The former Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Education have been merged and assumed the name of Ministry of Education, but does changing one name to another brings about the required change? I believe that we are deceiving ourselves by simply merging two ministries in one and by claiming that we have solved all problems plaguing the educational system.
What we really need is to have an independent agency to supervise this system, work out plans and strategies and uplift performance. The reason behind this suggestion is that it is illogical that we compare early teaching of four-year-old children and university education for grown up men and women. The mentality of an educational district’s director is incapable of managing a university because there is a wide variance in accountabilities, tasks, authorities and efficiencies.
To be fair to the current minister, I would say that we are not the first country in the world to have a single ministry to look after the general education system and the higher education. But all those who have done this have confessed that combining two ministries in one was a failure, so they opted to the two independent ministries’ choice.
There is no denying the fact that the minister doesn’t have a magic wand and cannot by all means pilot two ships simultaneously under the pretext that they both sail into the same sea. This is an impossible mission because the sea is very wide and the passengers, the sails and directions are completely different.
We have to admit that our educational system suffers from serious deficiencies. We know very well that the schools shoulder responsibility, after the family, in upbringing our young generations. We are also aware that not one could correct a cracking pyramid from its top; hence curing an ailing system doesn’t come through holding of many conferences and forums. We should start by correcting pre-school stage — our homes.
Talking about huge budgets is not a convincing argument because we all know that these budgets are not oriented toward good quality and infrastructure, rather these budgets are spent to cover salaries and not to improve and develop the teaching process.
