INCLUDING “ghost” students in the Solomon Islands Education Management Information System (SIEMIS) forms with the intention of receiving a bigger share of school grants is a serious offence.
This was highlighted by the Malaita Provincial Education Inspector Fred Toloa in an interview with the Solomon Star, Monday.
Mr Toloa responded to questions about an unconfirmed report suggesting that some school leaders in Malaita Province may have been fraudulently filling up SIEMIS forms.
The report claims that certain school leaders have included “ghost” names to inflate student numbers, which are then submitted to the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development (MERHD) to secure additional funding for their schools.
Some schools have also allegedly included names of students from nearby unregistered Early Childhood Education (ECE) centres in their SIEMIS submissions so as to increase the amount of funding they receive.
These unregistered ECE centres sometimes do not benefit from the funds due to their non-registered status.
Mr Toloa emphasized that if these reports are true, such practices are a serious crime and should be dealt with accordingly.
However, he said his office has not received any formal complaints or reports regarding falsification of SIEMIS forms.
When asked about the authority’s responsibility to verify student enrolment numbers at schools in the province each year, Mr Toloa acknowledged that it is its duty to conduct such visits but due to budget constraints, it was unable to visit every school to confirm its student enrolment figure.
It is understood that the Education Providers relies on school leaders to accurately report the total number of student enrolments at their respective schools, which are then entered into the SIEMIS forms and sent to the education office for data processing.
By SOLOMON LOFANA
Solomon Star, Auki
