THE Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) on Monday blasted the Government for its two per cent increase in funds budgeted for education next fiscal year, arguing that much of the country’s crime problem is due to the constant neglect of the education sector.

PNP shadow minister on education Ronald Thwaites told journalists at a press conference that the budget for education is moving from $102 billion in fiscal year 2018/19 to $106 billion for 2019/20.

“We wish to express disappointment in the increase in the education and training budget for this year. That means when you factor in inflation, we are going to have less money to spend than we did last year and that is unacceptable.

“The People’s National Party wants to ask this nation to agree with us that we have to make extremely high national security allocations. We have to suffer the anguish and the distress of crime and violence because we don’t do it right the first time. Our education and training system, which includes the very crucial and predominant area of proper socialisation, is wanting. We have a low gross domestic product because of a weak education spend. That is our principle,” he said.

According to the shadow minister, the Government should invest a considerable amount of funds in the sector which sets the foundation for an effective and efficient society.

“When you look forward on the budget analysis for the future, you are looking at seven per cent increases — again only just equal to anticipated inflation for the years 2020 right through to 2023.

“This is no way to transform education. This is no way to move Jamaica forward. This is no way to gain prosperity for all. And this year we can’t be sanguine because we know that there has been over $40 billion additional revenue taken from the people’s pockets in order to provide a healthy surplus in money,” said the Opposition spokesman.

Thwaites noted that the PNP wants to see a 15 per cent increase in the education budget every fiscal year, in order to fully achieve the objective of educational transformation.

He pointed out that 70 per cent of the budget for education is used to pay salaries, therefore causing “severe limitation” for programmes and the development of the sector.

“We’re very concerned, for example,that in terms of early childhood education, about which much has been said and promised, the allocations are flat. There is no increase of money to match the rhetoric. Last financial year the estimates were $3.5 billion, this time it is $3.38 billion. That’s actually a nominal decline. How do you explain that when we all know that the secret to better results, to more adjusted young people, lies in the early childhood area?”asked Thwaites.

He mentioned, too, that for primary education, the revised estimate for last financial year was $19.4 billion. He said that the figure remains the same for the 2019/2020 fiscal year.

The former education minister added also that in some crucial areas within primary education, guidance counselling and literacy instruction have remained “flat” despite a need for an increase. He said the same is true for secondary education, which received no meaningful increment.

“One would have hoped that we would have seen an increase in the capital budget. The revised estimate for capital improvements in education last year was $1.7 billion. In this year’s estimates, it’s down to $1.25 billion and inexplicably for the next year it goes down to $192 million only, and in 2022/23 it goes down to $40 million only. We cannot explain that and we oppose it. The education system needs capital improvements. We have heard about 17 new schools, haven’t we? We know of the significant infrastructure requirements that are called for in our schools to make them effective,” said Thwaites.

“We have to spend so much on national security because too many of our young people are not gaining the benefits and having the required outcomes from the public education system… Education is the foundation of nation-building,” he added.