THE Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts, Rosy Akbar, has described her ministry’s budget allocation as a challenging one.
The education sector (including programs such as the loans scheme and grants to higher education institutions) budget allocation for 2019-2020 is over $800 million compared with $1 billion last year, a $200 million reduction.
The Education Ministry budget is about $467m, down from their budget of $535m for the 2018/2019 financial year.
The actual spend of the ministry for the year was $515m.
Ms Akbar said through a prudent and financial management system and processes,the ministry would be able to work within the budget without compromising the quality of education.
“We will deliver,” she said.
“I really have to study where the major cuts are and I should be able to talk about that in detail probably tomorrow.”
During the budget announcement in Parliament last year, Economy Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the free milk program would only cater for Year 1 students in the rural and maritime areas and this would be reviewed by the ministry in the next financial year.
A sum of $400,000 has been allocated to the education ministry particularly for the said program.
