THE OUR Party Parliamentary Wing Leader and Caretaker Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has asserted that education is expensive for Solomon Islands and thus it cannot be freely offered to every child attending schools in the country.
Sogavare uttered this remark in reference to statements made by the Opposition coalition (Coalition for Accountability, Reform and Empowerment) about introducing free education in the country.
He said the idea is completely nonsense as it is neither affordable, nor sustainable.
“We are producing 44 new babies every day or 16, 246 babies every year.
“They are additional Solomon Islanders that we will need to provide for their future, including education which is frightening.
“So, we must be realistic in addressing this issue and not make promises that we cannot deliver.”
Sogavare said in terms of education infrastructure, this is equal to one classroom per day but the cost of delivering educational services in Solomon Islands had been, was and would be always be a joint responsibility for parents, the government and development partners for a long time yet, with the government and development partners bearing the lion shares of the costs.
He said the education budget annually is more than $1billion from a total budget of $4 billion funded by Solomon Islands Government revenue as well as input from the development partners.
Sogavare added that OUR Party cannot agree with the idea by the Opposition coalition for a 15 percent salary increase because it would mean an additional $400 million to the government expenditure and it will be unachievable in both the short and medium terms.
But he said the government however agrees that there is a need to review the structure of
“our education services cost of delivery distribution.
“But we can only do that after a thorough assessment is conducted of the true cost of delivering education services in Solomon Islands.
“The Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development is conducting the assessment,” Sogavare added.
By George Atkin
West Makira Journalist
