Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
Wudineh Zenebe
5 May 2008
Discussions on plans by the various ministries for the next budget year concluded with a proposal that a new "Institute of Science" be built in Dukem. This decision was made with a view towards augmenting the total possible enrolment of Natural Science students by local universities.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) is to construct an 'Institute of Science' that annually enrolls close to 40,000 students in Dukem town, 37Km east of Addis Abeba.
Following a debate on whether to carry out expansion in the existing eight universities, or to construct a brand new institute, the federal government has chosen the second alternative. This was because the universities reported that they would collectively need four billion Birr for expansion.
In a discussion chaired by Sufian Ahmed, minister of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) in the presence of Tefera Walwa, minister of Capacity Building (MoCB) and Sentayehu Woldemichael (PhD), minister of Education, Tefera stated that the government has decided to construct a new institute, sources disclosed. The theme of the discussion was about plans by the ministries for the next budget year and the budgets they would need from the finance ministry.
The government has decided this year that every higher institute should enroll 70pc Natural Science students and 30pc Social Science students. This was why the universities were requested to consider undertaking an expansion of their respective campuses. However, these universities supposedly came up with an overstated cost, compelling the government to resort to constructing an autonomous institute.
There are 13 additional universities currently under construction. When these are completed, the annual enrollment capacity of the nation's universities is expected to grow from 30,000 to 112,000 students.
The government projects that the construction of primary up to tertiary educational institutions, as well as technical and vocational colleges, would cost it 53.7 billion Br over a five year period. For the 2008/2009 budget year, the MoE has requested the finance ministry to grant a nine billion Birr budget, of which 7.7 billion Birr is from the government treasury. The Education ministry had requested a five billion Birr budget one month ago. However, officials at the MoFED instructed it to present its budget request together with the engineering capacity building programme (ecbp), a German technical support venture that incorporates a university capacity building programme (ucbp). The request eventually increased by 80pc to nine billion.
The MoFED this budget year granted a 1.5 billion Birr for the MoE, although it requested 2.5 billion Birr. The budget request for next year is six times higher than what it was granted this year. The request is the second highest, next to the Ethiopian Roads Authority (ERA) request for 12 billion Br. Both requests combined are greater than this year's 18.8 billion Br budget allocated for capital projects.
The cost of the institute in Dukem is expected to be discussed this week.
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