Mauritian minister urges govt to increase education funding

Mauritian minister urges govt to increase education funding

AL-MAHDI SSENKABIRWA

KAMPALA. The Mauritian Minister for Higher Education, Science, Research and Technology Dr Rajesh Jeetah has asked the Ugandan government to increase funding to the education sector if the country is to achieve meaningful socio-economic transformation.

Dr Rajesh who is currently on a state visit to Uganda said Mauritius has made much strides in education because of the huge investments they have put in the sector.

“We have achieved a lot simply  because  the biggest portion of our budget goes on education and I urge Uganda to borrow a leaf from us,” he said during a press conference in Kampala  on Saturday .

He commended Uganda for introducing free education but urged authorities to put much emphasise on the quality of the students churned of schools.

“ We are also offering free education right from pre-primary to university but we take quality very seriously because without it ,the whole service becomes a nothing ,” he said adding “ that is the reason why our students are constituently ranked top in the world each year for the Cambridge International O’Level ,International A and AS Level examinations .” 

The minister at the weekend closed the two-day Kampala International Education Fair which was dominated by universities and colleges from Mauritius and also visited Green Hill Academy to get a feel of how teaching and learning is conducted in Uganda .

He said his government’s   funding for infrastructure had risen to 4.5 billion rupees (US$145.5 million) for both public and private institutions.

“Our major focus now is to see that every family has at least one graduate by 2015,” the minister said

In Uganda, education is one of the key funded sectors and its share of the national budget has been on an increase over the years .But due to a high growing population, the sector faces new challenges every year especially under the free education programme and analysts   say it will  take long to satisfactorily fund the sector  .This ending financial year (2012/13) the ministry received 1.669 trillion, down from Shs1.3trillion in 2011/12 fiscal year, representing  represent 17 percent of the total budget .

Ms Elizabeth Gabona, the commissioner for Higher Education said they have many lessons to learn from Mauritius because it has   registered significant progress in the sector.

“ We have much to learn from them especially on how they execute their programmes but they can also learn from the good education policies we have in place ,” she said

The government of Mauritius provides  free education to  its citizens from pre-primary to tertiary level. Since July 2005, the government introduced free transport for all students. Given its  low population of about 1.3million, foreign students  in Mauritius who study and successfully complete their studies get employment there . According to Dr Jeetah , his target is to see that 100,000 foreign students join Mauritius higher institutions of learning by 2020. Currently, 40,000 foreigners are working in Mauritius as expatriates, according to Dr Jeetah .