(Excerpts of Leader of the Opposition, Honourable Dr Godwin Friday’s 2025 Budget presentation)
Technical Vocational Education and Training
We have noted the need to give radically more focus to Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The Minister said over a year ago that he recognized the need to do so. How have they responded? As I noted in the Estimates debate, there is nothing in the budget that shows there is a real shift in focus in education to give serious attention to TVET.
This is evident in the allocations Key Program Actions set out in the Estimates. It is also evident in the recurrent expenditure allocations where the total went from $4,492,124 in 2024 to $4,656,534 in 2025, an increase of $164,410. Personal emoluments accounted for $90,171 and wages for $74,249 of that increase; and these were for pay increases, not for no new positions. No new positions were created to advance a new TVET.
How can you increase TVET programs without allocating more resources to do so? There is some capital spending for TVET—eg construction of TVET centre in Union Island and Marriaqua and for upgrading Petit Bordel Multipurpose centre- all total just over $3m. Clearly there is no shift in approach. The approach is basically the same as before: incremental addition to facilities offering basic level programs to cater mainly to high school dropouts and at-risk youth. There is no plan and no investment to make the type of changes that are needed to right the ship of education that Minister said was on the wrong course.
Incrementalism will not do. Let us have a true revolution in education by making our education system more relevant to our times and more responsive to the needs of the economy here and in the region. Let us raise the standard and profile of TVET to make it attractive to all students so that it becomes not a last resort for struggling student, dropouts and at-risk youth, but a program of choice for any and all students. A bold, new approach is needed. We must produce a highly skilled workforce that will help to transform our economy and because of their skills, they would be well paid to do so. In short, let us have a radically new approach to TVET that sees it offers relevant training and certification to all students and encourages our students, including those doing well academically, to enroll in such programs.
A vision of this magnitude and investment on this scale are what we have in mind when we speak of TVET. We have outlined as a component of our Youth Guarantee Pledge that all of young people must have access to quality TVET programs as a normal part of what the education system provides. We imagine that students, including those who have completed CAPE or Associate Degrees, will consider attending a first class TVET institution that offers higher level training and certification than exists currently to obtain relevant skills and training that will enable them to get good jobs here and elsewhere in the region. Students who attend the existing technical centers in various parts of the country may also be able to move up to the TVET Institution to receive advanced training and certification in their discipline.
What the government is talking about now is helpful, but ultimately too limited. A true revolution in education requires not more of the same; not building block by block on what now exists; it needs a new foundation upon which a new course for our education can be pursued. This Budget clearly is not doing that. And we don’t need any more acronyms. Instead, think big and let us turn the ship or education around. That would be a revolution.
ULP shameful treatment of teachers and public sector workers
One of the gravest acts of injustice committed by any government against its workers was done by this ULP government when it fired teachers, healthcare workers, police and other public servants under its misguided covid vaccine mandate.
The Milton Cato Labour government had teargassed teachers during their strike in 1975, and suffocated Kingstown with teargas. That remains a searing event that is still commemorated by the teachers’ union to this day, and this year being the 50th anniversary of the event, may increase the scale of celebration. The effect of the commemoration is to remind us that such draconian actions by a government against its people must never be condoned and never be repeated.
Now, teachers and other public servants (271 of them) who were fired under the government’s vaccine mandate also had to seek justice in court and won at the High Court. The Court ruled that the teachers, healthcare workers, police and other public servants did not leave their jobs but were terminated by the government and the court ordered the government to reinstate the workers with full benefits.
The government has appealed the judgement, and after such a long time the decision is still pending. So, the hardship for the victims continues. Public pleas have been made by many, including religious leaders to reinstate the workers. It is time to end the victimization of the teachers and other public servant fired by the govt under its draconian vaccine mandate. The government does not have to wait for the Court of Appeal decision to do the right thing. The government can end this now and treat the affected people fairly.
An NDP government will end the suffering of the affected public servants by reinstating them, with full benefits as the High Court ordered. Affected public servants won’t have to wait for any order from the government; you can simply return to work the day after the NDP forms government. We will work out the compensation matters ordered by the High Court as quickly as possible thereafter so as not to prolong the hardship.