The government has earmarked a total of $74.4 billion for the education sector in the 2022 national budget and Minister with responsibility for Finance Dr Ashni Singh yesterday detailed plans for improving school buildings, expanding the national feeding programme, better integration of ICT, and increased training for both teachers and young people.
During his budget speech at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Singh explained that the planned initiatives are aligned with the new Education Strategic Plan for the period 2021 to 2025, which was launched by the government last year with the aim of providing opportunities for equitable access to quality education and lifelong learning for all.
The education sector is aiming for 100 per cent enrollment by 2025 at nursery, primary and secondary levels to ensure that every school-aged child is in a classroom and accessing the education curriculum. Towards this end, Singh said a total of $6.6 billion has been allocated for this year for the construction, rehabilitation, extension, and maintenance of educational facilities. He noted plans for the reconstruction of the North Ruimveldt Multi-lateral and the North West Secondary, both of which were destroyed by fire last year, and the commencement of the construction of the Prospect Secondary. Work is slated to commence at nursery schools at Hydronie and Haslington, among other schools at both primary and secondary levels. The Kato and Linden Technical Institute dormitories will be completed, among other upgrades to school infrastructure, he said.
He also mentioned that $5.4 billion was spent on the construction, extension, rehabilitation, and maintenance of education facilities last year and this saw works advanced on nursery schools at Queens-town, Martyrsville, Agatash; primary schools at Swan, Vryheid Lust, St. Martins, Waramadong; and secondary schools at Abram Zuil and Yarrowkabra.
Singh also announced that to address the nutritional intake of students at the nursery and primary levels and improve their attentiveness, the government will restructure and expand the national school feeding programme. “This will result in the breakfast, juice and biscuit and hot meals programmes being implemented in 902 coastal, hinterland, and riverine, nursery and primary schools. The sum of $2 billion has been allocated to implement this initiative in 2022 and will benefit a total of 85,773 pupils,” he said.
He also reminded of the government’s reintroduction of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant programme with the aim of improving students’ attendance across all levels. He said approximately 174,000 public school students received cash grants costing $3.3 billion, while approximately 15,000 additional students in private schools also benefitted at a cost of $284.8 million.
Singh acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the need for better Information Communications Technology (ICT) advancements in the sector. To improve the learning at schools and further facilitating the blended learning approach initiated at the start of the pandemic, he said approximately 11,000 tablets and flash drives with teaching material will be given to students at the primary and secondary levels, while laptops and computing devices will be given to 300 primary school teachers and 125 secondary school teachers. This is being funded under a $295.7 million allocation that also covers the expansion of smart classrooms. Further, over $20 million is budgeted for micro-science kits for 100 primary schools.
Additionally, $1.2 billion is being allocated to procure textbooks, compared with the $443.5 million spent last year.
At the tertiary level, Singh said, a sum of $3.5 billion would be allocated to the University of Guyana for the operation
of the university and the expansion of courses, while $1.3 billion will be allocated to the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) programme to meet the cost of 4,500 more scholarships as well as for 2,726 continuing students.
The minister also said the expansion and reformation of teacher training would continue at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) and he noted that $200 million has been allocated to provide financial support to trainee teachers. CPCE saw its largest graduating batch with 843 students and an enrolment of over 3,000 in 2021. This was facilitated by the blended teaching that was funded by a budget allocation of $556 million.
Singh also mentioned that an initial amount of $260 million has been allocated for the establishment of a Guyana Techni-cal Training College campus at Port Mou-rant. Works for the college, which will incorporate the GuySuCo Port Mourant Training School, will commence this year. This training institution, which will be a government and private sector collaboration, will facilitate training in oil and gas and tourism and hospitality sectors.
Budget 2022 also includes a proposed allocation of $420.5 million to train 1,000 workers, who will be trained in a wide range of areas relevant to the oil and gas sector. Under this programme, some 4,500 persons will be trained over the next four years.
A further $2.5 billion is earmarked to strengthen the technical and vocational education and training programmes across the country. Singh said this will equip some 4,500 young people who are currently enrolled with the skills to pursue entrepreneurship and ensure employability. In addition, nine secondary schools will complete a pilot of the level 1 Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) programme across various skills, including crop production and furniture making. The Board of Industrial Training (BIT) has been allocated $448.5 million.
