The government is spending a huge sum of money every year with a view to providing people with quality services from the education and health sectors. The outcome in terms of services from these sectors is not satisfactory. It is imperative for a country to ensure quality education as well as provide better medical facilities to achieve economic development.
In the past, almost the entire population of the country, the elites as well as the ordinary people, relied on the public sector institutions in the fields of education and health. So, the service providers linked to these sectors were conscious about their responsibilities and liabilities to the community for their work. Now-a-days, members of the civil society, along with the middle class, do not usually take services from these two large public sector institutions, while the rest, comprising almost 70-80 per cent families of the country, entirely depend on public sector services in health and education. They are getting inadequate services from these two sectors. But, when they provide unsatisfactory services, the doctors, teachers and the staff in these sectors no longer feel the necessity to remain accountable to the community people.
On the other hand, those who receive the services are unable to establish their rights in this regard. The service-recipients in these public sectors are also unable to use and maintain the resources properly, because they lack 'ownership'.
In the modern competitive world, you cannot rule out the existence of private sector involvement in health and education services. Therefore, the government needs to ensure quality services from both the public and private sectors to bring all the people of the community to the position of receiving services without any hesitation. It depends on supply of the latest equipment and other logistic supports, appointment of trained and well-experienced manpower, motivating manpower to become committed, and enabling the persons involved in the sectors to develop an approach of feeling accountable and liable to the community people for their work. The service recipients also need to possess a positive attitude towards using and maintaining government resources as their own, as well as preparing themselves to establish their rights to getting proper services. It becomes possible by creating 'ownership' among the community people. Without applying the give-and-take method, the ownership within stakeholders cannot sustain. Moreover, a government needs enough money for modernisation and development of the public sector institutions to help them emerge as competitive vis-a-vis the private sector. People can come forward to claim their ownership by contributing both financially and physically to the public sector institutions, in accordance with their abilities.
The government may think of introducing the "Health and Education Benefit (HEB) card" for every family in exchange for paying a small amount of money as per their capabilities. The card should be renewable each year. Those who are service-holders may contribute more amount of money to get the HEB card as they receive a certain amount of money as medical allowances from the government or the appointing authorities. The businessmen and well-to-do persons of the community may contribute a significant amount for getting and renewing HEB cards. Those who earn for the family may be identified for getting a card. Under a card, each of the dependants of its holder should be given an identity number. In view of his/her annual earning and expenditure, a token amount of money for receiving and renewing HEB cards may be considered for the poorer sections of the community. It may not be impossible for the lowest-income people to contribute a token amount of money to establish their ownership of the services, as we can see that many of them are using mobile phones. Those who have no income should be provided with HEB cards for free. It may be mandatory for all families to possess HEB cards, and without having a card nobody or his/her family members can be entitled to receive medical and education facilities from both public and private service providers.
The fee for having HEB cards should not be treated as tax, rather it may be taken as a donation for getting ownership in health and education sectors. The system should be software-based, computerised. The whole system may be interlinked nationally, so that public and private sector service providers may utilise it and preserve information containing in the cards.
It will be possible for the government to provide better and quality services by introducing HEB cards as an initiative of public-private partnership. As a result of introducing HEB cards, people will feel their ownership which will assist in establishing their rights to getting quality services.
On the other hand, all this will compel the relevant service providers to demonstrate their commitment and sincerity towards providing better services. It could also make the community people become responsible for proper use and maintenance of public resources. It may be a challenge for the administration to introduce HEB cards. But the government may take an initiative to sit with the political parties and social organisations of the country for reaching a consensus on introducing the HEB project for ensuring the stakeholders' participation in providing better and quality services in health and education sectors of the country.
