Financial management and teacher absenteeism remain challenge

More children have enrolled in primary schools in Africa in the last decade than ever before according to UNESCO. In Uganda the introduction of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme in 1997 has led school enrolment to soar from 2 million pupils to 7.8 million.

According a new report, however, managing the achievements of free education for all is proving a challenge for many African governments.

The report by Transparency International (TI) Africa Education Watch Programme shows that the government’s perception that massive enrollment is a sign of the success of the UPE programme must be adjusted to take in the challenge of overcrowded classes, classrooms under trees, poor financial management, illegal fees, and lack of school inspections.

The report exposes corruption and abuse of power by teachers in schools who charge illegal fees, make students offer labour on teachers’ projects, sexual harassment, embezzlement and systematic teacher absenteeism.

“Increasing school enrolment is not enough,” said Stephane Stassen, Senior Programme Coordinator at TI, who leads the Africa Education Watch Program while releasing the 2010 TI Africa Education Watch report in Ethiopia. “To ensure true, lasting progress in education levels and best use of the scarce resources available, oversight and accountability must be improved.”

Transparency International Uganda Executive Director Robert Lugolobi said increased funding in primary education has not led to better educational outcomes so far.

He said financial leakage, wastage and other inefficiencies result in fewer resources being available to achieve the agenda of Education for All (EFA).

The report titled Africa Education Watch: good governance lessons for primary education, was based on research in Madagascar, Uganda, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Niger and Sierra Leone.

Transparency International did the study to assess the effectiveness of decentralised accountability structures in bringing education management closer to the people. In Uganda the survey data was collected from schools in all the four regions in the districts of Apac, Arua, Kotido, Lira for North,  Kamwenge, Kasese, Masindi, Mbarara, Kabarole from West, Busia, Kumi, Soroti, Pallisa from east and  Kiboga, Mpigi, Mubende, Kampala from Central region.

It shows that governance systems are either deficient or not available.  It notes that increased enrolment has strained facilities, teachers and instructional materials and led to high drop-out rates and the poor quality of the learning outcomes. In Uganda’s case, the challenges are despite the government’s commitment to education as a priority development target under the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP). The weaknesses are attributed to system leakages, delays, corruption and mismanagement of primary education resources, especially funds.

Compared to other countries, more Ugandan parents and teachers said school resources were better managed. Overall, 85% of schools surveyed in all countries had either deficient accounting systems or none at all. In most cases, financial records were either unavailable or incomplete. The survey found limited financial documentation at district education offices and at schools. Most people who handle school grants reported they did not train in basic finance management.

In Uganda, however, the study found that 77% of head teachers had received training in basic financial management and 53% of members of school management committees. Only 7% of schools were without any financial documentation, 76% of schools had incomplete financial documentation while 17% of schools were with complete financial documentation.

The report argues that access to information is necessary for stakeholders to participate in the oversight management of resources.

The report notes that, “while parents and head teachers did not report high levels of corruption in schools, the poor quality of accounting and financial record keeping at district and school level makes it impossible to assess the truth of these claims.”

All of the countries surveyed in the TI report receive external development support and by law must offer free primary education. But 40% of parents in Uganda report paying registration fees which the survey identifies as one of the corruption tendencies. The parents reported they were paying about Shs 5,400 on average.

In Uganda, 9% of parents reported that teacher absenteeism is common in schools and 57.3% followed up with an official complaint. Five per cent of parents said their children suffered sexual harassment but on 43% of officially complained to authorities.

However, the TI study is based on perceptions; what people think rather than what has been found to be the reality on the ground.

Another survey titled, The Efficiency of Public Education in Uganda, conducted at about the same time as the TI study in 2007 by the ministry of Education to determine efficiency in education provision, for example, found that teacher absenteeism levels are higher than those captured by the Transparency International education report.

Basing on a study of teacher absenteeism carried out in 2004 which found an average rate of teacher absenteeism of 27% in Uganda, the Ministry’s study says Uganda has a serious problem of absenteeism compared to other countries like Zambia (17%), and Papa New Guinea (15%). The loss due to this resource leakage constituted 19% which is equivalent to Shs 53 billion out of the Shs 276 billion ministry of Education wage bill.

Given the high estimate of teacher absenteeism, this study conducted unannounced school visits to 160 government and non-government schools in November 2006.  The schools were randomly selected across the Western, Eastern, and Central regions and covered 6 districts.

According to the ministry of Education report, the magnitude of teacher absenteeism is so large that reducing it should be a principal focus of Government efforts to improve efficiency in primary education.

The TI report says parents and teachers did not know they have a right to ask for information about the school’s finances. It appears school head teachers deliberately keep financial information to themselves implying lack of transparency in accountability.

This is worsened when school management committee and PTA heads do not receive training in financial management and yet these would be responsible for monitoring expenditure of school capitation grants.

It says 82% of Ugandan parents do not bother to find information about the finances allocated to their schools and many of them did not think it would be possible to ask for this information. Of these 42% did not know that this was possible while 41% were not interested. Some 87% of head teachers said they are informed about the funds and dispatch timing of public resources (cash and kind) for their school.

In all, “64 percent of schools surveyed across all countries did not display any budgetary information at all,” says the report. Interestingly 9% of head teachers and 12% heads of PTAs think resources are sometimes embezzled before reaching their school, according to the report.

In its recommendations the report says there is need to properly define the responsibilities of the district education offices due to increased decentralisation about the roles of such sub-national bodies and they appear to be overwhelmed and strengthen the school financial management.

 “Information about material and funds allocations to schools must be made public at district level, school by school, through notice boards and local media,” the report says.

The report advises government to hire and train more teachers, construct more classrooms, provide instructional materials and develop appropriate curriculum.

All should be accompanied by empowerment of communities “to pro-actively engage in the struggle for improved accountability and transparency in the delivery of education services”.

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