On Monday at the Arthur Chung Conference Center, Liliendaal, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh presented the country’s 2024 National Budget.
This marks the fifth budget since the return of the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) to government in 2020 and was presented under the theme: “Staying the Course: Building Prosperity for All”.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh during his 2024 Budget presentation (Photo: Guyana Chronicle/Delano Williams/January 15, 2024)
The historic 2024 Budget was 46.6% larger than that of 2023, being fully financed with no new taxes. It totals $1.146 trillion and contains a mix of people centered measures.
As part of the country’s largest budget to date, partly funded by proceeds from oil production offshore Guyana, $135.2 billion was allotted to the advancement of the education sector. In the previous year, some $105 billion was spent in the sector.
Dr. Ashni Singh announced that of this, $28.7 billion will go towards the construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance of the school buildings and educational facilities.
$8.1 billion was budgeted to continue to distribution of the “Because We Care” cash grant programme and uniform grants. This will see families across the country receiving $45,000 for each child in school
$3 billion will be used to purchase over 500,000 textbooks for primary and secondary school students, while the national school feeding program will continue with an allotment of $4.9 billion.
Technical and vocational interventions will be supported with $2.3 billion of the budget.
The University of Guyana will be supported in their operations by an allocation of $4.1 billion, and the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL) programme will receive $4 billion.
Ahead of the Budget reading, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand shared that the Government plans to work towards achieving universal secondary education and will continue to enhance the delivery of education. This was shared at an inspection of the Providence Primary School.
She stated that the PPP/C Government “will be using the budget to fulfill those desires”, by investing in policies and creating better results for each child.
Various secondary schools are being constructed nationwide to offer access to education across the regions.