THE RECENTLY approved Budget has once again placed the entire education sector in a tail spin, since all stakeholders are being asked to produce more with less. In effect, from the historic agreement with the Opposition last December, a Budget of $328 million should have allocated $36 million to education, to meet the target of 11 per cent. Instead, the allocation is closer to nine per cent of the Budget.
The schools have been mandated to raise the level of passes in Grade Four Literacy, Grade Six Achievement, CXC, CAPE and the various technical examinations. They were promised smaller class sizes, better equipped classrooms, better sanitation, improved security, more assistance to needy students and a rapid expansion to public absorption of the early childhood education system.
The following are the tools to do this job: Compensation of employees in the Recurrent Budget was $854.8 million in 2003/4. The new provision is $802.3 million, or $52,561 less, down by six per cent. When we take into account that the compensation of teachers will rise by three per cent, it is clear that either there will be less teachers, or less qualified (and therefore lower paid) teachers. In a word, this allocation is sheer stupidity.
Purchase of other goods and services (books, class materials, chalk, computer discs etc.) received $555,532 million last year. This year the recurrent provision is $471,642, a whopping $83,890 less, or 15 per cent down. Provision for Public Utilities is stuck at $35.7 million from last year, but already this year, electricity and water rates have increased, with other applications pending. The Recurrent vote for Primary education is down from $9.89 million to $9.16 million.
Apart from difficulty in improving the old schools, we wonder where will be the provisions for the new schools just opened in St. Catherine and St. James? Secondary education provisions share the same fate, down from $1.03 million to $8.4 million. The older schools with strong past students associations, will weather the storm, but the new schools will be hard pressed to meet the challenges.
Technical/Vocation education also received the cut, down from $1.89 million to $1.05 million. This is expensive education because of the quantity of raw materials needed lumber, saw blades, welding rods, cloth, threads, etc. With 16 per cent inflation last year, the provision is unrealistic.
Agricultural education suffers a similar fate in the face of a call for increased production. Its budget is culled by $20 million to $230 million.
THE WORST
It is agreed that conditions are poor, and that we must provide more classrooms, fix roofs, build laboratories, libraries, sanitary blocks and security fences. This will provide the environment for teachers to use their abilities to form healthy and educated minds. From the capital budget should come the provision of new permanent facilities. Above all, the upgrading of new secondary schools, which were once all-age schools and whose students, parents and teachers have been clamouring for 12 years to be treated as equals with the older schools. Instead, the Capital Budget has been slaughtered.
The budget for the all-age schools allocation has been slashed from $23 million to $10 million. The Building Maintenance vote for primary schools has been downsized from $114 million to $33 million this year. The provision of equipment and furniture (primary) allocation has been cut from $37.6 million to $6 million this year. Repairs and Maintenance (primary schools) allocation was $14.9 million and is now a token $5 million. There are single schools which need more than this sum for urgent repairs.
A TALE TOLD
For secondary schools, the capital provisions tell the same tale. The Repairs and Maintenance vote is stuck at $1 million, but the two critical votes of provision of equipment and furniture and upgrading guarantee that little will be done this year. Upgrading is down from $14 million to $5 million, while Provision of equipment and furniture is reduced from $9 million to $1.28 million.
Over 100 new secondary schools are in dire need of this new equipment and general upgrading, but the provisions will probably only fulfil the needs of a dozen schools.
It cannot be that the Government intends to completely under-provide the education sector at a time when the country is seeing its brightest economic prospects ever. This Budget is supposed to be a master stroke answering all the administration's critics. Maybe someone forgot about the needs of the one million children crying out for improved capacity to perform.
Senator Anthony Johnson is the JLP spokesman on Education and Technology.
