By Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterEDUCATION MINISTER, Maxine Henry-Wilson, has said her Ministry is "almost at a danger point" as, from all accounts, 95 per cent of its $23 billion budget is being spent on wages and salaries.
The Minister was addressing the more than 250 delegates at the 39th annual conference of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) at the Renaissance Jamaica Grande, Ocho Rios, on Wednesday.
She said, "In an environment of tight resources, we have to be aware that we do not run the danger of expending all the available resources on salaries and wages and little, if any on (the development of) education."
JTA past president, Paul Adams, said that although 95 per cent of budgetary allocation for wages and salaries showed a "statistical imbalance", a $12.5 billion increase for the sector would be more effective to education.
But, the Minister said, the Government could not afford this, as nearly 60 per cent of the national budget goes towards debts with 12 of the remaining 40 per cent allocated to education.
NEGOTIATIONS
As a result, she said, the Ministry must examine how it reorders its budget to meet the demands of the system. Pointing to the matter of negotiations, Mrs. Henry-Wilson stressed that "it is of absolute importance that, as the group which should be at the forefront of portraying the value of non-acrimonious conflict resolution, these disagreements be expressed and acted out with civility."
She also said she was working to ensure better equipped schools, improved working conditions for teachers and equal access to education, by the end of her tenure as Education Minister.
