Finance Ministry Kicks of Secondary-School Budget Sensitisation Tour
By: , April 11, 2025
Photo: Donald De La Haye
Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Fayval Williams (fourth right) and Education, Skills, Youth and Information Minister, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon (fourth left), share a moment with students and educators at the launch of the National Budget Secondary-School Tour at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon on April 8. From left are, from Glenmuir High – Head Boy, Matthew Robinson, Deputy Head Girl, Joshaye Smith, and Vice-Principal, Denovan Hayles. From Denbigh High are (from centre) Akira Williams, Brittany Gordon and Shemoy McPherson; and Regional Director for Region 5, Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Barrington Richardson.
Photo: Donald De La Haye
Education, Skills, Youth and Information Minister, Senator Dr the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon (right), distributes booklets on the 2025/26 Budget to students during the launch of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service's National Budget Secondary-School Tour at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon on April 8.The Full Story
The Finance and the Public Service Ministry rolled out its 2025/26 National Budget Secondary-School Tour with a stop at Glenmuir High in Clarendon on Tuesday (April 8).
The event, which engaged high-school students from the parish, formed part of the Ministry’s National Budget Public Education Campaign, which is geared at sensitising secondary-school students about the budget process and the measures outlined during the recent Budget debates.
Portfolio Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, said education continues to receive a major chunk of the Budget, with $178 billion allocated to the sector this year.
The sum, she said, covers teachers’ salaries, the school-feeding programme, the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) beneficiaries, transportation support, tuition grants, books and educational materials, grants for tertiary institutions and university subventions.
She noted that the allocation also entails youth development initiatives such as the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) Programme; Work to Learn, Earn, Give and Save (LEGS); and the Learning and Investment for Transformation (LIFT) initiative.
“We have prioritised education in Jamaica, and a lot of what happens here is paid for by our collective taxes,” Mrs. Williams said.
The Minister explained the importance of the Net International Reserve (NIR) in providing a safety net against economic shocks and a buffer for emergencies.
“It is the US dollars that the country has available to it, and it is now US$5.8 billion. It is our safety net because we have to buy things outside of Jamaica and we have to pay in foreign currency. If we don’t have it, we won’t be able to buy those things, so we must ensure we always have US dollars. We have to guard it and not spend it frivolously,” she explained.
The Minister also highlighted the country’s economic achievements and told the students that the Government is committed to attaining a debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of 60 per cent by fiscal year 2027/2028.
“We got into a situation where we owed 147 per cent of all goods and services produced,” she said, noting that today, the debt is down to 68 per cent.
“Even when we get there (60 per cent by 2027/28), we have to go lower, because where Jamaica is situated geographically, we are in the path of hurricanes and storms. Following the passage of last year’s Hurricane Beryl, other schools across Jamaica were totally devastated, so we always must have resources that we can call on in times of natural disaster,” she said.
The National Budget Secondary School Tour, which ends on May 2, will include 13 workshops benefiting students in Clarendon as well as a Kingston-based school.