A storm has arisen over the recent decision by President David Granger to reassign Education Minister, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine to the post of Minister of Public Service within the Ministry of the Presidency, and to effectively promote the Junior Minister of Education, Ms. Nicolette Henry to the substantive post of Minister of Education. Our editorial yesterday dealt with the political ramifications of the reshuffling – today, we speak to the more important aspect, the implications for education.
In her previous post, Minister Henry has made some unfortunate public gaffes, her most recent and egregious being her reading verbatim what was clearly a recycled prepared speech, one that she failed to adequately correct via ad lib when she would have noticed the speechwriter’s error of mixing up two religious holidays.
For her ‘crimes’, she has received an alarmingly disproportionate amount of criticism, derision and ridicule, a situation that cannot be said to be a fair and objective reflection of what she has actually been there to do – run a ministry in the interest of people. What has not been, but should be, taken into consideration in the most scathing critiques (notably including one published in the editorial column of a leading private paper) is that over the past two years under her watch there has been no taint with regard to accountability coming out of the departments under her purview. She has not been subject to Parliamentary censure, there has not been any danger of her being brought before the Committee of Privileges, and the political opposition has had little to offer with regard to criticising her actual management of the ministry.
In contrast, her far more media-friendly predecessor presided over a situation in which almost annually there was some new scandal, large or small. When the current administration came into power, roughly half of the original state audits or probes covered activities run by the then Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport – the Cricket World Cup 2007; Carifesta X (2008); the Sports and Arts Development Fund, an audit that only covered three of the fund’s seven years of existence, 2012-2014; the National Synthetic Track; and the Olympic swimming pool. And this does not take into account the failure to develop and implement policy in a single portfolio area.
What has not helped with quelling controversy over the reassignments and establishing public confidence in Henry’s appointment is that the administration has been somewhat vague in what its post-reshuffle plans are, but the practical reality is clear – Ms. Henry is in fact the Minister of Education, serving with the confidence of a President who has underscored education as a key pillar of his national development platform, and building upon a policy framework established by Dr. Roopnaraine, one of the great intellects of the Caribbean region. She will not be likely removed or reassigned before 2020.
As Minister of Education, she has two primary tasks ahead of her. The first is to understand that her professional and academic competence in her field of specialty notwithstanding, her job is a political post and that two years into the public spotlight, she cannot ignore that there is a critical public affairs dimension to its execution, including engagement with what can be at times an acrimonious media. This means establishing an efficient, proactive public affairs unit at the ministry and personally mending bridges with the press. The second has to do with bringing her international standard internal systems management skills to bear in executing the policy vision as established by both President Granger and Dr. Roopnraraine, a vision that she as former junior minister should be completely au fait with. This means that her familiarity with programming strategies and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, honed during her work in the international system, the US Center for Disease Control in particular, is going to be invaluable in the recovery of what has been recognised as a critically ailing education system. While much has been made of what has been said to be a supposed incongruity between Ms. Henry’s portfolio responsibilities and her professional/academic background (a charge never leveled against her immediate predecessors, Ms. Manickchand a lawyer and Dr. Anthony, a medical doctor), her public health management training is arguably what the public education system needs at this juncture, both practically and symbolically. Her appointment comes at a time when the ministry is involved in several critical measures that will define its programme over the next few years, most notably mid-term review of the Education Strategy Plan and examining and implementing the recommendations coming out of the Commission of Inquiry into Education.
Finally, the idea to place a mechanism for education innovation and reform under the President’s portfolio is not in fact a diminishing of the efficacy of the Ministry of the Education, as has been bandied about, but a capacity-building initiative. The Ministry of Education is the agency tasked with reforming education but part of the quandary has been the ministry itself has to be subject to administrative and operational reform as part of that process. It is therefore natural and fitting that oversight responsibility for the reform and innovation process be external to the ministry, and the only qualified agency to take on responsibility for that component of the strategy is the Office of the President.
The path ahead for Nicolette Henry, Minister of Education will not be an easy one–as Dr. Roopnaraine’s mantra goes, “If education fails, Guyana fails.” While her blunders have been very public, the reaction to them are by no measure an accurate reflection of what she has so far done, which is to take in two short years a scandal-ridden former ministry and to restore it to some sense of operational normalcy. Let’s hope she can do the same at the Ministry of Education as a first step in what will be a great and arduous journey towards fixing public education in this country.