Comprehensive Evaluation of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) Programme: Financing and Costing of UPE
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Date
2020
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Publisher
National Planning Authority
Abstract
With the introduction of UPE in 1997, Government committed to providing the basic facilities and resources to enable every child enter and complete primary school. The Government commitments included: (i) payment of school fees; (ii) provision of instructional materials in the form of text books; (iii) construction of basic physical facilities in form of classrooms, laboratories, libraries and teachers’ houses; (iv) payment of teachers’ salaries and; (v) training of teachers. is specific policy brief presents insightful findings and recommendations on the Financing and Costing of UPE; one of the six thematic areas of the independent comprehensive evaluation of the Universal Primary Education (UPE) Policy, undertaken by the National Planning Authority. overarching findings show that the UPE policy has been pro-poor, making education affordable to the poorer households, nonetheless, financing of the UPE policy remains a critical challenge. While public expenditure allocations to UPE have been increasing in nominal terms over the years, it has not kept pace with the government commitment, the ever increasing cost of living and enrolments due to the growing school age population among other factors. is has pushed up the household expenditure on primary education to about 57% of the total household education expenditure, hence making it a challenge for especially poor households to meet their children’s school costs. It is hence recommended that in order to improve the benefits of UPE, the capitation formula should be revised, to enable schools cope with the demands of providing quality primary education as committed by government.