Update: 11:02AM Education gets $964.4m
INCREASED teacher salaries, increased allocations for the Tertiary Education Loan Scheme and recruitment of more teachers are just some places where the massive allocation for the education sector will go.
The sector was given the lion?s share of the budget, a staggering $964.4 million of which $490.1m will go to the Ministry of Education.
This represented an increase of $223.8m from last year?s budget.
And the ministry will now spend more than $300m of their operating expenditure on salaries once the average salary increases of 14.3 per cent for teacher and ministry staff and 13.8 per cent for school heads and administrators are factored in.
The salaries will come into effect on August 1, 2107.
These increases, coupled with the tax threshold to $30,000 means larger take-home pay packets for thousands of teachers.
?Teachers will also receive significant increases in salaries,? Attorney-General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said.
?Job evaluations for these positions were completed only last week and we are pleased to announce that the average increase for qualified teachers is 14.3 per cent. And for our school heads and administrators it?s 13.8 per cent.?
The increases are not without conditions with teachers expected to put in an extra seven days prior to the start of new terms.
And positions where the increases are above 15 per cent will need to be advertised.
The remaining funds will be split up between higher education institutions ? $107m, $196.4m for scholarships administered by the Tertiary Scholarship and Loans Board, and a further $170m to continue the rehab and reconstruction of schools affected by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston.
