Youth-Focused and Future-Ready: Guild President Welcomes Budget 2026’s Investment in Education and University Access
By Kerron McKenzie, Guild President, UWI Five Islands Campus
The recently presented 2026 National Budget of Antigua and Barbuda was delivered by the Honourable Gaston Browne, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance presents a clear and promising message to the youth, the student body and to national development: access to education is not simply a policy objective it is a national investment.
Among the highlights are government commitments to cover all CXC examination fees for students, and to roll out tuition-free study at UWI Five Islands for eligible citizens once the campus expansion is complete.
As Guild President of the UWI Five Islands Campus, I view these measures as transformative. For many young Antiguans and Barbudans, the cost of examinations or tertiary fees has been a barrier to fulfil their academic or entrepreneurial ambitions. Now, the cost barrier is being explicitly targeted. This budget recognises that investing in our human capital opens doors not only for students, but for the entire economy. Skilled graduates, entrepreneurs, job-creators and global competitors emerge when education is accessible.
Free tuition (subject to eligibility and expansion completion) at UWI Five Islands signals a structural shift: it reinforces that tertiary education should be a possibility for many, not a privilege for a few. For students such as myself studying banking and finance, this is a moment to align our academic work, our start-ups and our initiatives with national priorities such as innovation, sustainability, climate resilience and youth empowerment.
To the government, I commend the people-centred focus of the 2026 Budget. By making education a core pillar, it demonstrates that national growth is tied directly to the next generation. Students now have a stronger platform to step into leadership, contribute to business development and support the islands’ vision of sustainable growth.
To my fellow students I encourage you: treat these commitments not just as benefits to receive but as responsibilities to fulfil. Use this access to sharpen your skills, deepen your networks, build your ventures and prepare to give back to our country. Let us leverage this moment to raise our ambitions and deliver tangible outcomes for Antigua and Barbuda.
Kerron McKenzie
Guild President, School of Business & Management
UWI Five Islands Campus
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The money for education should not go in building up UWI FIC but in the lower levels of learning where students are really struggling. In case you don’t know, they are the ones ending up down there with the same problems they had in primary and secondary school that were not fixed.
This is not the time for made for TV pronouncements. Take a look at the primary and secondary school plants. They need help. At High School the girls are doing their business on top of other girls’ business in toilets that cannot flush. Some are not going to school, or if they go, leaving school early because they need to take care of their bodily functions in a clean and healthier environment.
Teachers are discouraged and are fledding the scene as soon as school is over. The environment is very poor. The break time eats available from some of the cafeterias and whatever over the school fence stuff the kids buy are very poor. The national school meals are very poor.
Not all government secondary schools have the required text books for CSEC. Some of the teachers assigned are not capable of teaching the subject at that level. Parents are spending too much money trying to give their children extra classes to help them to stand a chance.
Good education starts at the lowest level. Stop trying to look good about the university that you and looking- for a- legacy Beckles gave to Antigua and start doing a complete overhaul of the education system and the school plants. That is where the money should be spent.
If you all feel as long as your children are going to private school and are getting good treatment then that is fine by you, then karma which is a female dog, will fix that. Things happen and life might do something to address this imbalance.
Structure the education system better. Look after our schools better. Treat our kids better.
I completely agree with @Use the education money to fix the damn school an dem, our public school system only cares about teachers teaching the required topic whether students understand it or not isn’t always catch willing or unwilling but teachers which some are just not qualified to be teaching at a certain level.
Our school systems are so overcrowded students aren’t able to have one on ones we need to change the entire structure of school, we need to be have special classes for neurodivergent children copy how private schools like St Antony’s or other private schools change how teachers get in schools like having people be a teachers assistant instead of one teacher per class have 2 the main and assistant the assistant can walk around classes and look ever students to see if they understand and if they don’t they have 1 on 1 till they get it also let teachers have to be a assistant before they can get to be the main and also new teachers much be vetted also also ask students about their experience.
Don’t take student talking about someone for light and ignore them because their young if people say someone can’t teach if they don’t get it they teachers should be told to change their approach.
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