Finance Ministry to Embark on School Tour

The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service will be embarking on a national budget secondary school tour, starting on Tuesday (April 18).

The tour will take place over a two-week period ending on April 28.

Focus will be placed on Portfolio Minister, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke’s 2023/24 budget presentation.

Director of the Corporate Communication and Public Relations Branch at the Ministry, Shelly-Ann Weeks told JIS News that the tour will also focus on the role and function of the Ministry.

“We didn’t want to just go through the typical procedure during budget season where we present the budget to Jamaicans. We also wanted to do a little more and to get young people interested not only in the budget, but in the process that goes into the budget and to see how they fit into it,” Ms. Weeks said.

She noted that through this initiative, all Jamaicans, especially secondary students, will be able to appreciate how the budget impacts them.

“This is an effort to activate and ask them to pay closer attention to where the budget is coming from. Obviously, allocation to education affects them directly because they are in schools and that affects what happens to them in the classroom, so we want them to make that connection.” Ms. Weeks added.

During the tour, presentations will be made by persons from the various branches within the Ministry. In addition, there will be rap sessions with the Finance Minister and Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams.

“We will also be giving out copies of the Citizen’s Guide to the Budget to the students, as well as tokens and gifts they can use,” Ms. Weeks said.

The Ministry will be visiting 10 schools in the corporate area, starting with Wolmer’s Girls on April 18.

The tour will also visit St Hugh’s High School for Girls, Clan Carthy High, Excelsior High, Camperdown High, Denham Town High, St George’s College, Jamaica College and Holy Childhood High.

“We will be doing outside broadcasts so people can tune in to the radio and listen. Some of these students are going to be our future public servants working at the Ministry and writing policies. We want to show the students that they can also consider a career in this field, so we want to give them the tools in order to pursue that,” Ms. Weeks said.