Am­bi­ka Dat­too

Re­porter

am­bi­ka.ja­gas­sars­ingh@guardian.co.tt

For the past decade, T&T has con­sis­tent­ly pri­ori­tised ed­u­ca­tion, health, and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in its na­tion­al bud­gets, ded­i­cat­ing the largest shares of ex­pen­di­ture to these three pil­lars re­gard­less of fluc­tu­at­ing rev­enues and fis­cal deficits.

In 2015, with a na­tion­al bud­get of $64.6 bil­lion, ed­u­ca­tion re­ceived the top al­lo­ca­tion at $10.126 bil­lion (16 per cent). Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and Health fol­lowed with $6.994 bil­lion (11 per cent) and $5.545 bil­lion (9 per cent), re­spec­tive­ly.

While Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty briefly over­took Ed­u­ca­tion in 2016 with a $10.81 bil­lion al­lo­ca­tion, the trend quick­ly re­vert­ed.

From 2018 through the ear­ly 2020s, ed­u­ca­tion con­sis­tent­ly kept its lead­ing po­si­tion, re­ceiv­ing be­tween $7.2 bil­lion and $8 bil­lion an­nu­al­ly. This stead­fast fund­ing oc­curred even as the na­tion nav­i­gat­ed sig­nif­i­cant rev­enue volatil­i­ty from oil and gas prices, re­sult­ing in fis­cal deficits that ranged from $4 bil­lion to over $9 bil­lion.

The Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment was fur­ther test­ed dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. Amid the eco­nom­ic strain of 2021, which saw an $8.209 bil­lion deficit, these key sec­tors re­mained a pri­or­i­ty. Ed­u­ca­tion was al­lo­cat­ed $7.973 bil­lion, Health re­ceived $6.05 bil­lion, and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty was fund­ed with $5.227 bil­lion.

Last year a no­table shift emerged, how­ev­er. While the pat­tern of pri­ori­tis­ing the three sec­tors con­tin­ued, the 2025 bud­get saw Health ($7.571 bil­lion) nar­row­ly sur­pass Ed­u­ca­tion ($7.512 bil­lion) for the top spot for the first time in years, with Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty al­lo­cat­ed $6.113 bil­lion.

Over­all, the bud­getary his­to­ry from 2015 to 2025 il­lus­trates an un­wa­ver­ing gov­ern­ment fo­cus. De­spite eco­nom­ic head­winds, the sus­tained, sig­nif­i­cant in­vest­ment in ed­u­ca­tion, health, and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty un­der­scores a fo­cus on de­vel­op­ing hu­man cap­i­tal, en­sur­ing pub­lic safe­ty, and strength­en­ing the na­tion’s health­care in­fra­struc­ture.