The Bio led New Direction could be rated for their very strong resolve to implement a free pre-Primary to Secondary Education effective September, 2018. A lot has been done in putting together the terms of how the plan would be executed, including what is required in terms of resources.
The projections year by year starting from 2018/2019 academic year mainly pegged around internally mobilized revenues generated from leakages are very much realistic and achievable.
There is also room for external donor funding and support to the Educational Plan as development partners have made commitments to an Education Basket Fund Arrangements around the Free Education Program. It has also paid attention to the coordination of a supposedly fragmented donor support to the sector by making way for the establishment of an NGO/donor desk to harness all educational interventions by our development partners.
There is a clear commitment to overhaul issues around educational governance, improvement on teacher numbers and quality, access to improved and quality education, access to technical and vocational education, literacy and civic education, amongst others.
As a way of showcasing this commitment, the President has created two separate ministries – Primary and Secondary & Tertiary and Technical – and also appointed two Sierra Leoneans who have vast knowledge in the sector after having served in various positions for the past years fully well understanding the issues surrounding it.
While the new administration may well be underway in terms of rolling out the plan, the pronouncement of the President, on what his plans are or how he plans to finance University education, has sent tongues waging. Bio has stated in the State Opening of Parliaments that: “Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, the amount of public spending on fees subsidy for University Education is unsustainable. Whilst we will improve on the management of Grant-In-Aid Policy, my administration will introduce Students Loans to deserving students to access higher education.”
University Education has been hugely subsidized in the past years by the Koroma government, providing subsidy of around 112 billion Leones to the University of Sierra Leone, Njala University College and Milton Margai College of Education and Technology every year and quarterly subventions of 43 billion Leones to polytechnics. The government was also subsidizing 80 to 85% of the fees of each University student. Student Grant-In-Aid is also given every year to between 3,500 to 4,000 students out of over 6,000 applicants every year.
Fees paid by University
A student in the country currently stands at an average of between 6 to 8 million Leones per academic year. These fees are very high considering the poor salaries of civil servants coupled up with the appalling economic conditions in the country. Even though there are perceptions that this huge subsidy to the sector has not been felt in terms of managing our universities, that are faced with frequent strike actions by University lecturers and the poor learning environment facing our universities, parents are a little bit comfortable for government to subsidize the university education of their kids and would definitely want this to continue.
It is no secret that if subsidies are removed fees would skyrocket and the burden would squarely fall on them amidst very poor wages.
The pronouncement on improving the Grant-in-Aid policy, which in the recent past was marred by politicization and the commitment to introduce student loans to deserving students, are no better options to finance higher education as some students are not likely going to benefit from any of these options.
It is very commonsensical that providing funding from pre-Primary to Secondary education, with very concrete steps and actions and not being able to demonstrate such clarity in terms of financing higher education is a recipe for failure. There would necessarily be an upsurge in terms of students who may want to access higher education from the pre-Primary and pre-Secondary levels to the University levels. If one cannot access higher education due to funding problems then we could have not done well as a country even when we have opened up the space at the lower level.
Students from the higher level are the end products of the educational sector which would show meaning to our overall New Direction Education for Development Program.
This is the more reason why the government should be clear on its approach towards this end. They should come out clear with regards the Student Loan Scheme and Government Grant-in- Aid policy.