Last week, Education minister Janet Museveni appeared in parliament to defend her ministry's budget. As JOSEPHINE NAMULOKI reports, legislators on the parliamentary committee on education tasked the first lady to use her influence in government to cause funding for the many unfunded priorities in her sector.
Appearing before the education committee to defend the ministry’s budget for 2017/18, Ms Museveni told the committee that her sectoral budget for the coming financial year was inadequate, given the various activities the ministry has.
The education budget is projected at Shs 2.4 trillion for the financial year 2017/18. This includes a wide range of vote allocations, including primary, secondary and tertiary education, physical education and sports and special-needs education. Kalungu West MP Gonzaga Ssewungu opened the can of worms.
“Madam Minister, you are in trouble. The [former] minister [Jessica Alupo] got money while she was the minister of education. But you came here [in the ministry] and your budget has been cut. But your status, on the other hand, can make everything move in the budget and this is happiness to our committee,” Ssewungu said.
“Also at home, I want to assure you Madam Minister, when things fail on the side of my wife; I’m the one to answer all those questions; I’m saying that in the spirit of education ... how do we get unfunded priorities in the ministry when we have a minister who is the first lady?”
Some committee members called for the reallocation of the budget to have some funds go to unfunded yet priority areas like the students’ loan scheme and sanitary pads while others argued that in her position as first lady, she would still engage the finance ministry to increase the education budget.
“We have been in the field and to a large extent we agreed to the directive of the ministry to close schools,” Jonam MP Emmanuel Ongiertho said. “But we realized that some of the schools are mushrooming because nobody has been there to inspect them; can we see something put aside and we raise money for inspection?” Workers’ MP Margret Rwabushaija added, hoping to give the minister a way out of her woes.
“It’s in our mandate to help the ministry as far as reallocation of funds in the budget is concerned,” Rwabushaija said.
The committee argued that while school inspection, students’ loan scheme, provision of sanitary pads, among others, were listed as unfunded priorities, there was concern that they be met. And the questions persisted.
“The committee is concerned that the item of funding the next cohort of students under the students’ loan scheme should not be appearing on the unfunded priorities list for the sector for FY 2017/18. What steps are being taken to ensure that gap is covered?” committee chairperson Connie Nakayenze (Mbale Woman) asked.
“I think the minister of education should just come out clearly to tell the public that government will not provide sanitary pads to girls in schools. Although it was in the NRM party manifesto to provide the pads, we have already gone into one year and in the coming budget, it’s not provided for,” said Makindye West MP Allan Ssewanyana.
The committee felt that the failure to find money to cater for these priorities would negatively impact on the learning in poor families who cannot afford university education tuition fees, while the lack of sanitary pads could lead to many girls dropping out of school.
MUSEVENI RESPONSE
The minister was as passionate as the MPs in her response.
“The ministry is continuing to engage with the ministry of finance to cater for [the loan scheme],” Ms Museveni said. “It is also important to note that the loan scheme will be self-funding when the first cohort of students for the courses running for four and five years are completed, then the funds will start revolving.”
She added: “About Shs 2bn is available from students who completed three-year science courses but these funds will settle outstanding contractual obligations with suppliers, which is very critical in the management of loans”. She added that there was a need for additional funding for the time being.
Higher Education state minister Dr John Muyingo added that all was not lost as they were still engaging the finance ministry for more funds.
“The budget process is still on We hope the ministry of finance will avail us [education ministry] the funds for the next financial year,” Muyingo said.
On sanitary pads, Janet said although she could not commit herself on when the funds would be available, but government was still committed to providing them in the future.
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