Education Transformation Project Allotted $3.6 Billion

The Ministry of Education and Youth’s Education Transformation project has been allocated $3.6 billion in the 2006/2007 Estimates of Expenditure, which is now before the House of Representatives.
The facilities and infrastructure component of the project received the lion’s share of the allocation, with some $2.6 billion being given to rehabilitate and upgrade schools, handle space rationalisation of the primary and secondary facilities, and improve the aesthetics of the physical plants.
In 2006/2007, the focus of this particular component will be on general repairs to identified schools, construction of new schools, the provision of furniture and equipment, and the physical works associated with the establishment of Information Communication Technology (ICTs) in schools.
As it relates to the ICT component of the Education Transformation project, this component is to receive $300 million, to develop and implement relevant and appropriate ICT systems to facilitate the management, administration, teaching and learning functions in the education system.
Nutrition programmes, which are a component of the project, received $195 million to provide nutritional support to students.
Meanwhile, the governance and management component, which seeks to improve management systems in schools was given $160 million, while the behaviour transformation component, which is aimed at addressing antisocial behaviour through support and guidance counselling programmes, received $100 million.
A breakdown of the figures assigned to the project’s other components reveal that the curriculum, teaching and learning support component received $100 million; administration, $67 million; communication, $40 million, and stakeholder participation, $10 million.