TTUTA: Education should have got more money

TTUTA president Martin Lum Kin said while the union is not surprised by the statements made by the Finance Minister in the 2024/2025 budget, it is disappointed that the allocation  to address the many issues plaguing the Education Ministry and schools across Trinidad and Tobago was not greater.

In a voice message to Newsday, Lum Kin said the union membership had several concerns about where funding would come from.

“We note the government is seeking to address the areas of infrastructure and health and safety by accessing external funding.
"We want to caution the government and the ministry that this must be carefully managed in the accessing of the funds and the disbursement of such.

“We demand of the Ministry of Education to provide the much-needed furniture for all our schools, because it has reached a critical point and threatens the operations of all our schools. We look forward to a timely disbursement of direct funding to all our schools and district offices.”

He said the union was also cautiously optimistic about some of the measures announced.

“There are some positives in the budget that seek to address curriculum issues, but even these are questionable. For example, in the area of numeracy and the interventions, we are questioning why the Education Ministry is looking at the secondary sector when meaningful interventions should take place at the primary level.

“We look forward to the implementation of the e-books, although this would have been bandied about quite a number of years ago. We will be observing with keen interest the implementation of this.

“We look forward to the improved resourcing of the Student Support Services Division, as we believe this important unit plays a significant part in student behaviour and academic improvement.”

Lum Kin said the union looks forward to a timely disbursement of direct funding to all schools and district offices, as well as other initiatives for teachers.

“We also look forward to timely upgrades, payments of increments and promotions within the teaching service. We also look forward to an improvement of the HR aspect, with the introduction of a computerised and digitised recordkeeping, which has been way too long in implementation.”

Education Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said the loan financing for school upgrades is critical.

It "will be applied to continuing the school upgrade programme, which is distinct from the completion of emergency works which arise daily at multiple schools. The ministry has undertaken Phase 1 of planned school upgrade works at 27 schools at a cost of $175 million and another 15 schools have been approved for Phase 2 planned upgrade at $200 million. The approved loan amount will determine the composition of Phase 3 of planned school upgrades.”

The minister said government continues to place very high priority on education, as is required to maintain the skilled, professional workforce which will continue to drive TT's development.