PM Matthew Wale says Free Education will be fully costed and legislated, with implementation details to reach Parliament
Prime Minister.Matthew Wale has welcomed the Opposition Leader’s support to the free education principle that ‘the classroom shall not be closed in the face of any Solomon Islands child because of the poverty of that child’s parents.’
Speaking in his closing remarks to the Speech from the Throne yesterday, the Prime Minister also put on record straight that the policy of this Government is not a slogan called “fee-free.”
“Let me correct this because the name matters. It is ‘Free Education’. It is the deliberate decision of this Government that the gate of the classroom shall not be closed in the face of any Solomon Islands child because of the poverty of that child’s parents. That is the principle,” he said.
“I was glad to hear the Honourable Opposition Leader say, in terms, that the Opposition does not oppose the principle. So let the country hear it plainly: on the destination, both sides of this House agree,” he told Parliament.
Prime Minister Wale acknowledged that the debate is about the pathway going forward.
He said on the question of definition, the design of the policy including precisely where the boundary of “free” is drawn, which providers it covers, and how it sits within the Education Act 2023 and the Education Regulations 2024, is being finalised by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development.
Prime Minister Wale said that design, together with the implementing legislation and its full costing will come before Parliament in the budget session at the end of this year.
“This House will not be asked to vote on a slogan. It will be asked to vote on a Bill and on an appropriation. With the definition and the numbers on the Table, before the first dollar is spent and before the first school year opens under the policy. That is the sequence and it is the right sequence,” he said.
On the question of cost, the Prime Minister said the recurrent commitment is substantial and the Ministry of Finance and Treasury continues to work through it as part of the medium-term fiscal framework.
“I will not pretend to this House that a commitment of this scale leaves the rest of the Budget untouched. There will be changes to the Budget, that is what it means to reorder the priorities of a nation around its children,” he said.
On the question of quality, the Prime Minister said access to education and access to quality education are both achievable and neither will be traded for the other.
“The choice the Opposition Leader placed before the House between free education and quality education, is a false choice and this Government rejects it,” he said.
On the question of donor support, Prime Minister Wale said our development partners today and under every Government are among the biggest supporters of education in Solomon Islands.
“But the Honourable Leader’s underlying point is one I accept, and accept fully: start up assistance is not permanent national capacity and a responsible government does not build a permanent policy on scaffolding it does not own,” he said.
“That is exactly why this Government is doing what it is doing: plugging the leakages, broadening the revenue base, and preparing this country, year by year, to absorb the cost of Free Education with its own resources.”
The Prime Minister said the policy is not intended to be dependent for eternity.
“The whole architecture of this Government’s fiscal programme, revenue reform included, exists so that the education of Solomon Islands children will stand, in time, on Solomon Islands revenue,” the Prime Minister said.
Prime Minister Wale also invited the Opposition to bring its “practical Solomon Islands model” as proposed and supported by the Opposition to the committee tables when that legislation is before them.
“I invite the Opposition and I mean this as a genuine invitation, if there are provisions in the Education Act 2023 worth strengthening rather than replacing, let us strengthen them together. A policy for every child in this country deserves the fingerprints of every side of this House,” he said.
SOURCE//: Office of Prime Minister Press Release
