Georgetown : This year’s National $26.6B is allocated to the Education sector. Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh in presenting the country’s largest Budget $192.8B, yesterday said that government recognises that education is a prerequisite to the successful development of a nation, and as such the Administration will continue to respond accordingly to the educational needs of Guyanese so as to improve their quality of life.
Over $1B has been allocated towards the continued implementation of the National and Hinterland School Feeding Programmes, while the School Uniform Programme will continue; this reiterates the current Administration’s commitment to improving attendance, participation rates, and attainment levels, by ensuring that every child has the basic necessities for school.
Minister Singh noted that in the current government’s Manifesto, one of the key initiatives outlines relates to improving teacher quality by strengthening the institutions involved, and upgrading the training programmes offered.
“We are proud to note that the proportion of trained teachers has consistently been increasing over the last five years, moving from 58 percent to 70 percent at the primary level, and from 55 percent to 64 percent at the secondary level…as we strive to further improve these percentages, over $1.2B has been allotted towards teacher training,” he emphasised.
The budget places significant importance on ensuring that the University of Guyana (UG) delivers quality education. This is another priority for this Government, towards which over $900M has been allocated.
Minister Singh pointed out that having completed the preparatory work for the US$10M UG Science and Technology Project, $80M has been allocated under this project towards the commencement of curriculum reform, research support, and infrastructure rehabilitation. Moreover, another $450M has been budgeted for the student loan programme.
Minister Singh highlighted that government has always been keen on ensuring students dwell in conducive learning environments as such $3.3B has been allocated for continued construction, extension, rehabilitation and maintenance of schools and other educational facilities countrywide.
This includes the construction of Turkeyen nursery school, the extension of the Parika Salem secondary school, and Waramadong dormitory and teaching block. In addition, works are to be done on LBI, St. Pius and Diamond primary schools, Leonora secondary school and dormitories at Charity and Sand Creek secondary schools. Also, science and information technology laboratories are expected to be completed.
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