Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley yesterday put the country on alert that the school-age population had been seriously impacted by the existence of the Covid pandemic.
He said the concern that the pandemic has had on the education of the children had become a priority for Government attention policy-wise and budgetary-wise.
He said, coming out of that period driven by the demands of Covid, the Government had some legacy items which may have to find themselves into line items in the budget, “not the least of which is the generation of school-age people who are carrying a demand now for extra assistance because of what was lost during the two years of the Covid response”.
Speaking at the Spotlight on the Economy at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain, Rowley said the United States, the richest country in the world, had just declared the performance of well-off children declined by three percent and the performance of children who are not in the top cohort economically had declined by 13 percent in English and mathematics.
“And I think that Trinidad and Tobago has similar, possibly worse, conditions which cannot be left unattended and, therefore, this is a new challenge for us—not to just have an ordinary school year, but to have a school year in which this is an additional requirement from the budget.
“As one Jamaican prime minister said, ‘you always want a caring government but it takes cash to care,” he said.
The prime minister said the Covid pandemic had also upset the Government’s intention and ability to bring expenditure and revenue into alignment.
Source-CMC
