Gabbidon
Omar Anderson, Gleaner Writer
WENTWORTH GABBIDON, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), yesterday said he was concerned about the nominal increase in this year's budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Education.
According to him, the allocation of $30.2 billion to the Ministry, an increase of $677 million over last year's $29.5 billion, means that constraints within the education system are expected to continue this year.
"We are really concerned with the small increase that has been put in place for the education system," Mr. Gabbidon told The Gleaner. "We were expecting a larger increase."
On Wednesday, the 2004/2005 Estimates of Expenditure was tabled in Parliament, with the budget of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture accounting for less than 10 per cent of the national budget of $330 billion.
The move has already raised eyebrows in the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Audley Shaw, the party's Spokesman on Finance, told The Gleaner earlier this week that the party intends to ask Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, and Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson to account for the slash in the Education Ministry's allocation this year.
Last October, the Government and Opposition struck an historic agreement on education in Parliament, which saw the Patterson administration committing to increase its budgetary allocation to the Education Ministry from 10 to 15 per cent over the next five years.
The increase was expected to occur in increments of one per cent annually beginning this financial year. This means this year's increase should have been at least 11 per cent, as against 9.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gabbidon also lamented the meagre $100,000 increase allotted to early childhood education this year, bringing its budget to $1.2 billion.
"We would have loved to see a greater increase in early childhood education," he said. "The foundation of the education system needs a greater input."
