Nalova Lyonga, Minister of Secondary Education.
How effective will the digitalisation process of paying fees and other dues go, given that we have localities with constant power cuts, no electricity and internet service?
In principle, when we are talking about digitalization of tuition payment and examination fees, there are four Mobile Money Companies involved. That is Campost, Express Union, MTN and to delocalise the payment. Campost and Express Union for example can move everywhere without advertisement in post offices nationwide. This means that all the remote areas can receive any of the two operators. The only problem will be information. As soon as the Ministry of Secondary Education and its partners are fixed on certain issues, provisions will be taken to ensure that schools and parents in those remote areas in the country effectively join the school digitalisation process with little or no problem.
School authorities have complained about delays encountered in retrieving money deposited for their schools at the State treasury. How is this problem being handled?
This is an opportunity to talk about the important innovation in the digital school process coming up for the next school year. During the first year, we had one dealer: the common public treasury account. We all know the difficulties that were raised with the account especially as school authorities witnessed delays in withdrawing money for the daily running of schools. So, the Head of State who is aware of the problem linked with the scarcity of cash, and with his willingness to see schools function smoothly, instructed the Ministry of Secondary Education to open an account at a commercial bank in order to ease the financial management of schools. Therefore, for the 2019-2020 academic year, money will be available as needed by different schools. In order to rationalise the management of schools’ fund, the withdrawal will be scheduled thrice a year. Between the month of September-October, to ensure the resumption of classes; February-March for normal functioning of schools and from May to June for the preparation of exams and end of year activities.
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