Public service reform programme as a mechanism for improving the performance of the public service : A case study of the Ministry of Education of Zambia
Date
2012-08-01
Authors
Michelo, Jericho
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Abstract
Many other countries including Zambia, have been trying to improve the delivery of service to its citizens. In the year 1993, Zambia implemented the Public Service Reform Programme. This was not the first Zambia had tried to reform the Public Service. Zambia had instituted a number of reform programmes, with the latest being the Public Service Reform Programme (PSRP). The PSRP aimed at transforming the public service into an efficient and effective organ for delivery of services to the people of Zambia.The research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency in performance of the Ministry of Education following implementation of the PSRP. Changes in performance were measured using both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection.The findings of the study were that service delivery did not improve significantly because efficiency and effectiveness in performance of the Ministry of Education had not improved despite the restructuring programme. This is shown from the fact that the respondents still spent long time their problems were solved. It was clear form the responses that the still had to make return journeys to the office irrespective of where they were coming form.
As regards the policy of decentralisation, the school/college education boards that were introduced under it were not autonomous in their operations. They continued to receive administrative instructions form the offices above making it difficult for them to make decisions that could improve the operations of the schools/colleges.The study found that salary structures in the Ministry of Education were not adequate to motivate or retain staff.
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Civil service , Public Service Commissions