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Assessment of the Usage and Implementation of SAKALA

Spotlight: Department of Public Instruction

&

Updates from NIC

Submitted to:

Dr. Shalini Rajneesh

Principal Secretary DPAR (AR)

Government of Karnataka

Sridhar Pabbisetty

Chief Operating Officer

Centre for Public Policy

IIM Bangalore

sridhar.pabbisetty@iimb.ernet.in

Mahima Vijendra

Research Associate

Centre for Public Policy

IIM Bangalore

mahima.vijendra@iimb.ernet.in

Ullas K. P.

Intern

Centre for Public Policy

IIM Bangalore

ullas.pradeepkumar2011

@teachforindia.org

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Table of Contents

What Officials Say ...................................................................................................... 3

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 4

Services under Sakala .............................................................................................. 5

Department of Public Instruction: Summary ................................................ 6

Performance Comparison: March, April and May ....................................... 7

District-wise Trends .............................................................................................. 7

Service-wise trends for Bangalore .................................................................. 9

Department of Public Instruction: Findings ................................................ 12

Training ..................................................................................................................... 12

Implementation ..................................................................................................... 13

Monitoring ............................................................................................................... 14

Awareness Creation ............................................................................................. 14

Feedback Collection ............................................................................................. 16

Issues and Suggestions ....................................................................................... 16

Updates from NIC ..................................................................................................... 18

Appendix 1: Officers Interviewed ..................................................................... 20

Appendix 2: Questionnaire .................................................................................. 21

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What Officials Say

“At the end of the day, there are more people happy with the government… They get their

work done with minimum hassle, harassment, delay.”- Mission Director, Sakala

“After Sakala, with the time being fixed, the service will be rendered faster…” –

Director Primary Education

“Through Sakala 100% services will be provided in the stipulated time…” – Nodal Officer,

Department of Public Instruction

“Sakala is the need of the hour…” – Director Secondary Education

“Very good program to address public grievances and timely disposal of pending works in

offices” – Deputy Director of Public Instruction, Bangalore Rural

“All our services should be brought under Sakala”- Director, Karnataka Secondary Education

Examination Board

“I welcome Sakala… It has reduced the pressures and accusations on my staff”-– Deputy

Director of Public Instruction, Bangalore South

“Sakala will come into effect from June” – Senior Department of Public Instruction Official

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Introduction

Sakala – Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act (2011) empowers citizens to avail

services from the Government of Karnataka in a time-bound manner. The Act mandates the

delivery of 151 services across 11 departments within a stipulated time. In case of a delay /

default of a service request, the officer responsible is liable to pay a fine of Rs. 20 per day

limited to a maximum of Rs. 500 to the citizen as compensation.

The team at Centre for Public Policy, IIM Bangalore has previously carried out an in-depth

assessment of the implementation of Sakala in the pilot districts across departments. This

exercise puts the spotlight on the Education Department, and the Department of Public

Instruction in particular. The assessment spread over an entire month involved interviews

with a cross section of officers on the advantages of Sakala and the challenges in its

successful implementation.

The Education Department was chosen for the spotlight primarily because of the seasonal

inflow of applications, which poses new challenges and calls for optimization of resources

during the crunch hour.

The Department of Public Instruction received 2,129 applications from March through May.

Therefore the assessment was designed towards ascertaining the readiness of the

department for the application inflow.

The Department of Public Instruction boasts of being one of the few departments with zero

pendency as of 31st May 2012.

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Services under Sakala

There are six services rendered by the Department of Public Instruction, which comes

under the purview of Sakala. They are:

1. Registration of New School.

2. First Recognition of School.

3. Renewal of Recognition of School.

4. Issuance of Duplicate/Provisional SSLC Marks Card.

5. Re-totalling of Marks secured in the SSLC examination.

6. Revaluation of SSLC Examination Paper.

Services 1, 2 and3 are availed by the private/aided school managements. These services

are provided by the Block Education Officer (BEO), Deputy Director of Public Instruction

(DDPI) and Director of Public Instruction (DPI) at respective district offices.

Services 4, 5 and6, availed by the citizens/students, are provided by the Karnataka

Secondary Education Exam Board (KSEEB) at Bangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga.

Snapshot of the seasonal application inflow:

Service Average Number of Applications* Time of the Year Registration of Schools 700** Deadline 31st

October First Recognition of Schools 700 ** June-July Renewal of Recognition 500 ** June-July Issuance of Duplicate/Provisional Marks card

2000 Throughout the year

Re-totaling of Marks secured in the SSLC examination

800 May-June

Revaluation of Marks secured in the SSLC examination

2500 May-June

*Data collected during interviews with officials. **Bangalore-Mysore Region

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Department of Public Instruction: Summary

The key findings from interactions with officials and citizens are as follows:

There is a need for staff with IT skills and training programmes for existing staff that

are not proficient in IT skills.

Lack of awareness about Sakala amongst the top officials is hindering the effective

implementation of the Act - A senior official told us that Sakala would be launched in

June!

The checklist based approach is assisting officials in providing services in a time-

bound manner. However, there is a need to revise the checklist for a few services.

Create a staggered time line for the ‘Registration of New Schools’ in order to

decrease the pressure on BEOs, who are required to conduct field visits to each new

school.

36 First Division Assistant and Second Division Assistant posts have been filled by

promotions, since the introduction of Sakala.

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Performance Comparison: March, April and May

With Sakala coming into force across the state starting from April 2, 2012, there has been a

significant increase in the number of applications for services offered by the Department of

Public Instruction. Under Sakala applications went up from 182 in March 2012 to 485 in

April 2012 to 1462 in May 2012. June received a total of 2813 applications.

District-wise Trends

March:

The pilot phase of Sakala was launched on the 1st of March 2012 in Aurad Taluk in Bidar

District, Chitradurga Taluk in Chitradurga District, Puttur Taluk in Dakshina Kannada

District and Dharwad Taluk in Dharwad District and Jayanagar in Bangalore . Bangalore

(178) saw the highest number of applications followed by Dharwad (6) and Bidar (2).

District-wise trend in March

April:

Sakala was launched across the state on 2nd April 2012. A total of 485 applications were

received across the state.

Bangalore96%

Dharwad3%

Bidar1%

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Bangalore saw the highest number of applications followed by Gulbarga. ‘Issuance of

Duplicate Marks Card’ was the most requested service with 323 applications received in

Bangalore North.

District-wise trend in April

May:

A total of 1462 applications were received across the state.

The KSEEB Board in Bangalore received applications for re-totaling and revaluation of

SSLC exam papers, resulting in a steep increase of applications received in Bangalore from

323 in April to 1268 in May.

District-wise trend in May

Bangalore 67%

Gulbarga 24%

Chitradurga

2%

Mysore 2%

Bangalore 87%

Gulbarga 7%

Bagalkot 1%

Mysore 1%

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June:

A total of 3497 applications were received across the state.

The previous month’s trend continues in June with the KSEEB Board in Bangalore receiving

a large proportion of applications (2386) – as requests for revaluation of SSLC exam

papers.

District-wise trend in June

Service-wise trends for Bangalore

Applications for three of the six services, Issuance of Duplicate Marks Card, Re-totaling and

Revaluation of Marks secured in the SSLC exam are received at the KSEEB Office in

Bangalore North Taluka. Hence we observe most applications being received in Bangalore

North Taluka.

March

A total of 178 applications were received in Bangalore. All the applications were received in

Bangalore North Taluka. Issuance of Duplicate Marks cards received the highest percentage

of applications, at 99%. Re-totaling and Revaluation received only 1 application each.

Bagalkot, 1%

Bangalore, 92%

Gulbarga, 4%

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Service-wise trends in March

April

A total of 323 applications were received in Bangalore during April. 100% of the

applications received were for Issuance of Duplicate Marks card.

Service-wise trends in April

May

May saw substantial number of applications received for some of the other services. Re-

totaling of marks received the highest number of applications at 561, followed by Issuance

of Duplicate Marks Card at 486, Revaluation of marks received 216 applications, Renewal

Issuance of

Duplicate Marks

Card, 176

Re-totaling, 1

Revaluation, 1

Issuance of

Duplicate Marks Card100%

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Issue of Duplicate

Marks Card /Provisiona

l Marks Card20%

Re-totalling of marks

secured in examinatio

n6%

Revaluation of

Examination Papers

74%

of Recognition of schools, Bangalore North and South Taluka combined received 5

applications.

Service-wise trends in May

June

A majority of the applications received in June were for Revaluation of Examination Papers

(2386) followed by 627 requests for Issuance of Duplicate Marks Card and 191 for Re-

totaling of marks.

Service-wise trends in June

Issuance of

Duplicate marks card38%

Re-totaling

44%

Renewal of

recogition for

Schools1%

Revaluation

17%

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Department of Public Instruction: Findings

Training

One round of department specific training has been provided. A team comprising a Nodal

officer and Programmer were appointed for each district and trained centrally. This team

created and trained a core group comprising the BEO, Manager and Case worker in every

office. A generic training was also provided at the Zilla Panchayat level by the NIC.

The training provided to the core group by the centrally trained team is not being

monitored. The Directors and Deputy Directors expressed hope that it will be completed

soon. With Sakala marching into its third month of existence this lack of training might lead

to more applications by-passing the system.

Neither training nor orientation has been provided to the Directors of Public Instruction.

This has created lacunae in the system. The Directors are not made aware of technical or

systemic issues in the Department. In a system where policies and changes employ a top-

down approach, this lack of training has left a lot of room for more efficient

implementation.

The Education Department has a tie-up with Microsoft to provide computer training to its

staff. The staff however is averse to computers and prefers the manual route. When asked

about what would enable them to deliver Sakala more effectively, majority requested for

more computer operators.

The Sakala training was theoretical and concentrated mainly on the GSC number, the

services, application forms, checklists etc. Owing to theoretical and technical heavy

sessions, only the Programmers or the computer operators were benefited.

The training should be spread over two sessions - one concentrating on non-technical

details of the Act and the other on practical technology focused session.

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Implementation

The implementation of the Act has been smooth considering the low inflow of applications.

The system has to be strengthened to tackle the sudden seasonal increase in applications

that the Education Department experiences yearly.

‘Registration of New Schools’ is one of the services that receive a large number of

applications each year. These applications have to be submitted before a deadline, usually

the final week of October and are disposed by the end of March. With the introduction of

Sakala, the service has to be provided within 90 days. The service requires field visits by

the BEO and DDPI office which increases the load on the employees with the new time

limit. The Director of Secondary Education suggested that by creating a staggered timeline

the issue can be resolved and service provided within the time limit.

The common issue hindering the success of Sakala, across departments has been the under

staffing of the offices. The Education Department has filled in 36 First Division Assistant

and Second Division Assistant vacancies by promotions since the introduction of Sakala.

Most officials admitted having few vacancies in their office, but assured that this would not

hinder them in the implementation of the Act.

The Department has been pro-active and has supplied five computers to each of the 202

blocks across the state, basic computer training required for the staff has also been carried

out.

The Competent Officer and the Appellate authority have not received adequate training

regarding imposition of fines and addressing appeals of the Designated Officers. These

officials need to be provided with the procedure to handle such appeals.

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Monitoring

The Sakala Portal developed by the NIC is available online to all the officers and the

citizens. This portal provides data regarding the application inflow and also pendencies in

the various districts and departments. The “Over Due”, “Due for Today” and “Due for

Tomorrow” reports available to authorized users aides in better monitoring.

The officers also receive an SMS about the number of pendency for that day. This service is

widely used by the officers in monitoring the applications in their office.

The Sakala Mission monitors the portal closely everyday and identifies defaulting

departments and offices. The defaulting officers are spoken to personally in a non-

accusatory manner aiding in identification of loop-holes in the system.

The Central Nodal Officer of the Education Department monitors the status of the

applications on the portal every day. This practice is not followed across the Department,

where monitoring of the applications is done by the Programmer and not by the

Designated Officer. The low knowledge and confidence levels in computer usage amongst

the officials is responsible for this trend.

The monitoring is also done during weekly meetings in the BEO, DDPI, Director and ZP

offices.

Awareness Creation

Close to 40 lakh citizens across the state are now aware about Sakala and its advantages.

The Mission however has a long way to go in reaching out to the rest of the State.

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The Sakala Mission has been actively creating awareness since the introduction of the Act

through TV commercials, radio jingles, street plays, display boards and newspaper

advertisements.

The Mission is also conducting workshops for NGOs, citizen groups, Resident Welfare

Associations etc. to increase awareness by word-of-mouth.

The display boards outside the offices play a key role in creating awareness amongst the

citizens. These boards usually have the list of services, time required for the service to be

delivered, competent and appellate authority details and also the helpline for registering

complaints.

Most offices we visited in the education department had these display boards. More

attention has to be paid towards placing these boards at strategic locations. We observed

offices with boards which were placed where citizens did not have access.

The operator or case worker receiving the application and providing the GSC

acknowledgment slip needs to inform the citizen about the tracking and grievance

redressal facility available. We interviewed citizens who received GSC slips but were not

aware about these facilities.

The Education Department had organized an awareness workshop for all school

managements in March and April at the BEO level. The managements were provided

checklists and details about the deadlines. This has ensured that the school managements

who avail three of the six services available can avail their service with ease.

Some of the officials have expressed intent of conducting awareness sessions at the school

level, which through word-of-mouth will reach more citizens in the remote districts.

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Feedback Collection

A systematic feedback channel has been created at the Mission level to receive feedback

from the citizens. The IT Consultant is each district speaks to about five applicants on a

daily basis. The feedback collected is routed to the District Information Officer. The officer

sends out a team from the Information Department which interviews these applicants.

Aggrieved applicants are provided with service at the earliest and their experience

recorded.

At the Education Department level, there is no feedback system available. The officials

expressed interest in creating such a channel but requested for assistance from the

Mission.

The feedback from officials is collected during monthly meetings with the Deputy

Commissioner who is also the Nodal Officer of his district. This data is routed to the Sakala

Mission which acts on this feedback.

The biggest concern with this feedback system is that the anonymity of the official cannot

be maintained resulting in pseudo ground feedback.

At the Education Department level, daily, weekly and monthly meetings are the only means

of feedback collection from the officials.

Issues and Suggestions

Issues

A GSC number has one Designated Officer – this model poses an issue when there

are multiple levels of approvals. For example, an application for ‘Registration of New

Schools’ passes through three levels of approval namely the BEO, DDPI and Director.

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Once the BEO services the request and passes it onto the DDPI’s office they are

unable to view the GSC number which results in the breakdown of tracking process.

There are issues with permission available to officials at various levels. They are

unable to view the applications received by an office under their district.

The Less Paper Office software being used in the Education Department is only for

tracking and monitoring. This has not been integrated with Sakala.

Once an application has been updated, the original copy cannot be accessed. Officials

and data operators have requested for this facility.

Report generation is not consistent in the KSEEB board.

Revision of Checklist for a few services required.

‘Re-totaling and Revaluation’ applications are received only at the KSEEB office in

Bangalore North Taluka and applications for ‘Issuance of Duplicate Marks Card’ are

received at offices located only in Bangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga.

Therefore, districts and talukas other than the ones mentioned above indicate zero

applications received.

Suggestions

Computerization of the services provided by the Education Department.

Orientation and Training across levels, especially for the Competent Officer and the

Appellate Authority.

A more systematic feedback collection model from the officials and a scaled-up

model for the citizens.

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Updates from NIC

In response to some of the issues raised by the various departments interviewed during the

previous field visits, the NIC has put forth the following points:

Content management is the responsibility of Nodal Officers (NO). Discrepancies in

mandatory documents’ checklists and workflows will need to be identified by NOs and

required changes communicated to NIC. In this regard, a meeting with NOs of all

departments and NIC is recommended.

For example, the following issues require the attention of Nodal Officers of concerned

departments:

Home Department – ill-defined services and internal issues are preventing the

Department from consuming the available web service.

Municipal Administration software, developed by the e-Gov Foundation, can be used

to address the variance in mandatory documents at municipal-level. This internal

software however, has not been integrated with Sakala.

Owing to HD-One and Bangalore-One centres not being integrated with Sakala,

services provided by the centres such as Birth Certificates / Death Certificates and

Khatha Extracts are by-passing the Sakala system.

Bhoomi transactions – Mutation Extract and RTC (provided over-the-counter) –

have been included under Sakala.

Caste Certificate – There is no consistency between Nemmadi and Sakala on

documents required to be submitted by the applicant.

"Conversion of Agricultural land to Non Agricultural" mandates the submission of

documents like "No Tenancy Certificate” and “Encumbrance Certificate". In Dharwad

district, as per our interviews conducted during the field visit, these documents are

not required to be submitted by the citizen during the application time (as shown in

the image below). The documents / forms are obtained from the concerned

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department directly. Therefore, the use of KGSC website for such requests is

problematic.

It is recommended that district-specific checklists for bespoke services are given to the NIC

to update the system accordingly.

Each department should also take on the responsibility of coordinating requests for Digital

Signature Certificates (DSCs), which are to be issued by the NIC.

With regards to step-wise tracking of application, it was suggested that a citizen is issued a

status update (‘Pending with XYZ” or “Processed”) on expiry of stipulated time.

Additionally, services with stipulated time greater than 30 days should send an

intermediate status SMS to citizen.

At present, Sakala does not have any provision for cancelling applications in case of errors

or withdrawals. NIC will need to initiate a process of including a ‘Cancel Application’ option

in the system.

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Appendix 1: Officers Interviewed

Mission Director, Sakala

Deputy Commissioner, Dharwad

Nodal Officer, Education Department

Director of SSLC Board

Director Public Instruction(Primary)

Director Public Instruction(Secondary)

Secretary to the SSLC Board

DDPI, SSLC Board

DDPI, Bangalore North

DDPI, Bangalore Rural

DDPI, Bangalore South

DDPI, Chikkaballapur

DDPI, Dharwad

BEO,Chikkaballapur

BEO, Dharwad Urban

BEO, Dharwad Rural.

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Appendix 2: Questionnaire

SAKALA – Assessment of Usage of the Act Part 2: QUESTIONNAIRE (Director)

Date:

Name:

Department:

Designation:

Email / Phone:

Address:

General:

What is your vision for ‘Sakala’?

What would be your goal for this month and year?

What in your opinion are the advantages and disadvatanges of Sakala?

What do you think are the necessary preconditions for the success of such an

initiative?

What is level of interaction and knowledge transfer within Karnataka (between

districts) and with other States that have implemented the RTS Act?

Implementation and Monitoring:

Which of the following services are covered under sakala?

Service Yes/No

1. Issuance of Duplicate Marks card.

2. Modification of Marks card.

3. Migration Certificate

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4. Re totalling

5. Photocopy

6. Re Evaluation

7. Private Candidates

8.Verification of Results

9. Modification of results(Consolidated)

10. Registration of Schools

11. Renewal of recognition

What are your powers under Sakala?

Do the citizens have the provision of approaching you, if the Competent Officer does

not provide them the compensation?

How do you plan to take action against/ hear the designated officer?

How many districts have under performed?

How many Designated Officers have under performed?

Have you initiated action against any Designated Officer?

What is the general trend and number of applications every year?

What is the number of applications this year? Do you see an increase in the near

future?

Who is the first point of contact for citizens in the office?

What are the major challenges faced in the implementation of Sakala? How are they

being overcome(What measures have been implemented)(Specifically training)?

Is there a monitoring system in place to assess the efficacy of the implementation

and usage of Sakala? If yes, can you explain the monitoring system in place? If no,

are there any plans of introducing a monitoring system – please elaborate?

Who is responsible for monitoring the adequate usage of Sakala?

What parameters of service delivery are monitored?

When there is an under-performing department (in terms of receipts and defaults),

what corrective action is taken and who is responsible for taking corrective action?

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What are the formal and informal methods by which citizens’ and staff feedback is

collected and assessed?

How are citizens’ and staff perceptions ascertained and managed?

Capacity Building and Awareness Creation:

Has the Software been integrated with departmental database to monitor details

about applications? How was this integration carried out?

Who is responsible for technological troubleshooting?

Are there any vacancies in the department? If yes, at what level?

How many vacancies have been filled since the launch of Sakala?

Were officials given any training? If yes, what did the training entail?

What are the major enhancements planned for the future? In terms of:

o Systems

o Training

What efforts were made to generate awareness among citizens about the Act and

their ability to track the status of their applications?

Impact and Next Steps:

What are the major achievements of Sakala?

What has been its impact on:

o Government departments

o Service delivery procedures

o Citizens

What would enable you to ensure successful implementation and usage of Sakala?

How many more services are planned to be covered?