MP wants smokers, drunks to educate the nation
Baboki Kayawe | Friday November 28, 2014 17:46
Francistown West legislator, Ignatius Moswaane, proposed that alternative means needed to be employed as opposed to the widely publicised cost sharing measure. Very adamant that the suggested financing model is set to cut out prospective tertiary students, he stressed that whatever means possible ought to be adopted to acquire tertiary funds with the exception of cost sharing.
“The cost sharing measure that is currently suggested to finance tertiary education is not the best solution, we should consider other ways of contributing to the tertiary education fund,” he said.
Moswaane added that funds from the tobacco levy would be most appropriate in sustaining government higher learning sponsorship. That these learners are being moulded to expand the human resources pool the country depends on for developmental projects to materialise, cost sharing would stifle prospects of having a skilled workforce. As a result, he said to curb instances where potential learners from economically disadvantages backgrounds are excluded the tobacco levy and others should be used.
Government introduced a 30 percent levy on tobacco and tobacco products last year to be used for funding anti tobacco initiatives and other activities, the Ministry of Health said in a statement at the time. This publication had not yet established how much the levy has accumulated to date at press time. The Alcohol Levy, rolled out six years back as one of President Ian Khama’s administration to combat harmful effects of alcohol has as of June 2014, collected a cumulative total of P1.441 billion, as revealed in the just passed State of the Nation Address.
Tasked with the mandate of managing tertiary education financing, the Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) is considering a diversity of higher learning funding one of which is cost sharing between government and students/parents. At a recent stakeholder consultative meeting, HRDC Director of Institutional Funding Victoria Damane alluded that, that government carries the burden of financing tertiary education called for a need to find alternative sources.
“To ensure sustainable financing for tertiary education, the following should be considered; cost sharing with parents or students, generation of third stream income by institutions, levy financing, private sector or industry contribution and philanthropy,” she said.
The current funding model according to Damane is marred by inefficiencies at institutional level, lack of equity in funding, lack of quality and reliable data, and no accountability among other glitches.