FINANCING FOR EQUITY
1. Overall Education Financing Mechanisms
2. Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Schools
3. Education Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Students and Families
4. Social Policies and Programmes to Provide Resources to Students and their Families
Education is free, and is mandatory from six years old up to ten years old (5 years).
The political crisis in Madagascar in 2009, where the president was ousted by the military-backed major of the capital city, led a decrease in the budget for education from 23% of total government expenditure in 2009 to 14% in 2013. Between 2014 and 2018 the budget for basic education increased by 17%, while for preschool, non-formal education, and the secondary school it declined by 57%, 84%, and 39%, respectively. The budget for education for 2019 is 1.19 bn Ariary (US USD330.65 mn), which represents 2.4% of gross national product.
Of the education budget, 7.2% is distributed to the deconcentrated offices (as of 2015-2019). The ministry is represented at the regional level by 22 regional directorates (DRENs); and at the district level by 114 school districts (CISCOs); and 303 subdistricts (ZAPs), which represent the deconcentrated offices. The budget is transferred to the DRENs as subsidies, and the DRENs are responsible for administrating the payments of school districts at the regional level (CISCO). Public schools, especially primary schools, receive this transfer, and are responsible for the management of expenses paid out of the allocated amounts. There has been a sharp increase in the share of centrally managed spending over the period 2006-2013. There is no information on spending directed to vulnerable populations, and little scope, considering that 90% of the budget is spent on salaries once subsidies for community teachers are taken into account, and that 92% of the population live on less than two dollars a day.
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education published the Education Sector Plan for 2018-2022 seeking to target vulnerable population and improve access and retention of poor and vulnerable students. However, the Plan does not provide budget details.
The World Bank Group and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) approved in March 2018 the Madagascar Basic Education Support Project, a grant totaling USD 100m to improve learning outcomes within the first two sub-cycles of basic education in Madagascar. The program aims to reach over 4.7 million beneficiaries, and supports the implementation of reforms outlined in the country’s Sectoral Education Plan (2018-2022) which including access and enrollment, and closing gap between urban and rural students.
The “Extra School Action for Malagasy Adolescents“ (ASAMA, or Action Scolaire d'Appoint pour les Malgaches Adolescents) supports the 2001 UNDP and Malagasy Ministry of Education and Scientific Research joint programme, “Supporting the Promotion of Education for All”, which had the objective to improve the accessibility of basic education, to poor adolescent students and to adolescent girls. The unit cost of an ASAMA class with 30 learners is estimated to be €5,000 (USD 5,545.40). For 2015 the program expected to reach over 290,000 teenagers under 15, but managed to reach only 2,500 teenagers (0.00025% of the population under 15).
The Education Sector Plan (2018-2022) established the possibility of offering loans for education to poor students who do not benefit from grants or scholarships at the primary education level. Currently, the website of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, through the National Commission for Foreign Scholarships (CONABEX), provides no information on available scholarships and application criteria.
The European Institute of Development and Cooperation created the SESAME project (in French Soutien aux Etudes Supérieures et Accès à un Métier - Support for Higher Studies and Access to a Job) in 2013, and partnered with the Ministry of Education in 2018. The project aims to allow disadvantaged, motivated and endowed Madagascan high school graduates to succeed in their higher education. In 2018, the project benefitted 255 students. No information is available online on the financial costs of the project.
The public University of Antananarivo provides higher education scholarships for students in need, including a fixed annual equipment and installation allowance at the start of the academic year of 50 thousand ariary (USD 13.43), and a monthly study allowance in a range between 10 to 25 thousand ariary per month (USD 2.69 to 6.72), depending on the university year.
The Madagascar Social Safety Net Project (SSNP) started in 2015 and will run until 2022. The project is funded by the World Bank's Fund for the Poorest (IDA) and implemented by the government of Madagascar. It has two safety net programs. One of them, the Human Development conditional Cash Transfer (HDCT) program, provides cash transfers for 40,000 households (or 184,000 persons, 0.007% of the population) with children ages 0-12, with the objective of improving primary school attendance and promoting early childhood development and nutrition of young children. The project was funded through a credit of USD40 million from the World Bank and USD450,000 through the Rapid Social Response Program. The safety net programs covers 500,000 extremely poor people, mostly women and children. At least 75% of cash benefits go directly to women.
The School Cafeterias Combat Child Malnutrition and School Dropout in Madagascar project responds to two needs of children born into poor families: being able to eat, while also having the possibility to go to school like other children. The project sought to reach 705 children between 2016-2018 in 7 school cafeterias (0.00007% of the school age population in preprimary, primary and secondary school).
