By Nasratu Kargbo
The government has spent over 400% on national examinations and tuition fees. This increment is a combined expenditure for NPSE, BECE and WASSCE together with tuition fees since the introduction of the Free Quality Education (FQE) programme by the present government.
According to Augustine Sankoh of the Communications department in the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) when the programme was introduced in the country, more schools applied for subsidies to be given to their schools. The total Pre-Primary, Primary, Junior Secondary, and Senior Secondary school subsidies in 2018 was Le 30,436,730,000, this drastically increased to Le 158,289,410,000 in 2021.
According to data shown by the Ministry of Finance, the annual wage bill for teachers increased from Le 474.16 billion in 2019, to 636.62 billion for 2020. This increment in annual wage bill covers 4,000 new teachers that were recently on the payroll. It is also stated that a set of 1,000 teachers have been recruited for 2021 which will further expand the wage bill.
As per the 2019 schools census, it indicated that the country has a total of 83,054 teachers rendering services, with 66,501 (83.7%) of these teachers practicing in approved schools.
According to the education sector data, there has been a significant increase in the number of schools approved for Government support, indicating 53.4% for pre-primary school, 78.7% for primary, 76.7% - junior secondary, and 80.4% for senior secondary schools. This means they can receive tuition subsidies, textbooks, and other learning interventions.
There has been an increase in payroll for teachers by Le 13.45 billion, from Le 42.95 billion in March 2020 to Le 56.40 billion in April 2020. This is as a result of the recent 30% increase in teachers’ salaries that saw the payroll rise by Le 13.45 billion.
According to MBSSE ,the FQE programme has led to the massive increase in student enrolment nationwide. The number of learners enrolled in schools increased by almost 700,000, which according to the ministry was due to the commencement of the FQE. The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) in the primary also increased by 30 and 34 percentage points for boys and girls respectively, between 2018 and 2019.
The Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary School Education, David Moinina Sengeh said that the ministry has for the past years received unprecedented support saying: “We have the largest multi-donor trust fund ever at USD 72million with five major development partners, and now see some private sector contributions as well. Recently, we became eligible for up to $40m GPE transformation grant because of the work we have done”.
The government in August 2018 launched its flagship FQE programme that allows every child to attend government and government-assisted schools free from paying tuition fees.
Copyright © Politico Online 20/10/21
