Budget Watch: Education Gets 22% of Recurrent Budget  

 

• Education received the largest share of the 2023/24 Budget for recurrent expenditure programmes outside of debt payments and compensation of employees. A sum of $142.9Bn is earmarked for the sector in the upcoming fiscal year, representing approximately 22% of the $657.2Bn for non-debt recurrent expenditure.
• This represents a $20.9Bn (17.1%) increase in the allocation when compared to the amount allocated over the 2022/23 fiscal year.
• Of this amount provided, $9.3Bn will go towards school nutrition support, which includes $7Bn for the provision of breakfast and cooked lunch for Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) beneficiaries; $380Mn to cover the cost of school transportation to PATH beneficiaries; $15.3Bn in subvention for each of UWI and UTECH to offset operating costs; $2Bn for books and educational materials; and $1.5Bn for information and communications technology services.

(Source: JIS News)