29.10.99

……

Seminar on MOEYS Personnel Management
16-19 November 1999

You are invited to participate in this important seminar on future possibilities for Education staff management.

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport has decided to undertake a thorough review of  Education sector policy, in consultation with other ministries and with the donor community. This comes as a follow up to a number of previous activities, including the work of the UN Working Group on Poverty Alleviation and Education, and the strategic planning work on Basic Education for All (in which four Provinces have been closely involved). Throughout these activities the availability of suitable and sufficient MOEYS personnel in many schools and districts has been seen as a problem. The need for reforms in Education personnel management has therefore been identified as a key priority. This priority will be fully taken into account in the context of the on going Education sector policy review.

Furthermore, Education Ministry personnel system modernisation will have to be implemented within the framework of reforms to all government employment being planned under the current Public Administration reform. Major changes will in any case take place. By taking the initiative now, the Education sector can provide timely recommendations to the National Programme for Administrative Reform about some long needed reforms in Education personnel management. This requires a number of internal Ministry consultations, so that a consensus can emerge on Ministry recommendations that could be forwarded to the relevant authorities.

The Ministry has decided to organise a four day seminar on issues related to MOEYS personnel management. The purpose of the seminar is to:

1. Review current problems, existing plans and reform proposals related to personnel management in the Education sector (situation analysis);

2. Prepare recommendations as appropriate (see in attachment (i) a list of anticipated outputs).

You are invited to attend this important seminar in person. These matters are so important (personnel costs absorb over 90% of our budget) that your presence will be necessary full time on all of the two full seminar days - the first day (Tuesday, November 16) of presentations and the last (Friday, November 19) - selection of key issues and recommendations for action. On the intervening two days, two half-days of workshop sessions will be organised in studying the seminar documents and applying the new concepts to the management situation in which you work (Province, Municipality or Ministry). The other half of Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 will be free for seminar participants to work in their departments or to carry out provincial business in Phnom Penh. The seminar will be held in the Planning Department Conference Room, 169 Norodom Bvd., Phnom Penh.

Participants are requested to prepare for the seminar through consulting the following documents, herewith attached:

1. Content and organisation of the seminar

2. List of participants invited to the seminar

3. MOEYS Personnel Management - Background – Situation analysis

4. List of presentations and resource persons for Tuesday November 16

5. Summaries of three studies recently completed on issues related to teachers’ conditions of service and possible personnel management solutions for Cambodia.

Please note that, if you are amongst the identified resource persons, you are requested to prepare presentations as indicated in list (iv) above.

Provincial participants are asked to use the period between now and the seminar to prepare and bring staffing information from their provinces and districts as outlined in the attached document “Staff Management Issues at Two Levels”.

Arrangements will be made to cover the travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses of participants from the provinces. Directors of the Provincial Education Offices are invited to come with a staff member from the Office who is conversant with issues related to personnel management etc.

 

                                                                                                                 Im Sethy

                                                                                                            Secretary of State

 

Seminar on MOEYS Personnel Management

16-19 November 1999

I. Rationale:

1. Reforms in personnel management identified as a key priority for Education sector policy review

2. MOEYS has to support the National Programme for Administrative Reform, and could provide timely advice on issues related to Education personnel.

II. Purpose of the proposed seminar:

1. Situation analysis - Review current problems, existing plans and reform proposals related to personnel management in Education sector;

2. Prepare recommendations as appropriate.

III. Organisation:

Seminar organised in two days/phases, with two half-days of workshops sandwiched between the first and the last days.

Day 1 – Phase 1 - Situation analysis

Review current problems, existing plans and reform proposals related to personnel management in Education, focusing in particular on the following topics:

• MOEYS ranks/statutes, and posts/categories

• Education sector functional establishment

• Education sector funded establishment – staff requirements planning

• Teachers’ career path, salaries and other professional incentives

• Teachers Employment models

Inputs/preparation:

1. Circulated before the seminar, with the letter of invitation:

1. Background – Brief situation analysis for each topic.

2. Summary of the most recent relevant studies, on teachers’ conditions of service, including:

3. ‘Current Status of Incentives’ for Teachers  F. Kemmerer, MOEYS/ PPU, June 99

4. ‘Models of Teacher Employment: Centralised and Decentralised Options Compared. Some International Examples’, Q. Thompson, MOEYS/ PPU, May 99 (draft)

5. ‘Study on Improvements in Teachers’ Conditions : Alternative Sources of Income.’ Marie Christine Uguen,  PASEC, Feb 99.

2. Presentations from resource persons for each topic-see list attached.

Organisation:

On the basis of the documents circulated in advance, and of the presentations on the first day (November 16), participants will identify key issues, which will be studied in greater detail at the half-day workshops on the second and the third days.  Participants will be expected  to spend the final full day of the Seminar (Friday 19) arriving at clear agreement on key priorities in Education personnel management reform for consideration by the Ministry in planning its sector policy reform program.

Anticipated outputs:

List of key issues for further consideration, under each topic.

Day 2 – Phase 2 – Discussions and recommendations

Discussions (working groups) on key issues raised during day 1, informed by consultations made by each participant. Preparation of recommendations for reforms in MOEYS personnel management, addressed to the relevant authorities.

Anticipated outputs:

1.       Proposed recommendations/proposals from MOEYS to National Programme of Administrative Reform. These will be examined by MOEYS top management/leaders and conveyed by them to NPAR if appropriate. Such recommendations/proposals will be related to key cross-sector policy issues, such as:

• Broad principles for the definition of Education sector ‘statut particulier’ (e.g., definition of cadres and posts, including recognition of equivalent experience and professional qualifications,  in addition to educational attainment)

• Salary structure/scale

• Policy related to payment of incentives for skilled/performing staff

• Establishment of a Teaching/Education Service (distinct from general Civil Service)

2.       Recommendations proposals for MOEYS top officials/leaders. These will be related to key sectoral policy/ strategic issues, such as:

• Definition of MOEYS functional establishment at all levels (functions à structures/ offices/ organisation à posts/ job descriptions à manpower requirements)

• Review of existing staffing norms with a view to enhancing cost-efficiency in staff deployment and to raising non salary budgets for O&M at all levels (including schools and institutions)

• Development of an annual staff establishment planning, budgeting and recruitment mechanism (cycle, institutional responsibilities etc.)

• Decentralisation of staff management

• Development of a scheme for payment of incentives related to teacher performance (and/or all Education staff)

3.       Action Plan taking forward key recommendations/ proposals made in 1 and 2 above.