Private schools urged to give free tuition to 10% of students

THE Ministry of Education is to change its funding formula to allocate money to the 13 regions according to the number of schoolchildren in each region.

The change will take effect in April next year. Cabinet approved the policy framework and the simulation model on education funding that will help the Ministry of Education to put in place mechanisms for equity in financing education and distributing educational resources among the regions.Private schools will continue receiving Government subsidies, provided they are officially registered at the Education Ministry and meet the minimum national education standards and policies.A new regulation will however apply from April next year, allocating funds to eligible private schools based on equity and poverty considerations.All eligible private schools will be required to enrol at least 10 per cent of their total enrolment of pupils from a disadvantaged background on a full scholarship.If not, they will either not receive Government subsidies any more or must incur for each student not enrolled on scholarship a penalty equivalent to three times the amount of the per capita subsidy to be allocated to a given region.In allocating the per capita subsidy in each region, a formula taking into account the private school subsidy, the unit cost of providing education in a public (Government) school for a given region, the 10 per cent (required number) of students on full scholarship and the remaining number of paying students, will be applied.According to the latest Cabinet briefing paper issued on Friday, the Ministry has through the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (Etsip) identified equity and efficiency in the educational outcomes between regions, schools and pupils as an important objective for education financing reform in Namibia.In March this year, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development established a working group to co-ordinate between technical level stakeholders on issues related to the development and implementation of per capita financing model for the education sector.The working group designed a formula-based mechanism for distributing resources in primary, secondary and adult education within the overall Etsip framework.The total regional education budget will be distributed to Regional Councils based on four allocation factors – 37 per cent of the regional education budget will be distributed to regional councils in proportion to school-aged children in their regions; 38 per cent will be allocated in proportion to Government school enrolment; 15 per cent in proportion to the number of poor households and 10 per cent in proportion to a distance index.This will take into account the size of the region and the distance between the regional capital and Windhoek.”Applying these factors will somewhat address inequity across the education sector,” the Cabinet document stated.Cabinet approved the policy framework and the simulation model on education funding that will help the Ministry of Education to put in place mechanisms for equity in financing education and distributing educational resources among the regions.Private schools will continue receiving Government subsidies, provided they are officially registered at the Education Ministry and meet the minimum national education standards and policies.A new regulation will however apply from April next year, allocating funds to eligible private schools based on equity and poverty considerations.All eligible private schools will be required to enrol at least 10 per cent of their total enrolment of pupils from a disadvantaged background on a full scholarship.If not, they will either not receive Government subsidies any more or must incur for each student not enrolled on scholarship a penalty equivalent to three times the amount of the per capita subsidy to be allocated to a given region.In allocating the per capita subsidy in each region, a formula taking into account the private school subsidy, the unit cost of providing education in a public (Government) school for a given region, the 10 per cent (required number) of students on full scholarship and the remaining number of paying students, will be applied.According to the latest Cabinet briefing paper issued on Friday, the Ministry has through the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (Etsip) identified equity and efficiency in the educational outcomes between regions, schools and pupils as an important objective for education financing reform in Namibia.In March this year, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development established a working group to co-ordinate between technical level stakeholders on issues related to the development and implementation of per capita financing model for the education sector.The working group designed a formula-based mechanism for distributing resources in primary, secondary and adult education within the overall Etsip framework.The total regional education budget will be distributed to Regional Councils based on four allocation factors – 37 per cent of the regional education budget will be distributed to regional councils in proportion to school-aged children in their regions; 38 per cent will be allocated in proportion to Government school enrolment; 15 per cent in proportion to the number of poor households and 10 per cent in proportion to a distance index.This will take into account the size of the region and the distance between the regional capital and Windhoek.”Applying these factors will somewhat address inequity across the education sector,” the Cabinet document stated.