Shift education spending to prioritise pandemic

DARCELLE DOODNATH

The outbreak of covid19 escalated to pandemic proportions in March 2020, and by mid-April, the World Bank estimated 1.6 billion students globally were out of school. Since early July, over 50 countries have begun to reopen schools, but still, more than 1.1 billion students are yet to resume classes. Jaime Saavedra, leader of Education Global Practice at the World Bank Group, argues that without aggressive public policy measures as a means of effective, remedial action when students return to school, this generation of students risks losing approximately US$10 trillion in earnings over their lifetime, having fallen short of achieving their full education, employment and earnings potential.

While coping with the health and economic shocks of covid19, the World Bank forecasts that education spending is likely to stagnate in most countries, and fall significantly in some, as governments try to contain budget deficits. Yet, it maintains that the protection of education financing should form part of an effective pandemic response, with significant resources needed so that systems are prepared and learning can continue during school closures, and progress accelerated once schools can safely reopen.

Amid our own covid19-driven school closures, preparing, coping and planning for the transition to remote learning has presented its share of educational challenges: exacerbated inequalities in access, parental support in maintaining student engagement and mitigating drop-out rates, and contingency planning for the provision of meals for those students dependent on the school-feeding programme, among other issues.

In anticipation of the presentation of the 2021 national budget on October 5, it is therefore imperative that government spending on education reflects the priorities of addressing learning loss as a result of educational disruptions due to the pandemic, improving current levels of access, protecting standards of quality, and funding the necessary infrastructure so that health and safety protocols are successfully implemented at educational institutions once students return physically to school compounds.

According to the Ministry of Finance, from 2015-2019 Government invested more than $28 billion in the education sector. Last year, public expenditure on education equated to ten per cent of the 2020 budget allocation or $6.1 billion. Most notably, during the fiscal year 2019, $41 million was spent by the Ministry of Education on infrastructural upgrades to 28 primary schools and five early childhood care and education (ECCE) centres, while $14 million was allocated to 83 secondary schools. A total of $214.9 million was spent on providing 1,560 scholarships, while recurrent expenditure amounted to over $5.1 billion, the largest portion of which has consistently gone to personnel expenditure.

Now, in preparation for ongoing remote-learning, stark financial focus must be placed on the need for shifting to technology as the primary tool for education delivery, which requires greater levels of investment for successful implementation – increased access to devices and education platforms that support the virtual classroom, massive improvements in internet connectivity, agreements with local and international publishers for access to e-books, even working with telecommunications companies to apply zero-rate policies so that students can download learning materials on smartphones (which they are more likely to have) and preparing the national digital infrastructure to face an unprecedented demand.

Like TT, countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region, such as El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia and Ecuador have set up national platforms with repositories of digital resources for delivery in various modalities and offline access when possible. Colombia is broadcasting educational programmes on both public radio and television, and in Costa Rica, the administration plans to offer hard copy resources for parents with no access to the internet. In Nicaragua, a call centre is being prepared to support families, and to facilitate internet access in the Dominican Republic, over 1,000 free public Wi-Fi access points have been set up.

New Zealand, a country credited with one of the world’s best responses to the pandemic, has created an Urgent Response Fund to support children and young people impacted by covid19 by means of addressing attendance issues, supporting well-being and learning engagement. Regional groups of education leaders were convened to work with the Director of Education in deciding the allocation of funds based on priority needs. Schools and early learning centres apply for funding that can be used for resources and materials for improving students’ well-being, additional teacher aide time, catch-up access and small group tutoring, mentors, counsellors, behaviour support workers, and additional support for learners with complex needs including neuro diverse and gifted learners.

In TT, the need for stronger psychological support for students and their families has long been identified as a concern (even pre-covid19) reflecting the state of social services in schools. The role of counselling and guidance in the form of permanently assigned counsellors and social workers is of paramount importance to provide effective assistance to students encountering challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, learning difficulties, psycho-social problems, and to promote equality, student well-being and prevent social exclusion.

During this period of school closures, it has become more apparent that a school’s readiness for digital learning is contingent on the pedagogical skills of teachers in technology integration. To address the increase in teachers’ training needs, pre- and in-service teacher training must now undergo a rapid change in the structure and content of their training and delivery methods to equip teachers for the task of navigating the virtual classroom. Investments in the provision of continuous training for teachers can take the form of incentivised professional development programmes, aligning with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #4: promoting lifelong learning opportunities.

While the prospect of wage increases for public servants is inevitably dire due to the decline of the local economy, it must be noted that teachers have been living off of salaries that have not been negotiated since 2014, now with added tech-related and other expenses often coming out of pocket, while shouldering the financial responsibility of families and loved ones who may have been adversely affected by the economic impacts of the pandemic.

With regard to the public administration of education, the existence of archaic systems entrenched in bureaucracy and an overriding inertia to policy change have been endemic shortcomings of the education system. Supporting technology adoption throughout the education sector means leveraging technology and data to transform processes and upgrade systems to achieve digital transformation, for example, establishing effectively functioning digitised systems of data collection, such as developing central information databases that house student and teacher registries for the improvement of services that would strengthen public and stakeholder confidence in the reliability, accountability and efficiency of the system.

In the fiscal year 2021, for government spending on education to have a meaningful impact, it must be geared towards minimising learning losses due to covid19 through bridging the technological divide, adequate and relevant teacher training, improved social services and upgraded administrative systems of operation. The education budget must prioritise enhancing the quality of education during these unprecedented times and reducing the education gap by increasing school resources, improving the efficiency of educational institutions and maximising the opportunities afforded by technological innovation. With these efforts targeted towards ensuring equal opportunities for all, they will benefit the local economy and promote social cohesion, and above all, increase the effectiveness of public funding. Since today’s generation of children will bear the burden of the debts incurred by responses to the pandemic crisis, in all fairness, their learning and the financing of their education must be prioritised and protected.

Darcelle Doodnath is an educator specialising in modern foreign language pedagogy. She holds a postgraduate diploma in education from the University of the West Indies, a diploma in methodologies of teaching Spanish as a second language from Universidad de Chile and an undergraduate degree in Hispanic language and linguistics from Brown University.