By Thomas Dixon
FREETOWN, Nov. 5 (SALONE TIMES) – Institute of Governance Reform (IGR) has published a report on the President Bio’s Free Quality Education flagship project titled, Financing the Free Quality Education and Its Alternatives: The Cost of Education to Government and Households In Sierra Leone.
‘‘Our basic finding is that while government financing of education has increased drastically in recent years, a considerable portion of the burden is still shared by individual households,” the report states.
The report noted that it is especially true for private education and that the report also underscores the impact of government policies to lessen the burden of education to parents and households by expanding its direct spend on public education.
The report revealed that Households contributed SLL 544,478 (USD 54) per child in public schools and SLL 2,019,207 (USD 200) per child in private school.
That On average, Government directly spent SLL 711,957 (Equivalent to USD 71) per child in public schools which does not include other indirect expenses and cost savings from other government programs.
“Whereas the biggest cost driver for the GoSL is teacher and staff salaries, expenditure on uniform, school bags and textbooks (both core and non-core) constitute the greatest financial burden to public schools and tuition is the main cost driver for private schools,” the report states.
That the overall cost of education for both government and households in 2020 was SLL 2.97 Trillion (approximately USD 297 Million) which is equivalent to about 8 percent of Sierra Leone’s GDP and that government contributed SLL 1.4Trillion (equivalent to USD 140M) in 2020 (the year under study), representing 48% of the total cost of education for that year.
That government’s contribution to education increased significantly from SLL 394 billion in 2016 to SLL 1.4 trillion in 2020 while Household financing of public school education was SLL 1.17 trillion (equivalent to USD 117m) in 2020, which represents 39% of the overall cost of education.
That Household financing of private school education was SLL 392 billion (equivalent to USD 37m) in 2020, which represents 13% of the overall cost of education and that when household financing of public and private school education are combined, they represent 52% of the overall cost of education.
That on average, government directly spent SLL 711,957 (Equivalent to USD 71) per child in public schools which does not include other indirect expenses and cost savings from other government programs.
That Whereas the biggest cost driver for the GoSL is teacher and staff salaries, expenditure on uniform, school bags and textbooks (both core and non-core) constitute the greatest financial.
