Rationale, Issues, and Conditions for Sustaining the Abolition of School Fees • 19
(or materials supplied directly by government in the case of Malawi) were not sufficient to replace the materials financed through fees before the policy change.
SIZE OF GRANTS Grant size per pupil varied considerably among the four countries. It was highest in Kenya at the equivalent of US$14.00 per student per year, designed to cover a well-defined set of training materials (two-thirds of the grant) and operating costs (one-third of the grant).24 In Ghana, the grant was equivalent to US$2.70 for boys and US$3.88 for girls. However, in addition, preexisting policies stipulated supply of free textbooks for grades 1 to 6 and user fees not exceeding 10 percent of textbook costs for grades 7 to 9. In Ethiopia, guidelines issued in 2002 and 2003 fixed the annual grant at the equivalent of about US$1.20 per student for grades 1 to 4, US$1.76 for grades 5 to 8, and US$2.35 for grades 9 and 10. The Ethiopia case study notes that these grants were minimum levels, designed to match the preexisting annual school fees. However, the study also notes that in some areas, grants were below the recommended level because of a shortage of resources. Finally, Mozambique followed a phased implementation, and both the size and scope of the grant increased over time. The Mozambique case study does not specify the size of the per pupil grant. Based on the global data provided in the study, the grant appears to have been in the range of US$0.60 to US$0.90 per pupil in phases 1–3 and increased to the equivalent of about US$1.20 in phase 4. Initially, the grants were to cover learning materials for pupils and teachers, chosen according to a Ministry of Education list of eligible items. Later on, health-related items were included. Thus, in phase 4, about 71 percent of the grant was for school materials, and 29 percent for school health and HIV/AIDS-related activities.
SEQUENCING The big bang countries did not phase in the reform over time or specify age or grade levels at which the removal of fees would apply. An illustration of the effect is that in Malawi, the highest enrollment increase (in relative terms) took place in the last grade of primary education, 81 percent for girls, 73 percent for boys, largely for children who wanted to retake the school-leaving examination.25 Kenya also had a large enrollment increase in the last grade.