC was established in 1--. as per the provisions o% /he ational !uman "esources Development Council )cto 1 o% 1--. with the overarching purpose o% initiating,promoting, and participating in the implementation o% policies relating to human resources development ystatute, the council is represented by secretaries o% teney ministries and all heads o% education authorities,including the ational (ducation Commission #(C$,&inistry o% (ducation #&3($, /ertiary and 4ocational(ducation Commission #/4(C$, ational )pprenticeship

and Industrial /raining )uthority #)I/)$ and the niversityrants Commission #C$ /his representation gives thecouncil an e7cellent vantage point in regard to humanresource development in the country Its previousplacement under the &inistry o% 8cience and /echnology,%ollowed by variations o% the &inistry %or 8illsDevelopment, did not do 9ustice to its purpose

http://www.ft.lk/article/508735/National-Human-Resources-Development-Council-should-be-more-strategic


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NHRCD is of to a good start, but …

With its reincarnation under the &inistry %or 'olicy 'lanning, !"DC is wellplaced to play a more central role /wo recent publications by the councilgive us an indication o% its direction :irst is the ;!"DC 8tatistical ulletino% (ducation< which brings together data on general education %rom the

&3(, vocational and pro%essional education data largely %orm the /4(C anduniversity education data %rom the C It is good to have a publicationthat brings together the data %rom what essentially seems lie three policysilos

=Increasing the allocation %or education to 6> o% D'? is the topic o% thesecond document (ducation e7penditure captured in the D' is the sum o% all @nancial resources devoted to education as the result o% choices madeby governments, enterprises, and individual students and their %amilies

/he use o% D' as a measure o% government allocation %or education,

clouds the @nancing issue unnecessarily but, leaving that discussion %or alater time, it is important to recognise the step taen by the !"DC to giveinputs to the overnment on allocation mechanisms

oth documents indicate the readiness o% !"DC to bring together thehitherto segregated sectors o% general education, tertiary vocational andpro%essional education and university education !owever, the organisationand content o% the documents show that !"DC needs a more strategicapproach

Wish lists in place o strategies

!"DC had adopted the usual practice o% getting ey staeholders in eachsector and essentially asing them how to spend an increased allocation %oreducation in their sector :our committees have been constituted andconsulted and they have done their duty to come up with some e7cellentideas %or spending money !owever, the recommendations are presented asa wishAlist segmented across the %our areas o% B ie preAschool education,school education, tertiary vocational and pro%essional education and

university education n%ortunately, no attempt has been made to bringthese wishes and the %ew policy tools together under the umbrella o% apivotal strategy or strategies %or human resource development in 8ri ana

/his lac o% a strategic approach is, I believe, due to two ma9or aws in thecommittees< world view B namely, a myopic view o% tertiary education and acommand and control approach to school education



Myopic view o access to tertiary education

/he section on higher education sector begins with the claim that highereducation is the ape7 o% any national education system and access issue is%ramed as access to university education 'ro%essional education is bundledwith vocational education and set apart /his shortAsighted view o% tertiary

education is un%ortunate

:or those seeing advancement in their careers, a charter in theirpro%ession is the ape7 Euali@cation, and such chartered pro%essionals mayor may not hold an academic degree /hose with a chartered pro%essionalEuali@cation o%ten %ollow a &aster<s in usiness )dministration %rom auniversity to complement their pro%essional training I% I am not mistaen,the present Chairman o% the !"DC is a case in point, and he should taethe lead in convincing the academics that pro%essional Euali@cations areconsidered 9ust as important as, or more important than, degrees in the

worplace o% today

uniying !uali"cation ra#ewor$ is a #ust

) national Euali@cation %ramewor is a mechanism %or connectingsegregated systems o% Euali@cations, but 8ri ana is yet to develop a trulynational Euali@cation %ramewor /he ational 4ocational Fuali@cations#4F$ %ramewor which was introduced by /4(C in 2002 %ollows the)ustralian and ew Gealand %ramewors closely /he 4F reserves evel 1A

6 %or certi@cates, diplomas and higher diplomas, and evels .A10 %ordegrees and above

/he Euali@cation %ramewor developed by the &inistry o% !igher (ducationin 2010 with World an assistance develops its own Euali@cation%ramewor leaving vocational and pro%essional Euali@cations to beintegrated as an a%terthought 8uch integration is made diHcult %rom thebeginning due to the %act the 4F put its degree parallel Euali@cations atevel . and the higher education sector sets degrees at evel 5

/he education maret or the 9ob maret has no regard %or sel%Aimposed silos%ound in the public sector ) survey o% 9obs advertised in the newspaperscarried out by I"(asia in 2012 revealed 9ob openings in 0Aplus sectors%rom accountancy, architecture, and aviation to logistics, to teaching andtourism Whenever degree level Euali@cations are sought, eEuivalent nonAdegree Euali@cations too are speci@ed In some sectors, pro%essionalEuali@cations with or without e7perience are pre%erred over degrees )parallel survey o% educational opportunities advertised by the private sector



in 2012 revealed the e7istence o% 600Aplus education and training programso*ered by 200Aplus institutions

What we need is classi@cation o% Euali@cations by evel, with Euali@cationsin each evel distinguished as to whether they belong to thevocationalJpro%essional trac or the academic trac )rticulation between

the two tracs is essential in a Euali@cations %ramewor In 8ri ana,private institutions have already taen initiatives in this regard

/ae the case o% accounting education )ccording to a I"(asia survey,enrolments in the three ma9or accounting bodies B Institute o% Chartered)ccountant o% 8ri ana #IC)8$, Chartered Institute o% &anagement)ccountants #CI&)$ and )ssociation o% )ccounting /echnicians o% 8ri ana#))/8$ B totalled more than 100,000 students in 2011 ))/8 is aparticularly noteworthy organisation dedicated to vocational training butcommitted to ensuring multiple pathways o% progression, academic or

pro%essional, %or their trainees through &3s signed with universities andpro%essional bodies

!"DC is uniEuely positioned to advocate %or a single Euali@cationsauthority to develop and en%orce standards %or Euali@cations %rom (C #3J$to diplomas, higher diplomas or pro%essional charters or academic '!Ds,within a true 8ri anan Fuali@cations :ramewor #8F:$ 8uch aEuali@cations authority would be responsible %or in%orming and educatingstudents at all levels about the %ull range o% educational opportunities inpublic or private sectors in vocational and pro%essional or academic tracs

and %acilitate smooth articulation and trans%er %rom one Euali@cation toanother, across or within a trac /he 3Hce %or Fuali@cations in K is ane7cellent e7ample

Co##and and control approach to school education is notproductive

)lthough the 1Lth )mendment to the Constitution devolves educationadministration to the provinces, e7cept in the case o% national schools and

other selected schools, the provinces continue to loo to the centralministry %or direction and the central ministry continues a command andcontrol approach to administration

Initially, relegating authority to the provinces may tae command andcontrol e*orts /he implementation o% a voucher system %or distribution o%school uni%orms is a case in point /he voucher system is e7pected to delinthe ineHcient distribution channels %rom the centre to the schools, but that



delining reEuired a resolute action by the central ministry

In that regard, it is disappointing that the Committee on 'rimary (ducationrecommends that the preAschools catering to children aged LA5 should bebrought under the &inistry o% (ducation 'reAschool education is clearly asub9ect devolved to the provinces

/he recommendations %or primary and secondary education include the;wishes< o% increasing teaching o% science, technology, mathematics and(nglish in schools and catering to special needs children, but the policytools are rather sparse and limited to incentives %or teachers in these eyareas and more %unding to strengthened I( y implication the centralministry is to drive these changes

%he principle o subsidiarity and concept o challenge unds should

be applied increasingly

/he ational (ducation Commission in 8ri ana in 200L identi@ed threeadverse %eatures which are signi@cant sources o% ineHciency in publiceducation /hey wereM #i$ e7treme politicisation o% the system at all levels#ii$ lac o% coordination within the &inistry and the agencies coming underthe purview o% the &inistry and between the &inistry and provincialauthorities and #iii$ ineHciency, ine*ectiveness and indi*erence o% oHcialsand principals, and lac o% motivation among teachers /hese same issuesare more or less identi@ed by the !"DC committees, e7cept %or the

politicisation issue which the +ahapalana environment is perhaps e7pectedto address /he wishAlist o% outcomes in the !"DC report does not addressthese structural issues that hamper education re%orms It would have beenuse%ul to discuss why previous attempts by the &inistry o% (ducation, with%unding %rom )D and the World an, had %ailed to deliver

3ne une7amined solution is the diligent application o% the principle o%subsidiarity in education administration )ccording to the principle o%subsidiarity, only those activities that cannot be per%ormed by individualschools should be relegated to the divisional or provincial authorities, and

only what cannot be per%ormed by provincial authorities should berelegated to the national authorities

)nother use%ul principle is the concept o% ;Challenge :unds<, whereincreasing amounts o% %unds are trans%erred to provinces as %undsdistributed on the basis o% per%ormance 'rovinces are essentiallychallenged to per%orm /his concept is used by donor agencies to disburse%unds utilising maretAbased or incentiveAdriven solutions I% the



benchmars %or per%ormance, in terms o% increased access to science,technology, math and (nglish education and services %or disabled students,can be developed, Challenge :unds can be disbursed across the nineprovinces according to their achievements /he e7pectation is thatprovinces are better eEuipped to innovate i% the incentives are suHcientlyattractive /he recommended policy tool o% giving incentives to teachers

too is something that the provinces should be encouraged to innovate uponso they can discover incentives that wor

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Development Council Should Be More Strategic