EDUCATION Minister Glenys Hanna Martin says while budgets for her ministry have been underfunded over the years, she is hoping the financial provisions this fiscal cycle are more in line with what is expected of the placement of education.

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis’ budget communication on Wednesday set in motion over the next few weeks presentations to the country regarding the plans for each ministerial portfolio.

Asked if her ministry’s budget was sufficient upon taking office, Mrs Hanna Martin said: “Me personally, I think that education budgets have been underfunded for a while.

“The global measure tells us that it should be about 20 percent of GDP and that is not happening.

“So, I intend to, as I sit around the table, to be a stronger advocate but not just for more money but money that is strategically and effectively deployed in the advancement of education.

“We are being advised by UNESCO and it is the expected norm for what education is designed to do and the effect it has on national development. It trains, prepares, builds capacity. It’s the foundation of national development and so it should be proportionately represented in the budget. I think that’s the principle.”

Asked if she was looking for an increase this time around, the minister responded: “What I am looking for is a budget that is more consonant with what is expected of the placement of education and national development and I am not sure we’ve seen that yet.”

She was also asked what Bahamians could expect from her upcoming budget presentation.

According to Mrs Hanna Martin she intends to speak about the measures that must be taken following Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to speaking of what is expected to come in the future.

“The fact that we have faced so many challenges in this country, including natural disasters, portions of this nation Abaco and Grand Bahama have been severely hit and it has impacted education and then the pandemic which has impacted everybody, everywhere in this country in education.

“So, I want to talk about that and the fact that there are some things that we are gonna have to do to recover from these two forces that have influenced the lack of progress in education.

“Then I want to speak futuristically about the new paradigms, the new avenues, the new interventions in education that will bring about a more 21st century engagement of young people and that will help us understand more substantively what influences affect our ability to do as well as we can, under performance or performance.

“So we’re going to be doing research and I’m going to talk about the research and I want to speak progressively about tertiary education and the expansion of tertiary education for our young people and then technical and vocational education, which is a brand new thrust which I think will be major and I think will have a positive affect on the advancement of young people on this nation.”