Education Budget

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Of investment in education: is Nigeria still Africa’s giant?

marzo 19, 2018marzo 19, 2018Adekunle Adebajo

By Adekunle Adebajo

For as far as most Nigerians can remember, this country has been proudlyreferred to astheGiant of Africa. This title was earned by virtue of her intimidating economy, her huge population and her big brother role during the years immediately following her independence from British rule. However, the country is fast losing the respect accorded to her in the past, not only in Africa but across the globe. The factors responsible for this are not far-fetched: poor supply of electricity, poor state of infrastructure, notoriousness for internet fraud, corruption, an inferior quality of education among others.

Homing in on the last, it has been discovered that the state of the country’s schools can be easily explained financially. Comparing the budgetary behaviour of Nigeria and some other countries across Africa reveals that Nigeria’s giant status is not found where it matters the most, particularly in the level of attention paid to the education sector. While other African countries seem to have recognised the potency of education as a midwife to development, a better economy, a safer society and a more prosperous population, Nigeria’s priorities are still found in sustaining an excessively expensive system of governance and in national security, the funds for which often reflect better in foreign bank accounts rather than local battlefields. Rather than set the pace in implementing global standards, Nigeria evidently has a lot to learn from smaller and younger countries across the continent.

Kenya
Kenya’s education sector has traditionally received the lion’s share of the country’s national budget to take care of teachers’ salaries, and primary and secondary school subsidies; and this tradition was upheld in the 2015 budget.In April 2016, the Kenyan government tabled its 2016/17 national budget estimates before the National Assembly. The Budget Policy Statement (BPS) ceilings in all the sectors summed up to 1,498 Kenyan shillings; but the Gross Expenditure Estimates, after the increase by the Treasury, amounted to 1.667 trillion Kenyan shillings. Based on the BPS, education received a total of 346.6 Ksh, which in other words is 23.1% of the entire budget. This figure is topped only by the allocation to Energy, Infrastructure and ICT, some of the projects under which are also academic in nature, for instance the laptop project gulping Ksh 17.58 billion.

South Africa
In the 2016/17 budgetary year in South Africa, the country spent R213.7 billion on basic education, which is about 15% of the total budget; and, according to the National Treasury, the allocation is projected to rise an average of 7.4% annually over the following three fiscal years. In terms of percentage, this allocation, according to data from the United Nations, trumps those of the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. As projected, more recent figures are even more education-friendly. According to aUnited Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) document titled, “Education Budget, South Africa, 2017/2018”, the budget for school children is presently 17% of total government expenditure.

Ghana
Ghana has also established herself as one of Africa’s big spenders on education. In 2013, she committed a whopping 31% of her budget to education as against Nigeria’s 8% in the same year. The following year, the figure dropped to 20.5%; and it declined even more in 2015 to 17.8% and in 2016 to 13.5%. In 2017, however, the Ministry of Education’s budget experienced a 20.7% increase from the previous year’s figure; that is from 7.55 billion Ghanaian cedes to 9.12 billion Ghanaian cedes. And in 2018, the allocation has increased by another 11.6% as the government proposed last year to spend GHS 10.18 billion on the Ministry. This amounts to 16.42% of the total budget of GHS 62 billion.

Egypt
As for Egypt, one country whose universities alwaysstand out on the continental ranking, the government proposed to spend EGP 104 billion on education in the 2016/2017 fiscal year, which amounted to 11.1% of government spending in that year. This is an improvement on the allocation of EGP 99.3 billion the previous year. The increment in the allocation is partly attributable to the Egyptian Constitution. According to the document, the government is required to spend at least 3 per cent of the Gross National Product (GNP) on healthcare and at least 4 per cent on education every year. It is noteworthy that the global average education budget in relation to GDP stands at 5%.

Lesotho
This country is renowned to spend most part of its GDP on education. According to the budget speech to the parliament for the 2017/2018 fiscal year presented by Dr.MoeketsiMajoro, the Minister of Finance, the government proposed to spend a total of M2.423 billion on education and training in 2018. This, to put it differently, is 19.2% of the entire budget. The previous year, the government had spent 20.7% on

the same sector.

Now to Nigeria
In the acclaimed giant of Africa and home to the largest black population on earth, regard for education appears to be an anathema to all forms of government, whether led by a military dictator or a democratically elected individual, a Northerner or a Southerner, a Major General or a Ph.D. holder. An assessment of the trend from 1999 shows that the lowest allocation, 4.46%, to education was in 1999, and the highest, 11.44%, was in 2015. The average allocation in all 16 years of democratic rule is 9.14%. In the pre-1999 years of military rule, the sector did not fare any better as a study has shown that the average allocation to education between the years of 1981 and 1998 was a meagre 4.18%.

The situation has in fact worsened under the present administration. The first budget presented by President MuhammaduBuhari in December 2015 for the 2016 fiscal year was in stark contrast to the double digits legacy left by his predecessor. Education received ₦369.6 billion, which was 6.07% of the entire budget. In the 2017 budget proposals, N448.01billion was allocated to education, representing about 6% of the ₦7.30 trillion budget. And in the 2018 Appropriation Bill, the government proposed an allocation of ₦435.01 billion to education, which is just 7.04% of the total budgeted amount of ₦8.612 trillion.

Nigeria against the world
Across Africa, most countries are spending more and more on education by the year. As a matter of fact, government expenditure on education in Sub-Saharan Africa increased from US$12 billion in 2000 to US$67 billion in 2013 representing over 450% growth. This trend has resulted in higher literacy rates, lesser numbers of out-of-school children, improved quality of learning, and more foreign investments as well as greater industrialisation owing to greater availability of skilled labour. It has also led to a gradual increase in GDP for many of these countries as educated citizens naturally earn more than those who do benefit from formal learning.

Nigeria, on the other hand, especially under the presidency of MuhammaduBuhari, has yet to board the train of progress, despite cries from various corners. For this country, it has become an unending cycle of budgetary disregard for education, and complaints from stakeholders, accompaniedby silence from the government. The same pattern is repeated year in year out. This habit has affected us greatly, because not only are our schools not reckoned with on the international stage, the culture of academic tourism has seen our economy shed weight to the benefit of such countries as the United States, the United Kingdom and even Ghana.

In 2012, the Chairman of Exam Ethics International, Ike Onyechere, said Nigerians spend over ₦1.5 trillion annually on students studying abroad. ₦160 billion out of this goes to Ghana, while ₦80 billion goes to the United Kingdom. Likewise, in 2016, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institution and Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Senator BintaMasi, said Nigeria spends over $2 billion annually as capital flight on education abroad. With this figure alone, Nigeria can build one or two world-class universities every year, considering the fact that Pakistan planned to spend $750 million for each of its new universities of engineering, science and technology and Qatar’s Cornell University spent the same amount establishing its School of Medicine in 2002.

The country’s lacklustre attitude towards education equally reflects in the ranking of universities across the globe and in Africa. According to the 2016 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, there is only one Nigerian university in the top 15 ranking in Africa, and that university, the University of Ibadan, is number 14 on the list. On the same list, we have six universities from South Africa, three from Egypt, two from Morocco, one from Uganda (ranked fourth), one from the Ghana (ranked seventh), and one from Kenya (ranked eighth). A similar pattern recurred in the 2018 ranking.

Finally
It is high time the Nigerian government recognised that recognising the good in education is for the good of the country. We do not have to go as far as the extreme West or the far East to get examples of countries reaping bountifully from great investments in education. Right here in Africa, there are more than sufficient instances. The Nigerian National Assembly should adopt the Egyptian legislative model by incorporating, into the constitution, a benchmark for budgetary allocations to the education sector. This preferably must not fall below 5% of the nation’s GDP or 20% of government’s annual spending.

Our schools are ailing; and it is not by scrapping Post UTME or quelling industrial actions that they will get better. We must make conscious, radical efforts by investing all we can to turn things around for good. Before we complain that our graduates are unemployable, we must ask first if our schools are habitable and if our facilities are universally acceptable. But beyond just dumping huge sums of money into the sector in theory, the government has to also ensure a balance in recurrent and capital expenditures as well as an effective implementation of whatever plans are laid out on paper. If we can do this, then the return of the giant to her rightful place is not only inevitable but will happen before long, before our very eyes.

Source:

https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/263557/of-investment-in-education-is-nigeria-still-africas-giant.html

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EEUU: A group of Texas lawmakers wants to fix higher education funding — but it won’t be easy

febrero 27, 2018febrero 25, 2018Noticias

EEUU/February 27, 2018/By: Shannon Najmabadi/ Source: http://www.oaoa.com

After lawmakers last year failed to overhaul how the state funds its public colleges and universities, a special committee on Wednesday will begin a new attempt to review the complicated higher education finance system in Texas.

Complaints have crescendoed about eroding government support for higher education. But at stake in the coming months is not how much money Texas pumps into its colleges and universities. It’s whether the state’s method of disbursing nearly $3 billion per year to those schools through formulas and direct appropriations is due for a comprehensive makeover.

«The way we fund higher education in Texas is overdue for a close, detailed look and consideration of substantial changes,» said state Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, one of the committee’s co-chairs.

The Joint Committee on Higher Education Formula Funding was convened out of a compromise at the end of the 2017 legislative session, following an unsuccessful bid by Senate leadership to overhaul the higher education finance system entirely. The Senate’s efforts panicked college leaders and were rejected by powerful members of the House, who have generally called for modifications to be made in lieu of wholesale changes.

Stymied, lawmakers agreed to preserve the current system for the next biennium but directed an interim committee to study it and issue recommendations by April 2018.

The committee is made up of five representatives tapped by Republican House Speaker Joe Straus and five senators appointed by Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick – none of whom serve on the upper chamber’s higher education committee. Though the panel has leeway to reshape the system, they’d have to overcome numerous political hurdles — and inertia — to do so. It’s unknown who will take the helm of the House in 2019 — Straus is not running for re-election — and the competing interests of legislators and schools make consensus difficult.

“I’m not sure that overhauling higher education finance is something that can be done with two meetings in February and a report due in April,” said state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, one of the committee members. “However, I am hopeful that a focused discussion of how higher education financing methods have impacted institutional behavior will reveal some insights before next session.”

Special items

There are two main components to the state’s current method of funding higher-education: “special items” earmarked for specific projects and a per-credit allocation disbursed using a formula.

The “special items” are funds allocated outside the normal formulas to give schools cash infusions to start up new programs or pay for initiatives not always within their academic mission. But state Rep. Trent Ashby, R-Lufkin, one of the committee’s co-chairs, said they’d caused “some heartburn for members,” and they’re set to be the focus of a separate hearing later this month.

In the previous biennium, the 362 special items ranged in cost from a $31,500 research initiative at Sul Ross State University to a $61,397,900 allocation for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s School of Medicine. Some schools receive what amounts to a supplement through the “special items” allocation process that they use to hire more professors and staff.

But the “special items” funding stream has drawn ire from lawmakers who say it’s grown too large and is duplicative of the per-student allotment. Critics have also argued that the items are distributed unevenly among universities and that state budget writers usually don’t go back and evaluate whether they should be kept in subsequent budgets.

“Special items were intended to support research, startup costs and other initiatives, not to remain as never-ending line items in the state budget,” Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, the Senate’s lead budget writer, said last year.

Last session, some senators tried to zero out the $1.1 billion in funding meant for “special items” — offering to mitigate the effects of the cut with a $700 million infusion to the per-credit pot. The move agitated university leaders, who protested that “special items” frequently pay for entire programs or medical schools. “The sky really is going to fall if you pass this bill,” Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp said at the time.

Some universities argue that money removed from the «special items» stream could not be easily replaced. Even if the items were eliminated and the money were reallocated, it would be diffused into the per-credit stream, critics say. That might mean some important projects designated to receive specific money — like the McDonald Observatory in the University of Texas at Austin budget — might be harmed financially.

Formula funding

The per-credit funding mechanism has critics, too, but is less frequently in lawmakers’ crosshairs. Much of it is calculated using a formula that largely hinges on how many students an institution has and what discipline those students are studying. Data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shows engineering students cost more to educate than their liberal arts peers — and so the formula gives a greater weight to engineering when calculating how much money universities should be paid.

(Schools also receive funding for infrastructure costs through this stream, but using a different formula based on square feet and utility rates.)

Detractors argue the formulas aren’t a good proxy for what universities’ costs are and don’t accurately account for part-time or other nontraditional students. Colleges with rapidly swelling student populations also complain of budgetary shortfalls, since the per-student funding is based on past years’ enrollment data.

Ashby said that “in most cases, our formulas are in place for good reason.” But he added he was “hopeful that we can agree on some concepts to promote efficiency and equity at all of our institutions.”

Outcomes-based funding

Though it may prove politically impossible, the committee has license to recommend an overhaul of how higher education in the state is financed. Its charge says lawmakers can consider realigning or eliminating “special items” and improving the per-credit allocation.

Rather than basing it on the number of students in each discipline, lawmakers could tie a school’s funding to how well their students perform. Hancock said the committee should «absolutely see what lessons can be learned from states that successfully implemented outcomes-based funding at four-year institutions,» and the possibility is slated to be discussed during at least one panel Wednesday.

The state’s community and technical colleges already receive their funding through a formula that factors in students’ performance. At Texas State Technical College System — appropriations for which have been tied to graduates’ earnings for the past few years — the switch has “worked in a big way,” said Chancellor Mike Reeser.

What happened, Reeser said, is administrators’ “obsession” with maximizing class-time was «replaced with an obsession with making sure kids got jobs and making sure they got the training they needed to get good salaries.” Graduation rates there increased 42 percent over a six-year period, and graduates’ salaries went up 83 percent.

“Our mission is to create a skilled workforce, so using student employment outcomes was a very natural thing to do,” Reeser said — but he added that institutions with broader goals, like four-year universities, would need to be evaluated using different metrics.

Ashby similarly said the outcomes-oriented model has been “critical to driving completion and promoting skilled degrees” there but that the “mission of a larger flagship university or a four-year regional institution is much different.”

As an alternative to replacing the formula based on headcount with one based on students’ performance, some university officials say lawmakers could add a sort of outcomes-based supplement — a bonus for schools where students perform well.

«Having some type of performance funding tied to each institution’s mission, in addition to a consistent and stable model for funding would benefit Texas students and our economy,» said UT-Arlington President Vistasp Karbhari.

Source:

http://www.oaoa.com/news/education/article_07feb4fb-56c2-5212-b21d-5a8e846b05bc.html

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EEUU: Arizona Legislature begins Monday with focus on education funding

enero 9, 2018enero 8, 2018Noticias

EEUU/January 09, 2017/By: Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services/Source: http://tucson.com

Gov. Doug Ducey kicks off the legislative session Monday with a call for more education funding — but not with the tax hikes that some say are necessary to provide truly adequate funding for schools.

The governor said the state has made a “significant investment” in K-12 education, saying aid to schools is $700 million higher now than it was three years ago.

“More is needed,” he said, saying the details of his budget will have to wait.

“I’m not raising taxes,” he said in an interview with Capitol Media Services.

Instead, Ducey insists he can find the money elsewhere in the budget.

“Our economy is growing,” he said. “Our state government is being operated more effectively and efficiently.”

But the kind of money Ducey can find through such savings is unlikely to satisfy those who cite not only Arizona’s reputation of being at or near the bottom of per-student funding but the problems in both attracting and retaining teachers. And that starts with 2,000 classrooms not having qualified teachers at the helm, instead being run by substitutes or students being forced into overcrowded classrooms.

Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs was more succinct in her criticism of the governor’s contention that the state can adequately meet education needs with savings elsewhere.

“We’ve got all the change from the couch cushions that there is,” she said.

ADDITIONAL REVENUES NECESSARY, CRITICS SAY

It’s not just Democrats and educators who are critical of Ducey’s position that the state can fund education without additional revenues. He also is increasingly at odds with those who otherwise might be considered allies.

It starts with the debate of the future of the 0.6-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in 2000 specifically to fund education. Without action, it will self-destruct in 2021, along with the $600 million it raises.

The governor said he supports asking voters to extend it, insisting it could be reformed in a way to generate more dollars. He also doesn’t want any action this year, a move that House Minority Leader Rebecca Rios called “incredibly irresponsible.”

Beyond that, others say education needs more than that 0.6-cent tax increase.

Diane Douglas, the state superintendent of public instruction, favors boosting the levy to a full penny, figuring to use three-fourths of that to boost teacher salaries by about 10 percent.

Jim Swanson, CEO of construction firm Kitchell Corp., thinks even more than that is needed, suggesting a doubling of the 0.6 cent levy.

And others, including Phil Francis, the former CEO of PetSmart, said it probably will take a 1.6-cent tax to produce the revenues needed.

Even the more fiscally conservative members of the business community are saying something more is needed to generate more dollars.

“Tax revenues are not matching the health of the economy, not just in Arizona but across the country,” said Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, blaming much of that to the increase in online purchases whose tax revenues are not captured. Hamer said he wants to look at reform, opening the door to expanding the list of items and services that are taxed, though he has no specific revenue number in mind.

And Kevin McCarthy, executive director of the business-oriented Arizona Tax Research Association, said he could support a tax increase. But he said that is contingent on cleaning up other disparities in education funding, like some school districts getting more money per student because of things like desegregation expenses.

All that puts Ducey in the position of being a holdout amid increased public focus on the state’s public education system and concern that children are being shortchanged because of the state’s failure to put more dollars into K-12 education.

TEACHER PAY

There is no dispute over the numbers. Even Ducey press aide Daniel Scarpinato concedes that current per-student funding, after adjusting for inflation, is still not back to where it was before the recession.

There’s also the separate fact that Ducey, who persuaded voters in 2016 to tap a special trust fund to end a lawsuit against the state, insisted the money that generates would be just the first step toward improving education funding.

But questions remain about what has been produced so far, with teacher salaries up just 1 percent this year.

Ducey promised another 1 percent for the coming school year. But that still leaves salaries far short of what they are in virtually every other state.

The question of how short depends on whom you ask — and what ruler they use.

For example, the Morrison Institute said that elementary school teacher pay is the lowest in the nation, even when adjusted for statewide cost of living; high school pay is not far behind at 49.

By contrast, the Arizona Tax Research Association, which represents major taxpayers, has its own way of looking at it.

So where does it believe Arizona falls? No. 28 adjusted for per-capita income.

Ducey said those numbers, even if correct, are not where Arizona should be.

“I believe we need to come up on teacher salaries,” he said.

“It’s very hard work to teach a kid, especially a kid that’s not learning,” the governor continued. “They’re putting the work in. They’re getting the results. And I want to see the dollars flow to them.”

But the governor sidestepped questions of where he believes teacher salaries in Arizona should be in comparison to the rest of the country.

“What I look at is how are we doing this year versus previous year and are we making improvements year over year,” he said.

FIGHT OVER SCHOOL VOUCHERS POSSIBLE

There’s another big education decision facing Ducey and lawmakers: whether to block voters from getting the last word on the expansion of the program that provides vouchers to parents to send their children to private and parochial schools.

Foes gathered more than 100,000 signatures after last year’s vote, holding up up enactment until November, when voters would get to decide whether to ratify or reject what the Legislature approved. Supporters have responded by asking the courts to void the referendum, citing what they said are various irregularities.

If those legal efforts falter, the only way to quash a vote on what would be Proposition 305 would be for lawmakers to alter last year’s legislation.

That presents a political question for lawmakers.

If it remains on the ballot, that could bring out foes of expansion. And once they’re voting “no” on more vouchers, they could just as easily spread their displeasure with those who enacted it in the first place, including Ducey.

A legal challenge to that petition drive has yet to get a final ruling.

Other education-related issues likely to provoke debate include:

Extending funding for special career and education programs now in high schools to ninth grade;
Requiring all high schoolers to take a college-entrance examination;
Revamping and re-enacting a law voided by a federal judge aimed at “ethnic studies” programs that prohibit things like teaching ethnic solidarity;
Requiring parents to be notified when student athletes suffer a concussion.

Source:

http://tucson.com/news/local/arizona-legislature-begins-monday-with-focus-on-education-funding/article_62c7820a-ddb9-510d-8f80-3e5587a3c8d5.html

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India: Fund allocation for school education could increase by up to 14% in Budget 2018-19

enero 3, 2018enero 2, 2018Noticias

India/January, 03, 2018/ By : Himadri Ghosh/Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.in

The government’s financial constraints will make it difficult for them to spend aggressively or increase budgetary allocation in a large way.

The Budget for the fiscal year 2019 will be the last full budget that will be announced by the government before going in to poll in 2019. Hence it is highly likely that the budget will be more on populism and less on pragmatism.

Fund allocation for school education is likely to rise by up to 14 percent for the financial year 2019, with Centre planning to prove extra top-ups on the existing schemes, Mint reported.

Schemes such as mid-day meals and right to education are expected to receive higher budgetary allocations from the previous year.

«It will be much less than what the ministry demanded, but higher than the previous year’s allocations in the range of 11-14 percent,» two government officials told Mint.

The Union Budget is scheduled to be tabled on February 1. The country currently spends around four percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) on education, both school and higher education. In last year’s budget, Rs 46,356 crore was allocated for school education.

The government’s financial constraints will make it difficult for them to spend aggressively or increase budgetary allocation in a large way.

The central government has breached its full-year fiscal deficit target for the financial year 2018 in November itself. Data revealed that during the April-to-November period, the government’s fiscal deficit was 112 percent of its Rs 5.5 trillion budgetary targets.

This prompted the government to announce that it would borrow additional Rs 50,000 crore from the market for the ongoing fiscal.

«Given the financial constraints of the government, one cannot complain about the expected size of the increase in allocation,» the second official said.

Officials also told the business daily that as Goods and Services Tax (GST) continue to slide on a month-on-month basis, it would be tough for the government to spend more.

Source:

http://education.einnews.com/article/424386335/hHVo6DOcY4kvDNKz?lcf=eG8zt30RHq4WcGF5PkFdHg%3D%3D

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South African commission urges more education spending before ratings reviews

noviembre 14, 2017noviembre 13, 2017Noticias

South African/November 14, 2017/By: Alexander Winning, Mfuneko Toyana/ Source: http://www.reuters.com

South Africa should raise state spending on higher education by around a third to at least 1 percent of gross domestic product, a report commissioned by the presidency and released on Monday found.

The recommendation by the commission appointed by President Jacob Zuma came as a senior Treasury official resigned after news reports said he had complained about presidential interference in the budget process, and as state-owned utility Eskom said it was facing serious liquidity issues.

South Africa relies on foreign investors to finance its hefty budget and current account deficits. Investors are nervous ahead of important credit rating reviews scheduled this month and with the ruling African National Congress gearing up to elect Zuma’s successor as party chief in December.

The presidency said on Monday that Zuma would make an announcement on the higher education report once ministers had processed its findings.

Zuma set up the commission early last year in response to protests by university students demanding free education.

The rand and benchmark bonds weakened after the presidency said it would publish the report on Monday, but they were little changed after its release.

Currency traders and analysts said markets were waiting to see how the presidency would react to the report, but they said its recommendations were risky from an economic standpoint.

“If we start repeating this pattern of recording higher and higher budget deficits we are undoubtedly headed for downgrades,” said senior Nedbank economist Nicky Weimar.

South African GDP was around 4.3 trillion rand ($296.6 billion) last year, so an increase in government spending on higher education of 0.25 percent of GDP would amount to around $750 million of additional expenditure.

The commission also recommended that all university students should be funded through a cost-sharing model, whereby the government would guarantee income-contingent loans issued by commercial banks. Should a student fail to reach a certain income level, the state should repay the tuition loan, it advised.

Introducing those measures would make it more difficult for Treasury to rein in a projected budget deficit of over 4 percent of GDP for the 2017/18 fiscal year.

But it would be popular among young people and ANC voters, many of whom are dissatisfied that South African society remains deeply unequal more than two decades after the end of apartheid in 1994.

South Africa next holds a national election in 2019, and the ANC has seen its electoral majority shrink in elections.

TROUBLE AT TREASURY?

South African markets have also been pressured by fears that the independence of financial institutions is under threat.

Local media outlet Fin24 cited sources on Monday as saying that Treasury Deputy Director-General Michael Sachs had resigned last week after complaining that Zuma was interfering in the budget process.

Treasury confirmed Sachs’ resignation, saying only that his departure was because he wanted to “serve the public sector in a different capacity”.

International ratings agencies downgraded South Africa’s debt earlier this year after Zuma fired respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan in an abrupt cabinet reshuffle.

S&P Global and Moody’s are expected to review the country’s ratings again on Nov. 24, and all eyes are on whether they will downgrade its local-currency rating to “junk” status after Gordhan’s replacement, Malusi Gigaba, unveiled dismal medium-term budget forecasts last month.

Downgrades to sub-investment grade could trigger forced selling of up to $12 billion of South African bonds and pile further pressure on the rand, which is already trading at a 12-month low against the dollar.

South Africa’s debt insurance costs hit a four-month high on Monday, reflecting a greater likelihood of ratings downgrades.

Editing by James Macharia and Richard Balmforth

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-politics/south-african-commission-urges-more-education-spending-before-ratings-reviews-idUSKBN1DD13C

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EEUU: CEOs say county budget should focus on transportation, education

octubre 31, 2017octubre 31, 2017Noticias

EEUU/October 31, 2017/Source: http://www.miamiherald.com

This week’s question to the Miami Herald CEO Roundtable: In your opinion, what areas should commissioners focus on as they iron out the 2018 county budget?

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The commissioners should focus on providing the necessary services to meet the needs of the county, while being fiscally responsible to minimize or avoid a tax increase altogether. A tax increase will burden every homeowner in the county and impact the local economy. This requires that some tough decisions be made regarding spending for the greater good of the county residents.

Miami must decide if it wants to be a global center, or a provincial town. Public transportation is key to that, and needs to be supported. And, as South Florida’s premier provider of therapy to special needs children, I would be remiss without stressing we cannot forget those who rely on the government for help.

Maria Arizmendi, behavior analyst and president, Progressive Behavioral Science

Allocating funds and developing a comprehensive plan to significantly improve the county’s infrastructure, affordable housing and education should be top priorities. It is always easier to address our short-term, immediate needs. However, we should be working on a 25-year plan and budget to make us a more sustainable community. We need a long-term vision to secure a stronger and healthier city for our children and grandchildren in terms of infrastructure, education, social services and land planning. Today, let’s start envisioning the plan for Miami 2050 and strive each year to make our city greater, not just for ourselves, but for the generations to come.

Noah Breakstone, founder and managing partner, BTI Partners

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Transportation, transportation and transportation! The No. 1 complaint I hear about local government is the apparent inability to adequately address the increasingly dire state of transportation here in South Florida. A large part of the downtown Miami workforce relies on the Metrorail system to get to work. The system is not working. It now sometimes takes as much as 1 1/2 to 2 hours each way on Metrorail to get to and from downtown Miami from affordable suburbs due to breakdowns, crowded trains and inadequate scheduling. The Miami downtown business community cannot survive and prosper without the large workforce that commutes from affordable suburbs using Metrorail. There is no other viable form of transportation for a large part of the downtown Miami workforce that lives in these suburbs. For those who live closer to downtown Miami and drive to work, commute times are also dramatically increasing. Substantially greater resources should be committed on an urgent basis for modern systems to coordinate traffic signals and improve traffic flows.

Bowman Brown, partner and chairman of the Executive Committee and the Financial Services Practice Group of Shutts & Bowen

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K-12 education! Our schools should have enough money and resources to prepare our students for the real world. Our training in school really shapes the kind of business professional we will be in the future. Businesses need employees that can, at a minimum, communicate effectively! Without enough funds and resources going to education, we will all be impacted.

Patricia Elizee, managing partner, Elizee Law Firm

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Education, hands down. I’ll keep beating this drum because our students deserve a higher quality education and more opportunities. Create a strong foundation and you can build anything. This is not only a moral issue. If we allow our community’s future workforce to wither, our community will wither, too.

Richard Fain, chairman and CEO, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

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Theirs is a difficult job as they plan for present needs and future requirements. Infrastructure and environmental issues need to be addressed. Also, they must ensure an updated disaster plan is developed.

Jeffrey Freimark, president and CEO, Miami Jewish Health

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In light of the recently concluded TRIM and budget hearings in Miami-Dade, it’s clear that a strong transportation system and a robust pool of available housing — at all economic levels — are two things the county must have in order to be considered a competitive candidate for new business. Amazon, for example, recently announced plans to establish its second headquarters in North America, bringing with it 50,000 high-paying jobs, thousands of construction and operational positions, and billions of dollars in additional investment to the surrounding communities. Direct access to mass transit and a range of housing options are at the top of the company’s requirement list.

James Haj, president and CEO, The Children’s Trust of Miami-Dade County

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Three areas high on my list are transportation and transportation infrastructure, economic and business development, and the county’s emergency management plan. It’s important to review the emergency management plan within a budget context to ensure it addresses what we learned from Hurricane Irma, what Houston learned from Hurricane Harvey, and what the first responders and citizens of Puerto Rico are, unfortunately, learning following Hurricane Maria.

Bob Hohenstein, president and CEO, Miami-Dade County Youth Fair and Exposition

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Commissioners should focus on building a resilient community, improving our infrastructure and methods of communication to allow for energy and water resiliency as we continue to deal with these environmental disturbances. As a community, we should look to new development to grow our property taxes and start allocating more funds towards infrastructure improvements and rethinking the planning of our neighborhoods.

David Martin, president and co-founder, Terra

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I spent several days assisting relief efforts after Hurricane Irma — handing out ice and supplies to those in need. I was surprised and saddened by the poor living conditions at many of the housing communities in places like the West Grove, Overtown, Allapattah and Liberty City. We need more code enforcement at privately owned properties, as well as capital improvements at county-owned housing communities. It’s up to our elected officials to ensure that our residents are living in adequate conditions that don’t pose a health risk.

Aabad Melwani, president, Rickenbacker Marina, and managing principal, Marina PARC

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I have to admit I have not been monitoring the Miami-Dade County budget discussions because I reside in Broward County. However, I was glad to see that there was some focus on early childhood education. Research shows that a high quality early childhood education has a lifetime of benefits including narrowing, or even eliminating, achievement gaps.

Avis Proctor, vice president of academic affairs and president, North Campus at Broward College

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Affordable housing needs to be the top priority for commissioners in 2018. Miami has been one of the hardest-hit cities in the nation by the current affordable housing crisis. Low-income individuals, families and seniors are not the only ones to suffer — we all take a hit. A shortage of affordable and workforce housing poses a tremendous obstacle to our continued ascension into a preeminent world city. It limits our ability to attract major businesses to the area that can create well-paying jobs. It eats into our budget for goods and services that help keep our local economy vibrant. The economic impact is quite extensive, so the 2018 budget needs to focus on much greater allocation of available resources to affordable and workforce housing.

Source:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/biz-monday/article180742331.html

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Malaysia: Free education not practical’

octubre 31, 2017octubre 30, 2017Noticias

Malaysia/October 31, 2017/Source: http://www.theborneopost.com

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh yesterday urged the public not to be influenced by the opposition’s promises of introducing free education in the country as this was not practical and difficult to implement.

He said the opposition had always been trumpeting on offering free education and they should have implemented it in Selangor through the state-owned Universiti Selangor (Unisel).

“I challenge them to implement free education at Unisel first, they did implement it before but it failed and the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) had to step in,” he told reporters after the launch of Big Data Lab and opening of a new building at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Kota Bharu campus here yesterday.

Idris said the fees charged to students here were not high and were among the lowest in Asia.

“This is because over 90 per cent of current academic fees charged by public universities has been subsidised by the government, “ he said.

He said the government was also helping students by providing various loan facilities such as loans from PTPTN, scholarships or sponsorship from various agencies including the Public Service Department.

In the 2018 budget presented by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak last Friday, RM2.2 billion scholarship allocation was announced to boost higher education. — Bernama

Source:

‘Free education not practical’

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Of investment in education: is Nigeria still Africa’s giant?

By Adekunle Adebajo