Senegal: State’s interest in guiding students in private higher education institutions

By Amath Ndiaye Associate Professor FASEG-UCAD.

The decision of the Senegalese government to stop the orientation of new graduates in private higher education institutions (EPES) is not based on criteria of financial and economic efficiency. This measure is taken in haste and the illusion that the billions paid to EPES are excessive and that they could have been used to develop public university education.

Before coming to our argument, we would like to recall that the conditions that had pushed the state to direct students in the private sector are still there: public universities still suffer from lack of everything (teachers, lecture halls, work rooms directed, equipment of laboratories, beds and restaurants, etc.). Orienting 52,000 students for the next academic year, without adequate infrastructure and pedagogical supervision, will overcrowded them and make them worlds of hostilities.

It is also important to understand that, given Senegal’s huge education needs and that the public sector is unable to meet, the State of Senegal and the private sector must forge a strategic partnership to meet the challenges of the day. On the economic front, a student or student in the private sector – usually from a more or less affluent family – allows the state to increase its financial capacity to enroll more learners from poor or poor families.

Financially, the billions paid to the EPES are a price well below what the state would have spent, if the students oriented in the EPES were enrolled in public universities. This is illustrated by the table below which indicates the annual cost borne by the state budget per student enrolled in public universities or in the EPES.

Unit cost of the student in CFA franc

Contrary to popular belief, it is much cheaper for the state to train students through the EPES than to train them in public universities. In 2017, the budget of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation was set at 162 billion and the annual unit cost of the student in public universities amounted to 1 410 684 FCFA. For the same year, a student trained in the EPES whose tuition is paid by the state cost only 400 000 CFA. According to our calculations and by school hypothesis, if, in this year 2017, the State had directed all its students in the EPES, it would have saved 116 066 975 840! I say Hundred and Billion.

This means that Senegal has every interest in promoting the development of private higher education. This calculation gives a light but does not mean that public higher education must disappear. Far from it.

In the short term, to limit the cash flow difficulties of the EPES, the State could issue them commitment vouchers; which would make it easier for them to obtain cash advances from banks. The technicians of the Ministry of the Economy of Finance and Planning will find the appropriate formula. This would allow private institutions to no longer suffer late payments from the state and improve the quality of training. This is a way to avoid the crises that we know in the sector.

In the long term, the State may facilitate access of private institutions to the existing Investment Fund (FONGIS) or create a special fund to support investments in the sector.

Our EPES already shining in West Africa will have a better future in front of them, if the State understands that a school of quality will have to be done with the private sector, under the high moral and pedagogic authority of the State.

REFERENCES :

World Bank Report No. 59695-SN Senegal: Developing the Tools of State Institutions for More Efficient Management of Public Expenditure in Senegal Public Finance Review June 2011 PREM 4 Africa Region
Costs and Financing of Higher Education in French-speaking Africa MATHIEU BROSSARD AND BOREL FOKO DAKAR POLE (UNESCO-BREDA) Washington, D.C. WORLD BANK Copyright © 2007.