DUSHANBE, November 25, 2009, Asia-Plus — Another more than 1,000 schools in 25 cities and districts of the country will be shifted to the per capita financing system beginning on January 1, 2010, Asia-Plus has learned from Parviz Saidov, an employee of the unit for management of education projects.
According to him, 1,113 accountants from secondary schools are currently taking training course on accounting. “Training seminars for school accountants are being held in November-December this year in the framework of the Catalytic Fund Project under financial support of the World Bank,” Saidov said.
Since 2007, the per capita financing system has been introduced in 2,462 schools in 43 cities and districts across the republic.
On October 1, 2007, the Government of Tajikistan passed a resolution on approval of rues of per capital financing for general education facilities. Under this resolution, all general education facilities are to be shifted to the per capita financing scheme by 2010.
This financing scheme for general education is based on the principle of ‘money follows the student’.
The per capita financing scheme increases transparency, objectivity and predictability in the budget allocation process and reduces the time spent on bargaining. At the municipal level, it will lead to better allocative choices, drawing attention to ‘nonviable’ schools, within a plan to restructure the network of schools to reflect the fall in the school-age population. At the school level, it will increase incentives to use resources efficiently to the benefit of quality and increase accountability to parents.
Under this system, the allocation of a given amount of budgetary resources between schools depends only on the number of students enrolled: each school gets an equal amount per student.
