Government increased its budget for Education by $5.8-million from last year to $120 million, making the education budget the second largest in Government and accounting for 17 percent of the 2005/06 National Budget.

This represents the equivalent spending of some $16,000 per student in the public education sector from pre-school to the Bermuda College.

The Education Ministry will be rolling out a host of new programs for the coming year including a grant of $2,768,000 to the National Training Board to implement numerous programmes including the Tech Quest 2000 Project. The grant is a 32 percent increase from last year.

Tech Quest 2000 is a private-pubic partnership aimed at providing technical skills to unemployed and under-employed individuals, and a programmes for youth dropouts from senior secondary schools.

Finance Minister Paula Cox was quick to add that these initiatives provided a good example of the Zero-Base Budgeting approach at its best.

The total cost of full implementation of the Board?s programmes exceeded $1 million, but with a phased approach and by seeking alternative delivery options by linking up with the private sector, the cost in 2005/06 was scaled back to $600,000.

This allows the Ministry of Education and Development to mount other new initiatives including the provision of further education awards for mature students who previously were barred from such assistance because of age restrictions.

Something Education Minister, Terry Lister said he was particularly excited about.

There are currently very few scholarships available for anyone over the age of 25.

?With the mature students programme, we will be awarding ten, $15,000 a year scholarships to people in that age group,? he said.

He said this decision was consistent with the belief that people changed their careers at least three times during their working life and this needed to be addressed.

?Under the National Training Board?s Tech Quest 2000 Programme, a similar programme whereby married couples, and we?re looking at working with two couples this year, can go abroad for training ? together,? he said.

As far as adult education goes, Mr. Lister said it was something he continued to believe in.

There are currently community educational programmes run by Pat Chapman, which the Minister said were perfect for adults seeking on-credit type education.

For those wanting credit courses, the Bermuda College will continue to run programmes at night.

Further Education and Teaching Awards were allocated $300,000 for 2005/06.

Mr. Lister said the Ministry was looking at increasing the number of teaching training scholarships for 2005/06.

?The number of teachers we?ve had to bring in from abroad is rising, not because the number of teachers is rising, but because the number of Bermudians teaching at the higher level is falling,? he said.

Mr. Lister said there were a tremendous number of Bermudians who wanted to teach at the primary level, but it was important to develop specialist teachers for middle and specifically, senior schools.

Other highlights in the Education Ministry?s budget for 2005/06 include:

The expansion of Child Development Services

An expanded Summer School programme

The acquisition of Homeroom.com site licenses

Once again the Ministry of Education and Development has reviewed its responsibilities for early childhood education, including those offered by the Child Development Program and is proposing reorganisation to create an early childhood team to ensure cohesive services to children from birth to the end of Primary one.

Mr. Lister said early childhood education was important as educators and parents needed to get children starting off on the right foot and having intervention at the earliest possible time was critical.

He said children who appeared to have difficulties, could have these addressed right from pre-school level and in the earliest forms of Primary School.

The early childhood team will cover the whole spectrum of educational needs:

Development of young children in the home

Support for parents concerning how best to help their children to learn

Wide-range support for private child care and day care settings

Strategies to enhance the education of children in Primary one.

The Ministry of Education and Development has purchased Homeroom.com, an assessment software programme for all primary and middle schools.

This purchase was in response to and as a proactive step to ensure that all schools had access to valid and reliable assessment items in English language arts, including reading, and mathematics.

Teachers and administrators will have at their fingertips a bank of items which are aligned to the Bermuda Performance Standards and also to the Terra Nova assessment programme, as well as information for parents, resources for lesson planning and resources for students.

The Bermuda College was given an eight percent increase in this years? budget with $14,982,000 compared to $13,859,000 last year.

Mr. Lister said the Ministry would continue to strengthen programmes at the Bermuda College, but specifically on the technical side.

?We?re establishing the National Welding Centre and similar centres at the technical side of the college,? he said.

He said technical education was ?super important? to him as he believed that many of Bermuda?s social issues currently being dealt with were as a result of the fact that young people, under 40, had been mis-educated over the last 30 years.

?We?ve taken people who were totally prepared to be fine quality craftsmen or tradesmen, run them through an academic programme which has turned them off in their early years and then left them directionless for the rest of their years. We need to put that to a halt and that?s what?s behind my thrust,? he said.

The Ashay: Rites of Passage programme, which was piloted at Dellwood Middle School at a cost of $60,000 in last year?s budget could be introduced at other Middle Schools on the Island in the near future.

Mr. Lister said the challenge for the Ministry was determining where the Programme would go next. ?At some point, sooner or later, we have to broaden it and take it to other schools. It?s been piloted at Dellwood Middle School and has proved to be hugely successful and we now need to move to other middle schools and allow them some time with it,? he said.

He said part of the challenge was ensuring that teachers for this course were adequately trained.