Beam needs $31 billion

Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
GOVERNMENT should allocate more money for full state funded education as the number of vulnerable children in need of assistance is set to increase to 1,5 million next year due to Covid-19 shocks.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Professor Paul Mavima said more than $31 billion is needed for the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) next year.

Presenting priority areas for his ministry at a pre-budget seminar in Victoria Falls yesterday, Prof Mavima implored the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube to set aside a significant amount of money for the development of education and health social amenities saying these are key to the country’s attainment of Vision 2030.

He said Beam has been extended to cover uniforms and stationery but programme modalities may change as provided for in the amended Education Act.

“We want to also scale up on Beam from the one million children to 1,5 million in 2022. Children seeking assistance under Beam are therefore expected to decline following the rebound of the economy from 2023 thereon.

“The Ministry has been given an expenditure target of $16,4 billion which is really not adequate. Our ideal budget would be $58 billion and if we want to reach 1,5 million learners in Beam, we need $31,5 billion, but under the target, Beam is going to get $4,1 billion, which is about 13 percent of what we require to provide assistance for each learner at a very conservative figure of $7 000 per term covering everything from fees to uniform and stationery,” said Prof Mavima.

He said the development of the education sector and health is key.

The Minister said Government should ride on policy development that happened with crafting of the Children Amendment Bill, which has been passed by Cabinet and is due to be tabled in Parliament.

A National Alternative Care Policy for Children is being developed while the Drug Policy is now in place pending validation.

“The Ministry appreciates the support it gets, particularly on its social protection, which is meant to cushion members of society. We view Beam as a stop-gap measure and we have already legislated for state funded basic education and we need to put those modalities in place so that we provide for education.

“These two are the biggest contributors to human capital development and without them we cannot aim to achieve the goals that we have in National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and eventually Vision 2030, so it is important that we focus on investment in these two areas. We need to move towards state funded basic education and not just covering fees but also infrastructure,” he said.

Prof Mavima said the 2022 budget should aim to strengthen the household income through the harmonisation of all social protection programmes.

He said there is a need to speed up the roll-out of integrated information management systems to move away from paperwork for all social protection programmes.

“In 2022 we have the following priorities, firstly scaling up cash transfers to vulnerable households under the harmonised cash transfer programme from the  23 districts to covering 100 000 people in 33 districts.

“We are also scaling up on sustainable livelihood programme to wean communities out of poverty and strengthening resilience. Currently across the board we are paying at a rate of $1 500 per person, but that’s not enough anymore to provide a decent livelihood, especially for those who depend largely on these programmes. However, we recommend that these social grants be indexed to the United States dollar to preserve their value,” he said.

Prof Mavima said it’s now time to emphasise on social development than social welfare hence the programmes should aim to provide livelihoods and bring resilience, especially in the wake of Cyclone Idai and Covid-19 which exposed the need for self-sustenance.

Vungu Constituency MP Omega Sibanda implored Government to initiate programmes that encourage sustainability to move away from the dependence syndrome that affects communities. – @ncubeleon