Education is rightly considered to be one of the main instruments to achieve sustainable development and allocation of public funding to the education sector has been seen as the best way to improve it. However, does the increase in central budgetary resources necessarily attain better educational levels? Do the funds always reach the beneficiaries? This study from the World Bank investigates these issues in relation to Zambia using an Educational Service Delivery Survey (ESDS). Following a decline in per capita income in the mid-eighties and consequent financial constraints on the part of the central government, particular attention has been given to the educational sector both by the Zambian authorities and by international donors.
The study aims to assess the current state of service delivery in the educational sector and to verify if the changes undertaken by the Ministry of Education have proved successful. The survey is conducted on the three tiers of the administrative hierarchy – provinces, district offices and schools – and analyses all the different kinds of funds – rule-based allocations to schools, discretionary allocations to schools, rule-based allocations to teachers and discretionary allocations to teachers. The main findings are:
- The funding characteristics depend on the type of funding disbursed. While rule-based allocations usually reach their beneficiaries, discretionary funds are spent at the province and district level and rarely reach the schools.
- In terms of equity, different funds work in different ways. While rule-based funds favour poorer and more rural schools, all the other sources of public funding are regressive.
- Private expenditure at the level of the household impacts on equity in educational funding. Non-fee expenditures such as purchase of textbooks, rather than contributions to school funds, are the major source of inequality.
The implication of the main findings on funds and equity in the educational system is that rule-based allocations to schools are the only progressive component of funding and therefore should be increased. This was the purpose of the decentralisation process, which has however, not proved successful in terms of better allocation of funding to schools. There are three obstacles to the complete success of rule-based allocations:
- There is no guarantee that a scheme based on transfers that increase in the number of enrolled children would work, as the current rule-based allocations actually favour schools that decrease their enrolments.
- When public funds increase, private spending decreases consistently. It is therefore advisable to try and address inequalities across rather than within villages and provide greater funding to poorer regions.
- Rule-based funds may not have an impact on learning achievement, as the private expenditure adjusts to the level of public funding. It would therefore be beneficial to invest in inputs where households cannot contribute, for example high-quality teachers.
