Economic and Policy Advisor to the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Elson Low, today accused the PPP/C Administration of underinvestment in education. During a press conference this morning he said, “The moment our national budgets have included revenues from oil, we have seen continually, a decrease in the share of the budget that is spent on education.”
Following a perusal of the national budgets, Guyana Standard found data that contradicts the premise of Low’s argument. In fact, Guyana has seen the highest ever allocation for education in 2023 which stands at $94.4B.
An examination of budgets passed by the APNU+AFC regime also shows that the education sector received $170.3B from 2015 to 2019. Under the current administration, the education sector received $281.5B from 2020 to 2023.
A breakdown of these allocations is provided below.
Budget 2015: $31.8B
Budget 2016: $40.3B
Budget 2017: $43.1B
Budget 2018: $46b
Budget 2019: $52.2b
TOTAL: $170.3B
Budget 2020: 52B- truncated budget
Budget 2021: $60.7B
Budget 2022: $74.4B
Budget 2023: $94.4B
TOTAL: $281.5B
Notably at the press conference, Low did not offer any analysis or statistical data to show how he arrived at his conclusion. He nonetheless criticized that administration for taking a deliberate decision not to invest in education.
He also lambasted the government for its failure to provide teachers’ with their long-awaited salary increases and additional benefits. Low said this is an alarming trend, adding that it shows “government has no interest in education…”
