Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa

The government has allocated a 306bn/- budget in the current year, for loans to thousands of students in the country’s higher learning institutions and is expected to benefit nearly 100,000 students.

This is an impressive increase, an estimated 300 per cent from last year’s 91bn/-. The revelation was aired by Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa, minister for Education and Vocational Training, as he tabled his ministry’s budget estimates for 2012/2013.

The minister explained that Higher Education Students' Loans Board (HESLB) will continue to educate the public on the significance of their contribution to education financial or otherwise.The government is also in a process of constructing a building for the HESLB.

On the National Council Examination Council (NECTA), the minister said, despite the nationwide teachers strike, a total of 1,050,000 students will sit for this year’s Standard Seven Exams and that the government has increased enrollment from 925,465 in 2010 to 1,034,729 students last year. In fact, despite all the upheaval, complains on teacher’s compensation and alleged low illiteracy rate of first ye3ar high school students this is what the minister had to say. “We have managed to improve performance of Primary School students from 53.5percent in 2010 to 58.3 percent last year…,” the minister boasted.

The minister did however close his presentation with a request to the house to approve a 724,471,937,000 budget, for the ministry’s recurrent and miscellaneous expenditures.