Page 40 - Islands Business May 2023

Economies

WIDEN TAX BASE, SPEND MORE EFFICIENTLY

Continued from page 27 the Pacific Islands Numeracy and Literacy Assessment and
gathering data on teachers’ content knowledge and teaching
vessels is “crucial to fiscal sustainability” as they account practices to help design plans for improvement.
for between 8-75% of domestic revenues, and says reforms It also recommends finding ways to reduce overhead costs,
that provide greater flexibility and transfer of VDS days could improving access to Early Childhood Education from the age of
increase this revenue. three, and developing policies to improve access to secondary
schools for children in the most remote areas.
Education
Spending on public education is relatively high in the nine Health care
countries examined when compared to peer countries. Similarly, spending on health (both as a share of GDP and
Speaking at the report’s launch, World Bank Macroecono- share of total government spending) is high across the nine
mist, Lars Sondergaard, noted that: “Two things stand out: countries, compared to peer countries. The Bank says this
when we look at most countries around the world, when we reflects governments’ prioritisation of health, but also the
look at education spending, a large share of that spending is substantial support external partners have provided to the
usually on teacher salaries. sector (especially through the pandemic).
“Now this isn’t the case in the nine Pacific Island countries; It recommends the strengthening of health sector gover-
in part, it is due to their smallness, which means that a much nance, and that development partners improve the transpar-
larger share of their budget ends up being spent on overhead ency of their funding to assist governments to better track,
costs such as administrative or support costs.” coordinate and effectively use resources for health.
Spending on scholarships and food provisions is also high. The report says resources are currently concentrated on
So what are the countries achieving for that spending? The hospitals and urban centres, and governments are urged to re-
report looked at two measures; access to education and qual- view and adopt service delivery models that focus on primary
ity of education measured by student assessments. health care and adapt to crises by taking advantage of digital
“There has been improvement over time, but it is still the tools and telehealth opportunities.
case that when you look at primary school students reading It recommends strengthening corporate and clinical gov-
comprehension and numeracy skills, a large proportion of ernance and improving technical efficiency through better
children in grade six are still not able to understand what they management and coordination of patient medical referrals,
are reading,” Sondergaard said. improved supply chain management, and more adaptative de-
He said to overcome this problem, the most important thing sign of infrastructure and management of utility consumption.
is to recognise “you have an unfinished agenda and make it a And it says more resources into areas like primary and
national priority to make improvements in early grade reading secondary prevention (child health, nutrition, sexual and re-
skills,” then set targets for improvement and launch a cost- productive health) could avoid disease progression and costly
effective and evidence-based plan to implement it. hospitalisation.
The report notes that access to secondary school is limited,
especially for youth and boys. “The limited number of second- Tonga responds
ary schools is a bottleneck” it states, while observing that At the virtual launch of the study, Tonga’s Finance Minister
access is likely to improve as entrance exams for secondary Tiofilusi Tiueti said: “We welcome the launch of this timely
schools are being lifted and repetitions are declining. report, and while some of the findings present challenging
It says savings in the education sector are likely to be fea- messages for the region, they are important for Tonga and the
sible in “overseas scholarships, school operational costs, and other eight Pacific nations to consider.
private subsidies and school grants. “I was particularly pleased to see the consideration into
“Learning outcomes were already very poor and worsened how we can more effectively build the potential and oppor-
during the pandemic” the report notes. It says while the tunities of our people, so they are best prepared to seize the
countries have been participating in a regional assessment opportunities of the future.”
for more than ten years, “the data has not been made public, The launch of a similar report in Fiji earlier this year was
contrary to common practices. This hinders public debate polarising, particularly around suggested changes to the VAT
about the quality of education provided and many contribute regime and income tax thresholds. Ultimately, governments
to an education crisis going unnoticed.” will need to consider whether they have the political appe-
It recommends making improved leaning outcomes for all tite to take on wide ranging reforms, particularly when many
children a national priority, introducing strategies such as stakeholders will be scrutinising the potential hardships they
targeted instruction, structured pedagogy, tutoring, and self- could cause the region’s most vulnerable people, if not offset
guided learning; publicly releasing the data collected through by strong social protection measures.

40 Islands Business, May 2023