HakiElimu hypes 20pc allocation to education

By ANNE ROBI

NON-GOVERNMENTAL Organisation, HakiElimu, has asked the government to allocate 20 per cent of the 2018/19 national budget to education to improve the country’s learning environment.

HakiElimu Executive Director Dr John Kalage made the call in Dar es Salaam yesterday when he gave the organisation’s pre-budget statement on education sector. He said the budgetary allocation to education in the 2018/19 revenue and expenditure estimates was short of regional and international commitments to education, citing the Dakar Framework for Action on Education for All, 2000 and the Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action, 2015. “
In the 2017/18 fiscal year, the parliament approved 4,706.4bn/- as total spending in education sector, which is 1.3 per cent less than what was approved in the 2016/17budget... the sector’s budget dropped by 64bn/-,” he said.
According to Dr Kalage, the reduction of the education budget affects education development mostly in basic education. “We submit to our honourable legislators that such meagre allocation to the education sector’s development spending affects mostly our basic education,” he said.