P.U.P. Says Ministry of Education Misguided
The People’s United Party today chastised the Ministry of Education for cutting the subvention for the University of Belize. The P.U.P. says that the government’s decision to slash the university subvention by twenty-four point two percent from eleven million dollars to eight-point three-four million dollars is misguided. This, the P.U.P. says, will inevitably lead to a reduction in the programs of study offered by UB and likely, to the termination of members of faculty and staff. The P.U.P. Freetown Area Representative and former Minister of Education, Francis Fonseca told the media today that the Ministry of Education under the Barrow administration has failed to plan and as a result, unable to put the National University on a sound and sustainable financial footing.
Francis Fonseca
Francis Fonseca, Area Representative, Freetown
“It is misguided. It is wrong-headed. It is counterproductive. It is lazy. It is lazy. That is the best way of describing it. It is very easy to say just cut this instead of doing a proper analysis of your budget and understanding where and how you can make adjustment to what you have and understand your priority. So to me it is a slap in the face of the students of this country, the higher education students, the students of UB. It is a slap face to the faculty and staff of UB. It is saying to them very clearly, you are not a priority.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Are you saying that it is the People’s United Party’s position that the ministry shouldn’t have touched the university’s subvention even though we are experiencing a pandemic, economic crisis and the government isn’t making any money compared to the same period last year?”
Francis Fonseca
“Yes, we believe. Listen…”
Hipolito Novelo
“But isn’t that a highly impossible scenario?”
Francis Fonseca
“Not at all. You can, within the Ministry of Education itself I have done a review of the Ministry of Education and I easily looking through the budget of the Ministry of Education can find where we can reallocate funds. Almost twenty million dollars in my view of a lot of waste and inefficiency in the Ministry of Education that can be properly reallocated. So we don’t have to be making these choices. What people have to understand very importantly, this government has been in power for twelve years, where is your plane for the sustainable financing of the national university of Belize. Is it not a priority for you in the Ministry of Education?”
