MoE implements 33 percent of MEC proposals

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Education has fully implemented four proposals of out of total eleven offered by the Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluating Committee (IJACMEC), also known as MEC, during the past two years.

The committee has so far provided four reports about corruption vulnerabilities in MoE and presented its fifth report today.

The report said the MoE has implemented three proposals by 50 percent and two by 25 percent besides fully implementing four recommendations.

MEC investigations in charge, Masuma Yaqubi, said the committee had offered 113 proposals for dealing with corruption in the Education Ministry in 2017.

She said 37 of the proposals were fully implemented, 33 implemented by 50 percent and 18 by 25 percent.

Eighteen of these proposals were currently under work while eight others faced suspension, Yaqubi said.

She said giving civil society role in employment process in the MoE, publishing regional education assessment report and building a mechanism for responding to complaints were among the four proposals fully enforced.

The remaining fully enforced proposals included building a high committee of audit and creating and publishing a comprehensive plan for fighting corruption.

Improving awareness about education, adding 10 auditors to internal supervisory office and registering results of school councils’ meetings were other proposals being implemented, she added.

Reviewing the education curriculum, creating a credential system for teachers, reviewing schools’ administrative councils’ duties act, creating a workgroup for teaching curriculum and increasing practical education in teachers training centers are proposals which have been 50 percent completed, she said.

Implementing literacy programs for women, digitalizing school certificates distribution, increasing capacity building programs for teachers and workers and implementing anti-corruption and reform plans by the ministry are other proposals which have been 50 percent completed, Yaqubi said.

Building a policy for dealing with corruption in school buildings, creating coordination among MoE and Ministry of Higher Educaiton (MoHE) for teachers’ capacity building, teachers’ salaries payment electronically, implementation of third strategic plan for teachers capacity building, enforcing punishment and reward for transparency and accountability and some other proposals about MoE contracts’ monitoring, sharing expenditure reports with local people, etc, have been 25 percent implemented.

Schools administrative councils act, using technology for controlling teachers attendance, building provincial reform networks, documenting strongmen’s interference in educational affairs, meeting with local people for improving education, publishing annual expenditures and some others proposals have recently come under implementation.

The MEC report says civil society partnership in employment process, reviewing MoE workers behavior, building a technical team in every province for reforms, assessing all MoE audit reports, starting distribution of credentials to private schools and annual report about evaluation of education quality are proposals which are held in abeyance.

MoE spokeswoman Noria Nazhat confirmed the MEC report and said the ministry welcomed the committee’s proposals.

mds/ma