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From an analysis made by SWANCEFA on
education financing in Eswatini in 2017, it was observed that financing
arrangements in the education sector favours some levels of education while
leaving others neglected. It was also observed that the imbalance in the
financing of education comes in the form of neglect for some vulnerable groups
such as children with special education needs and those that are at the
pre-primary schooling levels who are supposed to be enrolled at the Early
Childhood Care and Development level. In terms of funding from the public purse
for this particular group for instance, their share is just around 1% of all
the education budget for all the years reviewed. Furthermore, there is an
observation that while donor funding for all the sectors is dwindling, the
education sector share of such funding has also suffered as it is among the
lowest ranking the forth lowest.
While the concept of innovative financing
is not necessarily new around the globe, initiatives targeting the education
sector have not been very much of a success when compared to sectors such as
health. In this sector, initiatives such as the Global Fund for HIV and AIDS,
TB and Malaria have been a success story. The most critical observation with
such funds is that those that have been successful are those that have not been
subjected to too much and unnecessary bureaucratic processes as this renders
them ineffective and non-responsive while leaving out deserving groups and
nations.
Following the above noted
observations, a number of recommendations have been made in this report to
facilitate the adaptation of the presented models as well as the design of new
yet effective ones for implementation towards meeting the SDGs education sector
outcomes. The recommendations are structured into two parts. The first part of
these recommendations seeks to create an enabling environment towards ensuring
that all education financing efforts are effective and responsive to the
country’s education financing needs. The second part of it is the actual set of
the recommended education financing models that could be appropriate for the
country
The following is a presentation of the
recommendations for an enabling environment and context within which Innovative
Education Financing Models are likely to thrive.
Since the
budget allocations within the education sector are not balanced as some parts
of the education system, groups and levels receive a disproportionate share of
the budget, it is recommended that a restructuring of the public budgetary
allocations be made within the education sector and between sectors to give
more resources to the lower levels of education, the vulnerable groups and
other deserving parts of the education system. This will free some resources to
cover the neglected groups and areas. This is more so because at the
post-secondary education level for instance, there could be other potential
funding arrangements that could be pursued such as student loans, graduate
plans and others.
ü
Evidence-Based Planning and Budgeting for Education
As the efforts for innovative education
financing intensify, there is a need to establish appropriate and clearly
articulated evidence-based, integrated and decentralised planning and budgeting
systems for the education sector. All necessary information to inform policy,
strategy and programming in the sector should be in place to improve targeting
and reporting. This will further help in the monitoring and evaluation of the
interventions within the education sector in the country. Even interested
sponsors can be in a position to evidently decide on the areas of interest
where they can put their money in. For this purpose it will be necessary to
generate sufficient timely statistics to inform decision making and financing
in the sector. In addition to this, there is need for this sector to have
clearly articulated education sector collaboration and coordination mechanism
that will compel all education stakeholders to share their information, plans,
strategies, targets and budgets.
ü Efficiency in
the Use of Education Funds
The issue of education financing is not
necessarily an issue of inadequate financial resources but a combination of
inadequacy and inefficiencies in the use of education resources. Adopting and
applying efficient methods of education sector management is critical not only
to avail more resources but to also create credibility and trust from those
providing such funds to the sector.
Overall it is recommended that the principles of good governance be
applied to promote efficiencies within the innovative financing for education
as it enhances accountability and transparency between education financiers and
education workers on the use of resources.
ü Strengthen
Finance and Accounting Systems
The country’s schools have a history of
misappropriation of school funds which is usually linked to lack of finance and
accounting systems and personnel in schools. Head teachers are usually expected
to understand and carry out proper accounting yet it is not their job and they
are not even trained on this. If innovative education financing is to be a
success, it remains critical to establish in all schools strong finance and
accounting systems with the requisite staff for such a function.
ü Improve the
Transition Rates from Primary to secondary
According to the 2014 Multiple Indicator
Cluster Survey (MICS) the country’s transition rates from primary to secondary
school is 85.1% while the percentage of children of secondary school age who
are currently attending secondary school or higher sits at 50.4% in the
country. The initiative for innovative financing of education should also be
targeted at enhancing both this transition rate and the percentage of children
of secondary school going age to much higher levels. This is especially because
if more resources are made available without improving these indicators, it
would defeat the efforts and compromise the attainment of education outcomes.
As a first step it would be necessary to identify the challenges associated
with these indicators for these children and invest in addressing the areas
that would have been identified.
The following
recommendations are actually the recommended models that the country may have
to consider going forward to enhance the attainment of education outcomes. They
are based on the Innovative Funding Models that have been discussed in the
report as applied in different countries around the globe.
ü Higher Education Revolving Loan Scheme
Once the
budget restructuring discussed above has been done, it would be necessary to
establish a revolving fund for Education where the government will inject a
once off amount into any fund manager of her choice who will manage and
disburse the funds in the form of student loans payable over an agreed period
of time. This fund will mainly support the financing of tertiary education
level easing the burden from government of financing tertiary education which
usually receives a bigger share of the education sector budget. In this way,
the savings from the current arrangements will be used to finance primary and
secondary education levels. A similar arrangement is already practiced by the
government under the Housing and Car Schemes where government has injected some
amounts of money into the private banks for disbursement and management.
Given the
numerous uncoordinated efforts from different partners in the education sector
that finance education, the establishment it would be advisable to establish a
basket fund into which all such contributions shall be pooled for targeted
distribution to the targeted groups or projects selected from the use of
evidence of need for improving the education sector in specifically identified
critical areas.
Given the fact
that the country’s primary education is currently state funded, it would be
advisable to have parents make savings in graduate plans towards the financing
of their post-secondary education. This is particularly because government does
not sponsor all children who enrol at tertiary institutions. This should be
properly managed under credible fund managers who will also make sound
investments of such funds until they are required by the beneficiaries for
their education. In terms of those parents who cannot afford to make such a
contribution because of their socio-economic situations, their part of the
funding for tertiary education would be through the current Government
Scholarship. This means there are two windows for funding, with one taking care
of those children whose parents can afford to contribute to the Graduate Fund
and the other being that of those that cannot afford to contribute to the
fund.
ü
Voluntary Contributions from Migrants’
Remittances
Migrants’ remittances, which amounted to $397 billion in 2008
according to official World Bank figures, constitute a significant and stable
source of external development funding. They rank a little behind Foreign
Direct Investment in terms of economic contribution to the GDP of low-income
countries. In the case of Swaziland, these can be used as a special source of
funding where migrants would send more money towards educating a group of
vulnerable children. This could be managed under the Young Heroes’ Programme
which has successfully mobilized resources for the education and general upkeep
of orphaned and vulnerable children in the country.
ü
Student Loans
Programme
As recommended
by several observers including the World Bank (2010), the country should
institute a fully-fledged student loans program. This entails redesigning the
tertiary scholarship into a fully recoverable student loan scheme administered
through a credible commercial bank. Government involvement in this should only
be up to guaranteeing the loans and on ensuring that scarce skills are
developed with the scholarship as an incentive for such.
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