2.5 Financing

Trinidad and Tobago allocated about 4% of GDP to education in the early 1990s, rising to 4.5% by 1995. This represented about 13% of government expenditure. Primary education accounted for 46% of the budget, secondary 38%, post-secondary including teachers colleges 4% and tertiary 7% (World Bank, 1995, p. 112). At that time, primary recurrent costs per student appear to have been about TT $1,298¹, secondary TT $2,058, vocational and technical TT $3,767, teacher training TT $11,341, and tertiary TT $20,953 (at 1985 prices). Student costs per capita as a percentage of GDP were 10%, 16%, 29%, 98%, and 161% respectively for the different levels. Ninety-five percent of the Ministry of Education's expenditure is recurrent, with salaries accounting for about 70%.

¹ TT $ = US $6.30

Table 2.4 shows the percentages of the expenditure on education allocated to various sectors during the period 1994-1997. The expenditure on teacher training is relatively low. There have been no major repairs or expansion works on the training colleges over the past five years. Expenditure on primary education is larger than that on secondary education during this period because of the thrust towards improving education at the basic education level over the past few years. Capital expenditure on secondary education has been minimal in the last decade. However, with the recent thrust toward universal secondary education, this situation is changing drastically.

Table 2.4. Expenditure on Education by Level, 1994-1997 (TT $)

It is important to note that the costs of primary teacher education include not only direct college costs, but also the salaries of trainee teachers. In 1996, about TT $18 million was allocated to the teacher education salaries budget. Of this about TT $3-4 million flow to lecturers and other support staff. The bulk of the remainder pays the salaries of trainees during the period when they are in full-time training.