Gadsby-Dolly: $5B budget can’t cover all our expenses
Senior Reporter
otto.carrington@cnc3.co.tt
The challenges schools in Trinidad and Tobago face with repairs may stem from a lack of sufficient funding, despite the substantial $5 billion budget allocated to the Ministry of Education.
Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly made the comment yesterday as she defended the lack of readiness of some schools for the new academic year on Monday.
Speaking on the morning programme on I95FM, Gadsby-Dolly said the ministry is left with only $150 million for the School Repair Programme after the $5 billion allocation is divided on recurrent and other expenses.
“Most of the budget is tied up in recurrent expenditure, which means the money is primarily used to run the organisations, not for school repairs. That’s why anything related to school maintenance is always constrained by a tight budget,” Gadsby-Dolly said.
She added, “If we need to build schools, we have to secure loan funding, which isn’t accounted for in the standard budget. We have a lot of schools, and it takes a significant amount of money to keep them running, with much of the budget allocated to that.”
The minister provided a breakdown of some of the ministry’s critical expenditure, which she noted is the main reason the ministry cannot focus as much of the resources needed for the school programme.
“Out of the five billion, 1.5 billion is allocated to running UWI, COSTAATT, UTT, NESC, and YTEP, which are government-funded institutions. This brings us to 3.5 billion. We also have to consider the staff of the Ministry of Education itself, not including teachers, which costs almost another billion dollars—800 million—and scholarships account for another 200 million,” Gadsby-Dolly said.
“So, the money allocated to fix schools is nowhere near five billion; it’s 150 million, and by the time we reach the vacation period, that money is already gone.”
She said she does not see a resolution to the issue in the short term either.
“The fact is that every education minister has and will be faced with this until and unless we get to a situation where we are able to maintain our schools and upgrade all of our schools in a certain way so that what we deal with is preventative maintenance,” she said.
She added, “This time, let me just use this year as an example. When we looked at the critical repair programme for this vacation time, the total funds required was about 190 million dollars. What we had available and what we had to make available from the ministry’s resources was 20 million because what is allocated to us on an annual basis, for example, this year’s budget, what was allocated to the ministry was just about 150 million dollars for school repair.
“So, I want to be very clear, and the public must understand this: the amount of money required for school repair is simply not available. That has been a situation for some time in Trinidad and Tobago, and that really is what plays out every vacation when people take notice of what’s going on in schools.”
Contacted hours after Gadsby-Dolly made the comment, Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association president Martin Lum Kin urged the minister to explore other means of securing funding for the repair programme.
“It is clear that additional funding is necessary. We have boldly suggested, both publicly and to the ministry, that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago consider drawing from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund to assist in fulfilling its mandate, especially for school repairs. The ministry should explore every possible avenue to ensure their budgets are realised, not only through realistic planning and assignment of resources but also by appealing to the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet,” Lum Kin said.
He pointed out that over the years, the ministry has only been able to focus on emergency repairs, resulting in many schools being neglected and even preventative maintenance not being done properly.
Lum Kin emphasised that health and safety should be the top priority, as the lives of teachers and students are at stake.
Also contacted, National Parent-Teacher Association (NPTA) president Walter Stewart found the minister’s statement surprising and indicative of poor management.
“I was very surprised to hear that because when creating a budget, I would expect that all the arms and departments of the ministry would submit their figures to the minister for forwarding to the Ministry of Finance,” Stewart said.
“Given the critical importance of school repairs and maintenance, this should be a high priority in the budget. I would assume that a significant portion of the budget allocation would be directed towards maintaining and improving schools.”
He added, “So, how did the minister expect to address these needs, knowing the volume of repairs required each fiscal year? What other plans did the ministry have to ensure that funding would be available for this crucial purpose?”
Meanwhile, Tabaquite MP and Opposition Shadow Minister of Education, Anita Haynes-Alleyne, blamed the shortfall on poor management by the minister.
“If you are a serious policymaker, you will take the data coming in from the schools, list in order of priority what you need to accomplish during the July-August vacation, what could be accomplished during the school term, what can be accomplished in the shorter vacation period, and then petition the Ministry of Finance for the money for those things. At the end of each fiscal period, you should then account to the public,” Haynes-Alleyne said.
“Instead, what we get are arbitrary promises and this idea that the money is just not enough. But the fact is, the budgeting procedure allows you to request the amount of money that you actually need, then tell the public how much money you actually got, where you spent it, and what you spent it on. So, I’m not allowing the minister to say, you know, we get five billion.”
The MP said she intends to ask about the amount of money spent on school repairs when Parliament resumes.
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