Educational Planning in A Decentralised System: The Papua New Guinean Experience Mark Bray University of papua New Guinea press and sydney university press, 1984, 159pp
| Published date | 01 April 1985 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230050216 |
| Author | Diana Conyers |
| Date | 01 April 1985 |
184
Book
Reviews
superiors, and the extent of dependence on subordinates ar.d the scope for exercise of
personal initiative by block level officers. The analysis (pp.
96-105)
of why AEOs spend more
time on ofice duties than field-work
is
pertinent to current efforts in a number
of
Indian
states to pursue
a
more systematic approach to agricultural extension administration. Despite
the lengthy interval between the author’s field-work and the publication of findings, the
topics treated in this portion
of
the book are relevant
to
present day concerns.
Some useful field-based material is also introduced in the third main section (chapters five,
six and seven) which is devoted to the answers provided by functionaries
to
various attitudinal
questions.
For
instance, chapter six discusses why superiors and subordinates are opposed in
principle to the delegation
of
authority; also
of
interest are the reasons enumerated by
respondents for not testing out new ideas. A disabling but not fatal feature
of
this analysis is
the extended comparison of the behaviour and attitudes of
Dls
and AEOs. The differential
responses of educational and agricultural officers to various hypothetical questions provide
terms
of
reference for the composite picture of Indian field administration that the author
assembles.
The limited utility
of
this exercise is demonstrated in the concluding chapter, in which
suggestions for administrative reform are advanced. The author makes the sensible, even
obvious, suggestion that field officers be given motorcycles, and block offices be provided
with telephones, typewriters and duplicating machines. What remains unclear is what
organizational deficiencies such expenditures are designed to remedy and whether such
measures (which the Tamil Nadu government may have implemented long ago) need be
accompanied by structural
or
procedural changes in administration. In fact, the author avoids
all mention (yet alone diagnosis) of the specific problems encountered in delivering
educational and agricultural extension services in
rural
India. His (limited) interest, displayed
almost as an afterthought at the end of the book, in ‘tangible’ reform follows from an
unenlightening summary assertion (p.
166)
that Indian public bureaucracy is ‘not nearly as
efficient as it could be’ and ‘suffers from inadequate physical resources, an ill-defined role
...,
inappropriate procedures, and wrongly-trained
..
.
personnel’.
In place
of
a
comparative framework in which the idiosyncratic traditions and methods of
different departments are juxtaposed, the rich material in the empirical chapters could be
more effectively packaged and analysed in terms of an evaluation
of
current problems and
various administrative reforms which are ongoing
or
proposed. What, for instance, do the
author’s findings on inter- and intra-departmental administrative linkages portend for the
success of the Training and Visit
(T
and
V)
approach to agricultural extension which is being
pursued in a number of states including Tamil Nadu? What are the implications of the
scattered but revealing comments in the text on the pressures exerted (through elected officials
and through other more direct avenues) by the recipients, actual and potential, of educational
and/or agricultural services? Readers who approach this volume with
a
short list of topical
questions will be amply rewarded.
S.
S.
LIEBERMAN
India Division
The
World
Bank, Washington
EDUCATIONAL PLANNING IN A DECENTRALISED SYSTEM: THE PAPUA NEW
GUINEAN EXPERIENCE
Mark Bray
University of Papua New Guinea Press and Sydney University Press,
1984,
159
pp.
Between
1976
and
1979
Papua New Guinea undertook a major decentralization
of
government, involving the transfer of significant legal, administrative and financial powers
to
19
elected provincial governments. This book, published jointly by Sydney University Press
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