The Organisation and Methods Review that was completed in August 2008 and never made public says that education has experienced massive expansion and growth, requiring improved management and supervision at regional level and more focused monitoring and evaluation by the ministry headquarters. The report says the number of schools, the teaching facilities and the teaching personnel has grown placing considerable strain on the ministry structure. It states that while some decentralisation has taken place through the creation of regional offices, this has not happened consistently among departments. The report notes that education services still remain largely centralised and the pressure for the ministry to deliver effectively at regional and school level is considerable.
The report shows that there is evidence of declining educational quality and input. It says the processes and outputs as reflected in academic attainments all show weaknesses. The report states that there is a growing public dissatisfaction with the ministry's failure to monitor its field operations and a pressing need to develop structures, which deliver an efficient and effective service closer to the customer. The review found that the span of control among the deputy permanent secretaries is unbalanced, hence there is need for rationalisation of functions into policy development, coordination and implementation. As a result the researchers suggested five major groupings of functions.
