$430 Million Additional Support For Schools

The Ministry of Education and Youth is providing $430 million for additional support to schools, following the full resumption of face-to-face classes on Monday, March 7.

This was disclosed by Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, during the meeting of the Standing Finance Committee in the House of Representatives on March 3. The members are deliberating the 2022/23 Estimates of Expenditure.

Mrs. Williams noted that the additional support includes 100,000 students on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) with breakfast and 18,782 students with snacks, under the Nutrition Products Limited. The overall nutrition budget is $6.583 billion.

Also under way are efforts to “help children recover from learning loss through customised learning, guided by assessment data”, the Minister noted.

“This will be school-based. There’ll be extended learning opportunities through the extra lessons and summer school programmes at a cost of $250 million,” she pointed out.

She explained that Mathematics and Literacy coaches will work with “underperforming schools”, of which student coaching, co-teaching and co-planning parent sessions with Maths and Literacy camps will take place. Also included is capacity building for teachers.

Meanwhile, Minister Williams stated that of the 120,000 students who are not connected virtually or otherwise to schools, the Ministry has re-engaged approximately 40,000.

This has been achieved through the Yard to Yard, Find the Child initiative, which has a budget of $103 million.

Meanwhile, the Minister pointed out that on the Capital side, there is a budget of $1.3 billion, which does not include the $400 million for minor repairs and maintenance of schools that is in the Recurrent budget.

The Recurrent budget for the Ministry of Education and Youth for the upcoming financial year is $119.2 billion.