The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Minister Jerome Fitzgerald said yesterday education is a priority to the government and his ministry has no intention of making any negative adjustments to its budget.

He was responding to concerns that arose after it was announced that the College of the Bahamas was asked to cut around $2.5 million from this year’s budget.

Mr Fitzgerald met with the College of the Bahamas Union of students yesterday morning, after they threatened to sit out from classes and stage a demonstration if the government proceeds with cuts to COB’s budget.

“I had a meeting with the student union body to discuss various matters of concern,” Mr Fitzgerald said. “The meeting was a good meeting in the sense that it allowed us to clear up some misinformation and some concerns they had with regard to the funding or future funding for the College of the Bahamas.

“I made it clear to them that education is a priority for this government. I showed them the commitment the government has made to education. I went through all that we have done so far to show that we had no intention in any way of making any adjustments to the education budget which will negatively impact the student body or the delivery of education.”

“But this does not mean that we in the Ministry of Education do not pick up the challenge from the Ministry of Finance understanding their financial constraints. We have to find more ways to be efficient from an operation standpoint and from an organisational standpoint.”

Mr Fitzgerald said at this point he is waiting to receive a report from the college’s council before he can determine what will happen next. However, he said, he feels the representatives from COBUS understood his ministry’s stance.

“I think they accepted what I presented them and they did not have an issue with that. I think unfortunately they did not see the actual letter that came from the Ministry of Finance until yesterday and once they had a view of the letter I think they were a lot clearer as to what the position of the Ministry of Finance is and the Ministry of Education,” he said.

“I think they can move forward with a level of comfort. They were concerned that with all the support the Ministry of Education has given them this year, which far exceeds the support that was given in previous years, they wanted to ensure that level of support was not interfered with and I assured them of that. That does not mean we are not going to find ways to be more efficient and cut some items from the budget if we can. We are waiting for the report from the college council to tell us whether or not they were able to find any savings in the budget and what their plan is moving forward.”