GOVERNMENT will complete the design of a new secondary school, work on Parkinson Memorial to improve its overall physical condition and refurbish The Lodge School and Harrison College in this fiscal year.

Prime Minister David Thompson made these promises in his inaugural 2008 Budget yesterday to the Lower House.

It is part of his administration's commitment to improve the education sector which he said "needs many changes".

He said Government would also be "accelerating the training and re-training of teachers so as to meet the needs of a varied student population in nursery, primary and secondary schools.

"Increasing the number of children who benefit from nursery education by building two multi-purpose-built nursery schools; build one new primary school to replace an existing school; and expand the Audio-Visual AIDS Department," he said.

And he also proposed to amend the Student Revolving Loan Fund legislation by increasing the loan limits over the next nine months.

It will permit:

1. annual loans up to $100 000 for over four years;

2. repayment of the loan over 30 years and a provision for pre-payment of the loan without a pre-payment penalty;

3. interest at 1.5 per cent over the savings rate;

4. removal of the need for sureties in the event that a charge on property is taken; and

5. a grace period on principal and interest for the full time of student's studies and for two years thereafter.

"When our students need to borrow funds for special courses, especially when they wish to go abroad, they find the borrowing limits of the Student Revolving Loan Fund too low, the interest rate too high, the range of committed courses too restricted, the repayment period too short and the administrative arrangements for getting a loan too antiquated," he said.

In addition, he noted that despite the limits to Government's resources, it would do as much as it could to repair and upgrade the Ministry of Education.

Governement, he added, would also look to add more special teachers for slower and faster learners and provide more facilities for disabled children and students who just pass their Caribbean Examination Council examinations.

"We need to double the spaces we now provide," he said. "It must be earth- shattering for our youngsters full of enthusiasm to find that they are unable to gain entry to our tertiary institutions like the Barbados Community College or one of the sixth forms or the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic."

"These youngsters are then forced to try to get in the University of the West Indies before they are academically-and emotionally-ready and it costs Government to put them through tertiary institutions," he said.(TM)