Luanda, Sept. 12, 2024 (Lusa) - The share of Angola's budget for education fell to 6.4% in 2024, compared to 7.7% in 2023, and remains far from the target of 15%, according to an analysis by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
The 2024 state budget - which estimates revenue and sets expenditure of 24.7 trillion kwanzas (€24 billion) - includes an allocation of 1.6 trillion kwanzas (€1.5 billion) for education, representing a nominal increase of 1.2% compared to the 2023 budget.
Despite the increase in funding, which rose from 20.1 billion kwanzas in 2023 to 24.7 billion kwanzas in 2024, the percentage of the total budget allocated to education fell to 6.4% compared to 7.7% in the previous year, says the UNICEF analysis presented on Thursday in Luanda.
UNICEF also notes that there is a smaller proportion of resources allocated to education compared to the last five years.
The analysis says that Angola is still a long way from achieving the targets set in the Incheon Declaration of 2015 (which calls for quality, inclusive and equitable lifelong education for all by 2030), which recommend allocating 15% of the total state budget to education.
In this analysis, the United Nations Children's Fund advocates a review of the sector's budget allocation, which is planned for this year and represents around 2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), "since education is fundamental to the country's growth".
Secondary education, with 629.7 billion kwanzas, was the budget line that benefited most from the 2024 state budget, followed by pre-school and primary education, which in this budget are combined with 505 billion kwanzas, and higher education with 302.8 billion kwanzas.
UNICEF Angola notes that the allocation for pre-school and primary education has decreased compared to the previous year, noting that although the largest proportion of the child population is enrolled in pre-school and primary education, secondary education continues to receive the largest share of the education budget.
The UN agency also believes that investment in early childhood education plays a fundamental role in the cognitive, emotional and social development of children, and advocates for Angola to "provide adequate funding for primary education in order to guarantee universal access to quality education".
Defining as a priority the progressive allocation of the education budget to 15% in the medium term, drawing up and publishing a real assessment of the National Development Plan (PDN 2028-2022) for the education sector, making available a regular base of qualitative and quantitative data for the sector and the need for continued investment in pre-school education are among UNICEF's recommendations to the Angolan government.
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