The budget for the Ministry of Education has been reduced by $2.23 million for the financial year ahead.

Projected spending on education for 2016 to 2017 is $124.9 million, less than the forecast for the previous year according to the 2016 budget delivered yesterday morning by finance minister Bob Richards.

This year’s forecast is much closer to last year’s actual expenditure of $124,827,000.

Bermuda College saw its forecast dip by close to half a million dollars from $16,008,000 to $15,528,000.

Expenses on school consolidation went from zero in 2014-15 to $1.22 million last year. The forecast for this is close to double that figure at $2,287,000 as the ministry seeks to close and consolidate public primary schools as part of its school reorganisation plan.

Mike Charles, the general secretary of the Bermuda Union of Teachers, said cutting the education budget further “is not getting us anywhere”.

He told The Royal Gazette: “If you are making investments in other areas but not education then you can’t expect it to improve it is as simple as that.

“The figures just don’t add up. You are asking teachers to work on less than bare bones and there are no supplies in schools. I don’t know how they expect us to function.

“The Score report is all about improving the facilities for students as well as teachers and the Government is not providing a safe environment for students or teachers — that is a basic requirement. All it does is deepen our inability to serve the students in Bermuda.”

No mention was made in the Budget statement of the school reorganisation report that has dominated the headlines since it was publicly released this month. The report highlighted deficiencies in school populations, classroom capacity, health and safety, building condition, financial resources and special programming, among other areas. It also outlines several scenarios including the potential closure of three primary schools — one per zone.

Spending on Bermuda’s public primary schools is estimated to dip $1,008,000 from $30,408,000 last year to $29.4 million for 2016-17.

Total employee numbers in the Department of Education are expected to decrease by 38 members of staff.

Despite calls from Bermuda Parent Teacher Student Association chairman Harry Matthie for the Government to properly consult stakeholders during the development of policy initiatives geared towards enhancing the public education system — the budget performance measures indicated that full consultation had been successfully achieved during 2015-16 while it is forecast that this year consultation will be successful “100 per cent of the time”.