NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (December 10, 2021) – – Junior Minister of Education, Hon. Troy Liburd has commended the Cabinet members of the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) for continuing to prioritize education when allocating limited resources each year.

For 2022, the Ministry of Education, Library Services and Information Technology has been allocated $33.7 million, representing 14.8 percent of the total budget.

“When I look at the Budget [booklet], when I look at the top I see the TVET building at Gingerland Secondary School. Education right at the top; right away I was bullish about this budget because education is right at the top.

“If you want to know what the priorities of a government are look at how the government spends its money. In anything you do you want to know what is being prioritized. When you look at this budget I can’t help but be proud as the minister with responsibility for Education, because when you look at the money a big part of the budget is going towards education.

“I think the Ministry of Finance has the biggest allotment and then the Ministry of Health, and you would understand with all that’s going on with COVID-19 and so on that they would have the second largest allotment, but just after that is the Ministry of Education. High on the list of priorities is education, and year after year that remains true. We are high on the list. So we got the third largest allotment. The government is putting its priorities where they should be,” the Junior Minister said.

He was at the time making a presentation during the debate on the 2022 Budget in the Nevis Island Assembly on December 08, 2021.

Speaking to the challenges the sector faced with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said monies had to be allocated to facilitate dual modality learning; installing sanitization stations and supplying sanitizer and soap at all schools; and enhancing bandwidth provisions to ensure all students had high-speed in-school internet access.

He thanked Premier Hon. Mark Brantley, Minister of Finance and mover of the Nevis Appropriation Bill (2022) 2021, for “finding the money because it was in the best interest of the children”.

Hon. Liburd also took the opportunity to express gratitude to his team at the Ministry and Department of Education as well as the teaching fraternity and support staff at the island’s schools.

“I want to give commendation to the good folks in the Ministry of Education, Permanent Secretary [Kevin] Barrett and Principal Education Officer [Zahnela] Claxton. I want to thank them for the hard work that they put in. these are two of the hardest working persons that I know; very intelligent, smart people.

“I also want to thank all of the Education Officers and all of the other staff at the Ministry and at the Department, all of our principals who work really hard, all of our teachers and our non-teaching staff at our schools- they do excellent work throughout the year,” he said.