EDUCATION Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said additional money will be provided for school security in fiscal 2023.
She made this comment during a meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The committee approved expenditure of $5,503,784,600 for the ministry in the 2022/2023 budget.
Responding to questions from Tabaquite MP Haynes about an increase in the allocation for security services from $135 million in fiscal 2022 to $235 million in fiscal 2023, Gadsby-Dolly said, "More services are required."
She told MPs that when schools were closed during the covid19 pandemic, there was less requirement for security personnel to be on site at schools. Gadsby-Dolly said more security personnel will be needed at schools now that in-person classes at schools have been resumed.
She added that this increased allocation does not necessarily mean more people will be employed as security guards at school.
On school transport, Haynes recalled there was an allocation of $8.2 million for this in the mid-year review in May to serve 246 areas.
Haynes said her records showed that only $3 million of that figure has been spent to date.
Gadsby-Dolly said a total of $2.6 million has been paid to date to the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) for school transport.
She assured that all the routes referred to by Haynes would be served.
"All routes are to be served on the basis of (availability) of concessionaires."
On an allocation of $669,000 to the student support services in fiscal 2023, Gadsby-Dolly said, "We will maintain exactly what we have now."
Gadsby-Dolly reiterated that a sum of $50 million will be allocated for remedial education in fiscal 2023.
She said remedial education programmes have been set for 26 secondary schools. Gadsby-Dolly reiterated that pending Cabinet approval, remedial education efforts will be extended to another 25 to 30 primary schools.
Chaguanas East MP Vandana Mohit asked about requests from people for their children to join the school feeding programme. Mohit claimed there were 7,000 such requests.
Gadsby-Dolly said those requests can be made through the respective school principals to join the programme.
Responding to a question from Couva North MP Ravi Ratiram, Gadsby-Dolly said the National Agriculture Marketing Development Corporation (Namdevco) has a role in the programme in terms of supporting domestic agriculture.
She added Namdevco has a representative on the National Dietary Services Ltd (NDSL) which oversees the national school feeding programme. Gadsby-Dolly said the NDSL also has a representative on Namdevco's board of directors to ensure there is synergy between both companies.
Gadsby-Dolly also said in fiscal 2023, a sum of $20 million will be allocated for the purchase of 7,000 laptop computers for teachers and students.
The post Gadsby-Dolly: More $ for school security appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.
