Activist question ‘silence’ on education sector allocation

Education campaigners are demanding an explanation on the silence of funds allocated to the education sector in the 2024/25 proposed national budget.

In his presentation of the K5.98 trillion proposed budget, finance minister Simplex Chithyola did not mention the allocation to the sector.

Chithyola however mentioned allocations to various sectors with health getting the lion’s share of K729.47 billion.

Executive director for the Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC), Benedicto Kondowe, has described the silence on the education funding as unusual.

“It is very unfortune that the minister did not make a mention in terms of how much has been allocated to the education sector. This has never happened before.

“Previously, we have dealt around maybe inconsistencies in the figures but we have never had a situation where the total budget allocation could not be mentioned,” Kondowe said.

Meanwhile, the organisation plans to engage finance authorities on the matter arguing that the move is giving the wrong impression to the public.

Kondowe says: “We will be writing the minister through the secretary to the treasury to find out how much the education sector has been allocated because we believe, as stakeholders, we need to know as we would want Malawians to know because education is key to any other sector.”

Meanwhile, the authorities are yet to explain why there was no mention of the allocation.

The education sector has from previous budgets been receiving the lions share.

In the 2022/23 national budget, the sector grabbed the lion’s share of K462.24 billion representing 4.1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 16.3 percent of the total budget while in the 2023/2024 budget, the sector got K603 billion.