Almost $19 billion has been budgeted for the education sector this year with at least half of that to be expended on wages and salaries and $115M on a literacy programme.
Presenting the Budget to the National Assembly yesterday, Minister of Finance, Dr, Ashni Singh said that the education sector is budgeted to expend almost $19 billion with $3.4 billion to be used on capital projects while $15.5 billion will be utilized in the operations of the sector, including almost $9 billion for wages and salaries.
He said that the New Education Act is expected to be finalized this year and the new Education Strategy Plan for 2008 to 2012 is in the process of being completed. That plan, he stated, will focus on literacy and numeracy programmes, universal secondary education, teacher training, school health, nutrition and HIV/AIDS, science and technology, and “the creation of a labour force with skills that match the needs of our development agenda”.
$115 million has been allocated for the implementation of a nationwide Literacy programme targeting low performing children, out of school youths and adults and which is expected to benefit 9000 children and 4500 adults. Dr. Singh said that $89 million will be spent to continue training of master trainers, cluster advisers and cluster trainers so that teachers can be trained in literacy methodology while a similar method of cascade training is being done for Numeracy with $90M allocated to this for this year.
The Innovative Radio Instruction (IRI) programme will also see $10M expended on classroom modules and teaching guides to support its expansion into higher grades.
Meanwhile, over $728M has been budgeted for the training of teachers to upgrade their capabilities and curriculum modules, provide improved teaching aides to teachers, and learning materials to students and introduce modern educational methodologies. In addition, $120M has been allocated to train 300 hinterland teachers through the distance education programme in Mathematics and English for secondary schools.
The Finance Minister said that over $2 billion has been budgeted for the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of schools and buildings in the sector, including the construction of the Mahaica Secondary School while $200M has been allocated for the maintenance of related infrastructure such as fences and access bridges.
A further $60M has been allocated to the Skills for Life programme, which was piloted last year and is designed to teach such skills as carpentry and joinery, sheet metal, welding, crops and animal science among others.
Additionally, $624M has been budgeted for the two campuses of the University of Guyana, including subventions of $565M and capital allocations totalling $59M for the upgrading of facilities, provisions of textbooks and science laboratory equipment. The Student Loan Agency will also benefit from an additional $450M to facilitate access to programmes offered by the University.
Further, $500M has been allotted for the construction of teacher’s houses in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine and the provision of electricity and water to schools in Regions, Two, Three, Seven and Ten, procurement of text books and continuation of the school feeding programme, Dr. Singh said.
