Mahdzir: Ministry to be restructured to give more power to state education depts, offices

PUTRAJAYA: The Education Ministry will be restructured to give more authority to the State Education Departments (JPN) and District Education Offices (PPD) in making decisions.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid (pix) said today the Public Service Department had approved the proposal last Dec 14 and the structure at the ministry, state and district levels would be finalised after the matter of appointment warrants had been completed.
He said the ministry would issue a list of matters to be decided on at the ministry, JPN and PPD levels to reduce bureaucratic red tape, especially in the administrative aspect.
"Currently, if there has been a fire at a school, the minister has to answer, (the matter) has to be written by the school to the PPD, from PPD to JPN, and from there to the ministry, which will meet, then only a decision can be made.
"No need for it after this. If a school is razed, JPN can decide on the allocation required to rebuild and the ministry will provide the allocation," he told reporters after delivering the ministry's new year message at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre.
Mahdzir said the initiative was aimed at delegating the positions and responsibilities from the ministry to the JPN and PPD, as well as to develop and boost leadership capability of those in 150 to 200 main leadership positions under the ministry.
"However, certain matters like the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and so on are under the ministry through the Examination Board," he said.
On phase two of the 1BestariNet programme, the minister said 8,185 schools would be upgraded with the 4G network by June, after 6,000 schools had been upgraded under phase one.
"In phase two, the ministry will give priority to the students' learning process by ensuring that each computer lab is provided with 4Mbps (megabits per second) penetration to meet the needs of 40 students using the Virtual Learning Environment simultaneously," he said.
Besides that, Mahdzir said the 2GB Individual Data Plan with 4G technology had been distributed to 317,000 teachers in a number of states last December. — Bernama