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STANDING COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AFFAIRS REVIEW REPORT ON THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, NATIONAL HERITAGE, CULTURE AND ARTS - 2013 & 2014 ANNUAL REPORTS PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI Parliamentary Paper No.
88 of 2016 28th September, 2016 _________________________________________________________________ Published and Printed by the Department of Legislature, Parliament House, SUVA Table of Contents CHAIRMAN’S FOREWORD .............................................................................................................. 3 LIST OF ACRONYMS ....................................................................... Error!

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RECOMMENDATION 1: ............................................................................................................. 6 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 6 FUNCTIONS OF THE MINISTRY ..................................................................................................... 7 ISSUES RAISED .................................................................................................................................. 8 Gender Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 8 Recommendation 2 ........................................................................................................................ 8 Budgetary Allocation ........................................................................................................................ 8 Targeted Outcome and Ministry’s Output ........................................................................................ 8 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 10 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................... 11 APPENDIX 1: POWERPOINT PRESENTATION/SUBMISSION BY THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, NATIONAL HERITAGE, CULTURE AND ARTS – 2013 AND 2014 ANNUAL REPORTS ........................................................................................................................................... 12 APPENDIX 2: VERBATIM NOTES ................................................................................................. 19 2 CHAIRMAN’S FOREWORD I am pleased to present the review report of the Committee on the Ministry of Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts 2013 & 2014 Annual Reports.
The Standing Committee on Social Affairs was established pursuant to Section 109 (2) (b) of the Standing Orders of Parliament of the Republic of Fiji, in which this Committee is mandated to look into issues related to health, education, social services, labour, culture, media and their administration.
On 10th June 2016, the Social Affairs Committee had summoned the Ministry to come and present their performance for the two years in terms of their activities and financial performances as well as the legislations and policies that they administered.

The response from the Ministry was exceptionally positive in which they manage to clarify on all the issues which was raised by the Members during the Inquiry.
Further, the Committee sought additional information from the Ministry during the Inquiry, this in regards to their data on certain areas.

This review Report was a bipartisan one which has the input of both sides of the Committee.

In addition, the Committee had noted all the key performance indicators of the Ministry as well as to how their budgetary allocation were distributed and utilized within each key performance area.
I would like to thank the Ministry’s official who made the submission to the Committee and the Committee appreciates their substantial effort in providing all the required information.

Also, I would like to extend my appreciation to all the Committee members and the alternative members for their sustained work and commitment to the task until the finalization of this bipartisan report.

The Members that were involved, including Hon.

Salote Radrodro (Deputy Chairperson), Hon.


Veena Bhatnagar (Member), Hon.

Anare T. Vadei (Member), Hon.

Mohammed Dean (Member) and Hon.

Ruveni Nadalo (Alternate Member).

Finally, on behalf of the Committee I would like to also thank the Committee Secretariat Staff and the Research Team for their hard work and support towards the production of this bipartisan report.

On behalf of the Committee, I commend this Report to Parliament.

3 Hon.
Viam Pillay Chairperson of the Social Affairs Committee 4 LIST OF ACRONYMS ACP ECE KPIs RDSSED SO - - - - - Annual Corporate Plan Early Childhood Education Key Performance Indicators Roadmap for Democracy and Sustainable Socio- Economic Development Standing Orders of the Parliament of the Republic of Fiji 5 RECOMMENDATION 1: The Standing Committee on Social Affairs has conducted a review of the Annual Reports of the Ministry of Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts for the year 2013 and 2014, and recommends that Parliament take note of its report.
INTRODUCTION The Annual Report of the Ministry of Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts for 2013 and 2014 was tabled in Parliament during the August meeting in 2015 and referred to the Standing Committee for Social Affairs, for its scrutiny.

Standing Orders 109(2) (b) allows Standing Committee on Social Affairs to look into matters related to health, education, social services, labour, culture and media.
Standing Orders 110(1)(c) authorizes the Standing Committee to scrutinize the government departments with responsibility within the Committee’s subject area, including by investigating, inquiring into, and making recommendations relating to any aspect of such a department’s administration, legislation or proposed legislative program, budget, rationalization, restructuring, functioning, organization, structure and policy formulation.
The Committee in its preliminary discussion on the two Annual Reports, agreed to summon the Ministry on 10th June, 2016 to come and brief the Members on its performance for the two years.

The Committee based its review on the key performance indicators of the Ministry with its legislation and in line with the budgetary allocation for each year.

The process taken in reviewing the two Annual Reports was based on the procedures that were initially adopted by the Committee.
6 FUNCTIONS OF THE MINISTRY The Standing Committee noted that the primary role of the Ministry is to provide a holistic and empowering education system that enables all children to realise their inheritance and potential contributing to peaceful and sustainable national development.
Further, the Committee also noted that the above responsibility is achieved through the following functions:  Ensuring access to quality education from kindergarten to year 13;  Standards in education are met and maintained and that the physical, financial and human resources are appropriately directed and expended;  Administer and manage education policies and delivery of educational services by providing curriculum, framework, policy guidelines and directions, and qualified teaching personnel;  Provision of services to the Minister, Statutory Agencies, Cabinet and Government and also program support to educational institutions; and  Manages the regulation and recognition of education and training providers and validates accreditation of program delivery.
The Ministry is also responsible for the administration of the following legislations and policies to guide its day to day operation as well as the Statutory bodies:  Education Act-Cap.

262  Examination Act- Cap.

262A  Fiji National University Decree (No.

39) 2009  Substance Abuse Advisory Council Act- Cap.

140A  University of South Pacific Act-Cap.

266  Fiji Museum Act- Cap.

263  National Trust of Fiji Act 1970-Cap.


265  National Trust of Fiji Amendment Act- No.40 of 1998  Protection of Objectives of Archaeological and Paleontological Interest Act-Cap.

264  World Heritage Convention 1972   FTRB Promulgation 2008  Higher Education Promulgation 2008  Libraries-Deposit of Books Act (Cap.
109)  Fiji Teachers Registration Promulgation 2009 Intangible Cultural Heritage Act 2003 7 ISSUES RAISED GENDER ANALYSIS Under SO 110(2), where a committee conducts an activity listed in clause (1), the committee ensures full consideration will be given to the principle of gender equality so as to ensure matters considered with regard to the impact and benefit on both men and women equally.
In this regard, the Committee proposed the need for the Ministry to provide in its future reports the breakdown of gender equality and positions held within the Ministry.

RECOMMENDATION 2 1.

The committee recommends that future reports present a sex desegregated data to reflect gender equality and participation in the positions held within the Ministry.
BUDGETARY ALLOCATION In 2013, the budgetary allocation of the Ministry of Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts was $267,124,997 which is 11.5 % of the National Budget.

In 2014, the budgetary allocation had increase to $370,034,000 which is 12.8 % of the 2014 National Budget.

In comparing the budgetary allocation of the two years, it was noted that the budgetary allocation has increased by 27.8% from 2013 to 2014.
In summary, 40% of the Ministry’s budgetary allocation in 2013 went to Primary education, 37% for Secondary education, 1% for ECE (Early Childhood Education), 2% for schools infrastructure and 20% for Higher education.
TARGETED OUTCOME AND MINISTRY’S OUTPUT In the view of the Ministry’s targeted outcome and outputs for 2013 and 2014, the Committee found that in 2013, majority of the KPIs rest with the Primary and Secondary Sections and then it came into the portfolio of Leadership, Policy Advice and Secretariat Support which includes workshops and teachers training.

The Ministry’s output for 2013 is linked to the 2009-2014 Roadmap for Democracy and Sustainable Socio- Economic Development (RDSSED).
8 In 2014, majority of the Ministry’s KPIs rest with the Secondary and Primary Section and the third largest section indicator is the Policy Advice and Secretariat Support and then, Culture and Heritage with the restoration of the old Museum.

9 CONCLUSION The review of the Ministry of Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts 2013 and 2014 Annual Reports was conducted in a very tactful and comprehensive manner.
This has enabled the committee on Social Affairs to submit to Parliament a more reliable and a cohesive report.

The issues raised by the Members were discussed during the Inquiry with the Ministry and the main issue that concerns the Members have been further captured in the recommendation for the Ministry to consider in its future undertakings and reporting.

The records of the Inquiry made with the Ministry are on the Appendix column of this report.
The Standing Committee on Social Affairs has fulfilled its mandate approved by Parliament which was to examine the Ministry of Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts 2013 and 2014 Annual Reports.

The Committee had consulted the Ministry and gathered all the available and required information for the Members information with regards to their performance in those two consecutive years.
Finally, the Committee is satisfied with its assessment on the two Annual Reports of the Ministry of Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts and noted the overall performance and achievements of the Ministry.
10 APPENDICES 11 APPENDIX 1: POWERPOINT PRESENTATION/SUBMISSION BY THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, NATIONAL HERITAGE, CULTURE AND ARTS – 2013 AND 2014 ANNUAL REPORTS 12 Appendix 1: Powerpoint presentation by th1e Ministry of Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts APPENDIX 2: VERBATIM NOTES 19 Appendix 2: Verbatim Notes VERBATIM NOTES OF THE MEETING OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL AFFAIRS HELD IN THE COMMITTEE ROOM (EAST WING) ON FRIDAY, 10TH JUNE 2016 AT 10.14 A.M. Submittee: Ministry of Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts In Attendance: (1) Ms. Releshni Karan, Director (2) Mr. Isoa Wainiqolo, Senior Education Officer (Planning) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- MR. CHAIRMAN.- Thank you, Honourable Members.
On behalf of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, I wish to welcome the Director of the Ministry of Education, Releshni Karan, and also the Senior Education Officer (Planning), Mr. Isoa Wainiqolo.

Honourable Members, for your information, they will be giving the submissions in regards to the two Annual Reports, that is 2013 and 2014, and I now give the opportunity to the Director to present to the Committee.

Thank you.
Thank you.

MRS. R. KARAN.- Thank you, Honourable Members of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs.

We are in fact honoured to be here to be able to clarify your doubts and inform you on the KPIs of the Ministry in 2013 and 2014.

If you allow me to present a PowerPoint presentation that shows the link between the ACP and our Annual Report for two years, so my presentation today is just to show you what the overall performance of the Ministry in 2013 is and going forward in 2014.
Both our Annual Reports have a Parliamentary Number and we were under the impression that it had been tabled in Parliament but nevertheless, we are here to clarify your doubts.
The outline that will go, we will inform you on our profile, our functions and basically on all the Ministerial portfolios that we have, then we will go into the details of the linkage of the Ministry outputs with the national priority goals, and then taking you through to the 2013 KPIs and how we performed looking at the 2013 Annual Report, the 2013 Budget Allocation and how much did we utilize from that Budget.

Then we will go to what did we actually achieve from the 2000 KPIs that we set for that year.
Once we are done with 2013, we will go onto 2014, our KPIs and our targets that we had set, how we achieved it in the 2014 Annual Report and then the Budget Allocation, how we utilized the Budget and going forward.

So allow me to make my presentation now.

20 In 2013 and 2014, our name was different.


We were called “Ministry of Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts”, now we are called “Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts”, so that is why you will see a different name on the documents - the Annual Reports.

The Minister for Education in 2013 and until September, 2014, was the Honourable Dr. Filipe Bole, and these reports are basically written to him.

Our vision, “Quality Education for Change, Peace and Progress” remains.
Our mission is to provide a holistic and empowering education system that enables all children to realize their inheritance and potential, contributing to a peaceful and sustainable national development.

Our ministerial portfolio consists of several sectors.

Higher Education Commission is part of it and when you look at the basic Pre-school Service, it was called then, now it is called (Early Childhood Education (ECE) that is pre-school at that time.
Primary School service, Secondary School service, the Technical and Vocational Education, Examination and Assessments, Curriculum Advisory Services, there is an Asset Monitoring Unit that looks after the infrastructure, the school and the properties.

There is a National Substance Abuse Advisory Council that looks after drug abuse, illicit substance abuse and all of these relates to the Leadership Policy and Advisory Services Section.
Our role as a Ministry is to administer the Education Act and fulfill our obligation under the Constitution and the other Laws of Fiji such as the Examination Act, FTRB Promulgation, Libraries, and Deposit of Books SEG and there are several others that are listed in the Annual Report itself.

So we have certain obligations under this legislation.

We also have to ensure that all our students from the ECE to Year 13 have access to quality education that is our responsibility.
We also, apart from that, go into Vocational, Higher Education and that sort of thing.

Administration and management of education policies, planning and the delivery of services rests with the Ministry.

We are also charged with providing curriculum framework, syllabus, policy guidelines and directions and qualified human resources which include teaching personnel to the schools and educational institutions.

We register all educational institutions.

We recognize them.
We recognize them.

We are also mandated to hold education forum for all education stakeholders every year so that is basically what our role is in a nutshell.

Just to take you through and this may not be in your presentation handout.

This is just a brief on our jurisdiction.

We currently have about 732 primary schools in Fiji and we currently have 176 secondary schools.
Going on to the next slide, our jurisdiction now extends to kindergarten, primary schools, secondary schools, vocational schools and technical colleges so we have about 12 campuses in technical college, 93 vocational centres, 176 secondary schools, 731 primary schools and over 1,046 21 ECE centres that we have registered and we started registering them last year, so that is basically our jurisdiction.
Our Annual Corporate Plan is always guided by the Government goals, so in 2013 and 2014 the three Government goals that we looked at was from the Peoples’ Charter for Change, Peace and Progress.

We looked at Pillar 9, that is directly relevant to education and the Roadmap for Democracy and Sustainable Socio Economic Development which is a document that was valid from 2009 to 2014 and now comes the national development plans.
Constitution 2013 is our guiding document when we looked at the ACP and how we set our KPIs.

Why did we produce an ACP and Annual Report?

Of course, the Financial Management Act of 2004 mandates all ministries to produce and report annually to its line Minister before May of every year, so we have to produce this before May of every year which we did.

The Financial Management Act of 2004 specifies that the Minister must table in Parliament the Annual Report which I believe was done for 2013 and 2014.
It also mentions that the Annual Report must include financial statements which are prepared and signed in accordance with the Financial Instruction Manual of 2010 and that is, you will always find at the end of the Annual Report the audited accounts, and that stems from the Financial Management Act.
Under the PSC Act of 1999, and we are specifically looking at the Public Service General Regulation, 1999, Part 6, Section 24 and Section 25, our CEO which is our Permanent Secretary is required to produce the Annual Corporate Plan and Annual Reports every year in every Ministry, so that is why we are producing this and which is why we are tabling this.

The Financial Budget for 2013 and 2014, if you may allow me to present, in 2013, our Budget was $267,124,997.
This was at that time, 11.5 percent of the National Budget.

In 2014, this increased to $370,034,000, and this was 12.8 percent of the national budget, so we are gradually showing an increase in our budget allocations.

Our 2013 Budget Allocation, we had divided it into our sectors so once we receive the budget, we put a substantial amount of that to primary, 40 percent of our budget went to primary and that is, because we have over 731 schools, so the majority went to Primary.
Secondary was our second big chunk - 37 percent, our ECE at that time went 1 percent, School Infrastructure - 2 percent and Higher Education - 20 percent.

In Higher Education, we will include all the three universities, the Higher Education Commission will include those technical institutions..

The 2013 KPIs, there are separate indicators.


I am not sure whether you have been given a copy of our Annual Corporate Plan but in our Annual Corporate Plan, this has indicators under these 22 separate sections and there are 50 indicators under Policy, 12 indicators under ECE, 62 under Primary, 58 under Secondary and so on.

So those are the KPIs that we had set, those are the targets that we have to meet and those were the numbers.
Going forward, if you put this in a pie chart, then you will see that majority of our KPIs rest with the Primary and Secondary Sections and then it came into the portfolio of Leadership, Policy Advice and Secretariat Support which includes workshops, teacher training, so the chunk of it went there in 2013.

Going forward, our achievement at that same rate, the largest chunk of our achievement was in the Secondary section.
All the KPIs basically were met for Secondary, and then Policy and Advice and then the Primary Section, so basically that is how the KPIs were met.

If I may take you to the next slide, in 2013 there were a lot of reforms at that time.
There was the establishment of the Higher Education Unit, establishment of the Fiji Teacher’s Registration Board, expansion of the Compulsory Education to 12 years of schooling, so there was a Zoning Policy that was enforced, there were infant schools set up, there was formulation of a new curriculum and ECE and then there was an increase in ECE salary grant.
We also developed a FEMIS, if members of the forum ever wish to have a look at FEMIS, that controls our entire education data - the number of schools, types of schools, names of each and every student, their background, age, names, parents’ details, teacher details, courses they are taking, results; everything is in FEMIS.

It is a huge big data base and that was developed in 2013.
We introduced e-learning in 2013 and we reviewed the curriculum framework at that time, so those were the major reforms and initiatives at that time and that is where the money went.

When you come to 2014, the Budget Allocation for 2014 (we have missed a couple of slides), I do not know why it shows but if I can just ask you to have a look at page 3 of your handout.
In page 3 of your handout, there is a particular slide showing 2013 ACP targets and the percentage that was achieved, it is actually a bar graph.

So if you look at the bar graph, we almost achieved all of our targets that were set.

When you look at that, our overall performance in 2013 was pretty much okay.

Of course, there were some embezzlement of money that is shown in our audited accounts, but that officer has been taken to task and is facing criminal charges in the court of law.
When you move onto 2014, would you like me to continue, Honourable Chair?

MR. CHAIRMAN.- Yes.

Honourable Members will continue to take note, if they have any clarifications, once you complete your presentation and then I will allow them to raise that.

23 MRS. R. KARAN.- Thank you, Sir.

Going onto 2014 KPIs, we set up the same kind of KPIs and then when we looked at the budget allocation.
When you look at the Budget allocation, the majority chunk went to Secondary and Primary again, because that is where the focus was and then came the Scholarship and Loans.

That is where 15.1 percent of our budget went in 2014, and then the Higher Education and going forward so that was the ranking in the budget allocation.
The 2014 KPIs indicators were that, majority of the indicators you would see in the Secondary Section and the Primary Section and the third largest indicator you would see in the Policy Advice and Secretariat Support so that is how we had placed our priorities.

Fourth being the Culture and Heritage, restoring old museums, that does take quite a bit of finance and we do not have expertise in Fiji so we have to get it from overseas so that is where it goes.

The 2014 KPIs in a pie chart.


When you look at it, you will see the chunk and the chunk is almost the same as the chunk how it was displayed in 2013, so they followed through that KPI.

Going forward, when you look at this bar graph, this shows that our percentage achievement was almost met in Education and Training, Culture and Heritage.

When you look at Education and Training, Sir, please consider that to be Primary, Secondary, ECE and all of that, all in one.
So I have tried to link it to how we have reported it in a bar graph.

So basically we achieved just about 94 per cent of our KPIs in 2014 which was the highest for the Ministry, I believe.

Going forward, I think that is just about it for my presentation, if there are any questions that you have ….

MR. CHAIRMAN.- Thank you, Madam, for your presentation.

The Committee acknowledges the work the Ministry of Education is doing.
Just one clarification, the change in financial year, how will it make a difference as far as the Ministry of Education is concerned?

MRS. R. KARAN.- In terms of financial year changes, we are guided by the National Planning Office because it is the National Planning Office that we report all our KPIs to.

It does not stop with our Minister.

We need to report on a monthly basis to the National Planning Office that used to be called the SFCCO before, now it is called the National Planning Office.
For that, the financial year will end in July and we have taken out our ACP.

We will continue with our deliverables in the ACP and continue with it until December and at the same time, report it in our Annual Report which will come out at the same time because the Act in fact has remained that you have to produce an Annual Report before May of every year.

So in terms of our deliverables, it does not really change and in terms of our reporting of the Annual Report, it will not change.
24 MR. CHAIRMAN.- Our understanding is that your output was close to 94 percent.

MRS. R. KARAN.- Yes, Sir.

MR. CHAIRMAN.- And the change in the financial year will give you more time to pre-plan your work straight away in January.

So maybe your target can come close to 100 per cent, as the financial year has been changed to give you more time to plan.

MRS. R. KARAN.- I agree with learned comment made.


In fact that is true, but because of the Financial Management Act we will still have to produce our Annual Report for the year ending 31st December.

MR.

I. WAINIQOLO.- - Sir, we at the Ministry will have to look at how this change in the financial year impact the schools, because the schools who normally have the grants and also the change in leadership, because we do not transfer principals and head teachers in the middle of the year.
So we are trying our best to try and see how we can filter down the change to the school plans so that they are able to go along with the change in the plans that we have.

MR. CHAIRMAN.- Thank you very much.

HON.

A.T. VADEI.- Mr.

Chair, I have a lot of questions from the reports.

One, the report from SFCCO, I have not seen any report on your Annual Report to substantiate the claim that you made, that is one.
Secondly, I have not seen the renewal of leases of schools in rural areas that is another report that I have not seen in your report.

Thirdly, your successful court cases in 2013 and 2014, I have not seen that in your report.

Your KPIs reflections will be provided by the SFCCO if you provide that.

And I have seen in your 2014 Annual Report the rental of official quarters, there is nil.

I need clarification on that.

Page 6 of your Annual Report – Rental for Official Quarters, there is nil.
In 2013 there were 70, 689, I need some explanations on that.

MR. CHAIRMAN.- Madam, if you can share some clarifications on that?

MRS. R. KARAN.- I will ask the Desk Officer to explain the first question which was why the SFCCO Report is not annexed to this Annual Report.

MR.

I. WAINIQOLO.- Mr.

Chair, when the SFCCO was monitoring the performance of the Ministries through the implementation of the KPIs, they normally sent in their quarterly reports that are there with us.
25 MR. CHAIRMAN.- So if the Committee needs those reports, can those reports be forwarded to our Secretariat?

MR.

I. WAINIQOLO.- Yes, if I can have the contact officer of the Secretariat.

MR. CHAIRMAN.- Yes, he will provide you with the contact.

MR.

I. WAINIQOLO.- For 2013 and 2014?

MR. CHAIRMAN.- Yes, thank you.

HON.

A.T. VADEI.- Mr.

Chair, the reason why I raised that issue is because a lady relative of mine who was posted to a maritime school and she was constantly being harassed.
I found out that the school was not leased, that is why I am asking whether the leases of the school can be dealt with?

MRS. R. KARAN.- If I may answer, on page 44 of the Annual Report, 2014, there is Table 46 – School Lease Premium Payment.

So there is a particular section in the Ministry called the Asset Monitoring Unit which looks after all the properties, all the school infrastructure, the lease payments and that sort of thing.
If you look at this graph, it is provided by that Unit and the status and the remarks.

He has given a breakdown of primary and secondary, so for 2014, Nasasa District School, Loreto Primary School, Nasivikoso Village School, Namaka Primary School, Viria District School – all of those schools is there.

Those were paid to TLTB and then there is a certain school, Nelson Palmer Memorial.
There was a request approval for payment, it was approved, payment was done but it was done at a later date, 2nd December, 2014.

So that was a delayed payment but if you look at the schools, Vugalei District School and Narokoboya Primary School, they were awaiting Ministry of Land’s confirmation.

If you would bear with me, Sir, most of the schools that we have are not Government schools.

There are community -run schools and religious-run schools, and most of their paper work is a bit in disarray.
We have started to assist them in terms of their payments, in terms of getting themselves organized with their legal papers but why, you will see not all names here is because of the limited resources.

So every year, there is a certain chunk that is put aside for payment of all of these things.

MR. CHAIRMAN.- So if there are any areas in regards to TLTB or Lands Department, it is the Ministry who is paying all those?

MRS. R. KARAN.- Most of the time, yes, but they need to write to us and alert us.
We work very closely with the Ministry of iTaukei and the Ministry of Lands and highlight to us that these need urgent payment and we pay it out.

MR. CHAIRMAN.- I believe that is covered in the Report, Honourable Member.

26 HON.

A.T. VADEI.- The reason why I am after that, Mr.

Chair, is we wanted to know the number of primary schools.
We do not know the names of the schools, we want the numbers and what they are doing with, say, with 731 primary schools being registered with them, how many have been leased and how many will they be working with for 2015-2016?

MR. CHAIRMAN.- If those information can also be sent to our Secretariat?

MRS. R. KARAN.- Yes, we can.

If you want, these number of schools that are leased, HON.
A.T. VADEI.- Out of that 731 that you have raised, how many are leased, how many have not been leased as well as the secondary schools, because there are social problems that affect the school teachers when they are being posted to those various schools, that is my main concern.

The other one is the court cases, how many successful prosecutions from 2013 because from the graph, I did not see that.
MR. CHAIRMAN.- In the meantime while your officer is looking into that, Honourable Dean, do you have any comments as far as the reports are concerned?

HON.

M. M.A.

DEAN.- Thank you, Resource Personnel from the Ministry of Education, Heritage and Arts.

I just have one concern; I was looking at the budgetary allocation for Special Schools.

In 2013, I believe there were none, and 2014, I think it was 0.1 percent.
I think this was mentioned in the last Budget that priority would be given to Special Schools.

I just want to know the level of increase in percentage for this year in terms of Special Schools that has been proposed.

I am just interested in the percentage increase.

MRS. R. KARAN.- The percentage increase for this year is drastic because we have focused on Special Education.

We have done a lot of progress in the Special Education Sector.
In previous years, there was not too much focus, why it shows a zero percent there because the value that was given to the Special Education did not really amount too much in 2013 and in 2014, it increased, it shows as 1 percent.

But now it will possibly show 5 or 6 or somewhere around 10 percent of the budget would go to Special Education.

Special Education, I think two of the schools are adopted by Access Quality Education Programme (AQEP) so they are also funding those schools.
So we are then left with the other schools to fund and most of that, apart from our funding, we get a lot of overseas funding for special education which is why the allocation for our budget is actually quite less.

27 MR. CHAIRMAN.- For your information, you can also e-mail that information as requested by the Honourable Member to our Secretariat.

HON.

B. SINGH.- Thank you, Chair, and thank you for the well-presented presentation.
I will not take you up on the court cases because some of the cases were investigated by me.

I will just speak on the budget, looking at the two budgets for 2013 and 2014 and the total expenditure.

I will take you to page 12, Table 2.

Looking at the total expenditure for 2014 and comparing it to 2012, there is $101 million and looking at the total expenditure for capital, there is a difference of $4.8 million.
What is the rationale behind this, looking at the $100 million increase with only $4.8 million increase in capital and what is the percentage for the capital expenditure?

MRS. R. KARAN.- For the capital expenditure, the increase is there because we have to first finish off the projects.
We have to finish off the projects that we started and that takes a bit of time because it goes through the Ministry of Works, then it goes through PSC, then it goes through other ministries, so these capital works are building schools, extending schools, perhaps heritage sites, Thurston Garden renovation.

That is why the increase is only by $8 million.

If I understand your question, you are asking $4.8 million… MR. CHAIRMAN.- It was $3.8 million, why are you saying $4.8 million?
MRS. R. KARAN.- It is a very small increase because we have to first finish off the old projects.

We have to finish off then there has to be a certification done then we are given money for new projects.

For this year, we were not given any money to take on any new capital projects because of this one fact that last year’s capital projects were not completed.

HON.

B. SINGH.- I am still not satisfied.


Looking at the total budget and just for the percentage asked for the capital expenditure, I mean, the chunk is in your operating, it is 80:20 - 80 percent as Operating and less than 20 per cent is your Capital.

Your reform should be 60:40.

MRS. R. KARAN.- Yes, but this is from the previous Ministry.
Dr. Filipe Bole was there at that time and they had already decided how to use the money in the ACP which we sort of bound to do because we had to report it based on that ACP.

After September 2014 that is when Dr. Mahendra Reddy came in and that is when we started doing the other reforms.

The other reforms were done with very clever money economics wise so that is how we were able to do all of those things but the capital expenditure is approved by another Ministry so we cannot bypass them.
The National Planning very strictly monitors this, which is why National Planning will have a whole list of the capital projects that are incomplete and on a monthly basis ask us what is happening, what is happening, what is happening.

MR. CHAIRMAN.- Thank you, Madam for the clarification.

28 HON.

A.T. VADEI.- Thank you, Chair.

I really applaud the achievement made by the Ministry.
I am still confused with the KPIs and the reform initiatives taken by the Ministry and how do they reconcile that with their budgetary allocation provided for in 2013 and 2014?

MRS. R. KARAN.- The audited accounts at the back of the Annual Report shows how the money is spent in SEGs.
I do understand that not all of us are financial people so from SEG 1 to SEG 10, their jargon is different from our KPI but if you look at it this way, the Primary and Secondary will fall under SEG 1, the Teacher Salaries will fall under SEG 1.

Unestablished worker salary will fall under SEG 2 and in the administration cost, that is, the cost of workshops, travelling cost comes under SEG 3.

SEG 6 is the grants - all the tuition fee grants.


The Policy Planning Research and Reforms will come under SEG 7 as well as SEG 1.

So if all of our new reforms that are going in place, the entire early childhood education, any initiative to do with that will fall under SEG 1.

MR. CHAIRMAN.- Thank you, Madam, for your clarification.
Now on behalf of the Committee, I would like to thank you for the presentation today and as requested, please liaises with our Secretariat on the information requested by the Members.

We thank you and the staff of your Ministry for the work carried out.

Once again, thank you very much for presenting to the Committee today.

MRS. R. KARAN.- Thank you, Sir.

The Committee adjourned at 10.50 a.m. 29