HR and administration also play key role in curriculum delivery |12 February 2014

Today we look at the achievements and challenges of the Ministry of Education’s Human Resources and Administration Division as part of our write-up on the presentations by the various divisions of the ministry during the ‘Sharing with Partners’ session held last month at the Seychelles Trading Company conference centre. The report was delivered by the ministry’s principal secretary Merida Delcy in the absence of the division’s director general Alice Labonte.

Mrs Delcy started off by explaining the role and responsibilities of the Human Resources & Administration Division of the Ministry of Education which is to implement and develop human resources policies and programmes with a view to enhancing the quality of the ministry’s human resource and to ensure optimal use of available human resources.

As for the administration section, it administers all areas of support services in the field of administration, expatriate housing, switch board, registry, transport and contract management services. And the role of the stores is to provide centralised services in areas of central stores, technical and vocational supplies and delivery.

Main achievements for 2013

“There has been better management and administration of the outsource services such as security and cleaning services and as a result of that and because of the recruitment and appointment of a director for administration, there have been positive changes with regard to administration. We supplied schools with 95 percent of education materials and again this was a point whereby we encountered many problems over the past years,” said Mrs Delcy.

“We also have been able to stock up and purchase a quality uniform material which is helping parents as they have to spend less.

“An effective management of stock has also allowed us equal distribution of educational materials and a reduction in some of them. This came about because a very thorough consumption analysis to know how much materials are needed in our schools was started,” she said.

Mrs Delcy also said that the division has adequately stocked up the central stores with educational materials to be used by schools throughout the year so there is no shortage and no disruption at the level of curriculum delivery.

“The recruitment of thirty Sri Lankan and twelve Mauritian teachers has been of great help to both our secondary and post secondary schools as it has alleviated the staffing situation in our schools. There has also been marked improvement in the work performance in our technical staff as a result of the new scheme of service that was introduced last year.

“The cohort of 34 office managers are receiving training at the level of diploma in office management with the School of Business Management,” she noted.

Main challenges

The principal secretary for education said that the division also has its challenges and plans for this year.

• Inadequacy of human resources which weighs on the performance of the division;

• Occasional delays of delivery of educational material and resources from suppliers overseas which do not always meet the timeline;

• The unavailability of qualified and suitable candidates for replacement of staff thus rendering the recruitment procedures tedious and very time-consuming;

• High staff turn-over is another huge challenge for the ministry;

• The need to undertake unplanned but important and urgent projects mandated by the ministry affects planned schedules and causes delay and disturbances in service delivery.

Plans for 2014

• Renew the teachers’ scheme of service;

• Develop the employee book;

• Renew the code of ethics for teachers;

• Continue capacity building programmes for staff of the headquarters;

• New cohort of office managers to follow diploma.

Compiled by M. Julie