Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

New recruitment system for schools, hospitals mooted

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A new system of recruiting staff in government schools and hospitals has been mooted by the Administrative Reforms Commission to make the process more transparent and accountable to the local communities.

The commission report submitted to the Centre has proposed to evolve an alternative that would be more answerable to the public in each locale.

Moving away from the current State-level recruitment system, which has been termed ‘non-accountable,’ the commission has proposed to hand it over to an institution or society to increase its public accountability.

A paradigm shift has been suggested in the crucial service delivery sectors of education and health from centralised control to decentralised action.

Instead of being accountable to the Education and Health Departments, those working in the sectors should be answerable to the local communities.

The recruitment should not be an option to guarantee jobs to teachers and other employees, but to ensure quality service to the public. The thrust should be on providing better service to the public.

The recommendation assumes significance as it comes at a time when discussions are on over a proposal to hand over the appointment of aided school teachers to the Public Service Commission and give a central role to the civic bodies in the management of schools and hospitals that have been handed over to them following the decentralisation of powers.

All schools should be made functionally self-sufficient in classroom requirements and basic facilities.

This can be ensured only by the local bodies which have the powers and funds.

The State government has drawn flak for proposing to give a pivotal role to local self-government institutions (LSGIs) in education and health sectors.

The proposal to seek the opinion of LSGIs for opening aided and unaided schools has also come in for criticism. Now, the commission has pointed out that these are some of the options for improving the functioning of schools and hospitals.

In order to enhance the quality of the services, institution-specific standards should be prescribed and third party assessments carried out from time to time to monitor their performance in service delivery.

The commission has also recommended performance-linked incentives to employees at all levels. Performance indicators too have been proposed for the services offered by the local governments.

The civic bodies should also work for the convergence of health, sanitation and drinking water facilities. The Local Administration Ministry should lay down the broad guidelines for preparing a set of indicators.

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