Education Minister: Not enough money to fix all schools

The Education Minister says her ministry has prioritised school repairs as it simply does not have the money required to do all the necessary repairs to all schools in TT.

She was speaking on i95.5fm on September 3, as she addressed concerns about incomplete repairs and the lack of readiness of several schools at the start of the school year on Monday.

Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said the majority of the ministry’s budget is used to pay salaries for teachers and ministry staff, leaving the ministry with just $150 million to spend on school repairs, which is insufficient.

Gadsby-Dolly said as many of the schools in Trinidad and Tobago are more than 50 years old, and some even more than a century old, school repairs are always ongoing.

She said three main issues can result in a school not being able to open on time, and these are a priority when deciding which repairs to undertake.

“There are some things in a school which will stop it from operating. Sewer, electrical and plumbing are the three priority areas. So once a school has issues with these, serious issues to the point where it can shut down the school, we will prioritise.”

She explained, “Because we don’t have the funds to do all the repairs in the country, we will do like a triage and repair the most important things.”

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