Financing Tvet Schools in Oromia: A Survey Study of Selected Tvet Schools
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Date
2007-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Education is not only a productive investment in human capital; it is also the best
mechanism to attain a better capacity building program. Therefore, the availability of
financial resources is quite indispensable to the effective implementation of
educational reform. By the same token, the expansion and qualitative improvement
of TVET can not be realized without adequate financial sources. This study was,
therefore, designed to assess the major sources of revenue and funding schemes
applied to TVET schools in Oromia. A deceptive survey method was employed to
conduct the study.
The study was conducted in 4 TVET schools and 4 Woredas as they were selected
randomly using their respective geographical locations and concentration.
Respondents like Bureau heads with those expertises's related to finance and the
TVET schools' officials and department heads were taken using purposive sampling
technique as actual sources of information. The information was collected through 3
types of questionnaires (Region, Woredas, and TVET schools). Document analysis
including annual abstracts and annual financial reports were consulted to see the
current sources and the budget share of TVET schools. The collected data were
analyzed mainly using percentages and rank order.
The results of this study depict that the annual budget and internal income have the
lion's share on TVET financing in the region. Even though the TVET schools have
internal revenue, it is found to be insignificant and could not cover the operating
expenses. In the region under the study, TVET is mainly a government investment.
No method is devised to bring additional resources. The budget allocation mechanism
is found to be traditional that discourages TVET schools to apply performance based
budgeting. Lack of awareness and lack of data during budgeting were considered as
problems uncounted the implementation of performance based budgeting.
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In addition, most TVET schools obtain below 25% of the budget requested. On the
other hand, yearly budget preparation of the region is based on previous year's
budget. This shows that problems encountered in the previous year's annual budget
would probably prevail in the preceding years.
In light of these findings the study concluded that, besides government budget
subsidy, it is necessary to give due attention to diversify finance sources for TVET
schools. There is no single or universal solution for financing TVET schools and no
one method which can serve all sections of a society. Moreover, different financing
mechanisms like vocational training fund, tax rebates and credits, cojinancing and
others can be used as a cocktail to minimize the problem. Through these
mechanisms, the Oromia regional government can shift the financial burden of
providing TVET education to other sources like employers, individuals and local
communities.
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Education is not only a productive investment