the reference at 6% of GDP proposed by UNESCO nor the average of this indicator for IDA countries in sub-Saharan Africa estimated at 3.9% in 2003. Efforts are still needed to address too unfavourable state budget allocation towards education. Thus, public resource mobilisation scenarios for the education sector considered in the education sector strategy paper, propose for 2020, public spending on education being in the range of 16% to 22% of total current expenditure. Regarding intra- sectoral distribution of public spending on education, it is observed that significant efforts have been made to better reflect the displayed priority for universal primary education: this level, which hosts two-thirds of the school population receives 34.94% of the total budget allocated to education, almost double the amount it enjoyed in 2007-2008. Table 23: Distribution intra sectoral of education spending in 2007-2008 and 2011-2012 (percentage) Level 2007-2008 2011-2012 Preschool 2.80 8.44 Primary 18.00 34.94 Lower Secondary 39.70 12.28 Upper Secondary 11.97 Technical and vocational education 14.90 15.08 Higher Education 25.60 16.17 Others 0.00 1.11 Total Education 100.00 100.00 Source: Statistical Yearbooks, DEPS, MEPSA? 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 20112012. This trend even goes beyond the recommendations of the education sector strategy paper that reaffirms the fundamental role of the completion of primary education for all as a nonnegotiable objective and proposes, in its reference scenario, a review of the intra-distribution of public education expenditure as follows: 3.6% in pre-school, primary 27.4%, 22.4% in general the lower secondary, 7.5% in the upper general secondary, 16, 9% to technical and vocational education, 0.3% to 22.0% literacy and higher education. A significant effort has been made to rebalance the distribution of resources among the different sub-sectors of education; a significant increase of the total mass of the budget for the entire sector now remains to be done. However, it is regrettable that the largest share of spending is devoted to the operations, including the "wages and salaries" component. During the 2008-2011 period, the share of the operations averaged 80% for Education. Free primary education The regulations recognise compulsory and free primary education. However, in reality, parents are subject to various expenses such as payment of registration fees, the purchase of educational materials and uniforms. It even happened that, given the shortage of teachers 87

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