Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Schools failing despite high spending

Schools failing despite high spending

The government is spending 66% more per student than the global average and the second highest investment per head in OECD countries, but many government schools in Cayman are still under-performing, the Office of the Auditor General found.
In a report examining how effective the education ministry is at using its resources to maximise student achievement, the OAG found that government has no clear strategic direction for education and is using the $86 million budget poorly.

“Despite education being a priority area and one of the Government’s strategic broad outcomes, there is no overarching strategic plan that sets out the goals, objectives and outcomes that are expected to be achieved,” said Auditor General Sue Winspear.

“We found that there was limited understanding between the use of resources and performance. It is important that good success measures and outcomes are set for education to ensure that success can be measured and money is being spent on things that will make a difference,” she added.

This is the first time that the OAG has ever looked at how the education ministry spends its main budget, which accounts for more than 12% of the government’s core budget. The report drew some worrying conclusions about what appears to be badly managed investments.

The auditors found concerning levels of under-performance across all government schools against the expected levels, as well as a significant gender gap, with girls out-performing boys, except for primary school maths.

And while government has increased spending on special needs students, the auditor’s report said it was not clear if it was helping, as the attainment of primary school students with SEN declined significantly last year in all subjects except writing.

“We found that despite investment in special educational needs increasing significantly, it is not clear if it is improving outcomes for students with special educational needs,” Winspear said. “There has been a significant increase in the number of specialist staff but the performance of students with special educational needs continues to be mixed.”

The report also found there was no overall strategy for engaging parents. Each school develops its own approach, and while that means engagement can be tailored to meet the needs of each school, there are risks that messages are not communicated consistently and parents are not adequately engaged.

But even students are not engaged as they should be, as Winspear’s team identified high levels of truancy, which haves increased over the past five years. Using data they examined from 2013 to 2018, the OAG found that the average number of missed sessions per student increased in most schools. The auditors said some schools have a significant truancy problem, such as Savannah Primary and John Gray High School and the Cayman Islands further Education Centre.

The auditors also raised concerns about the ministry’s failure to align education goals with those of employment. The government has said it wants to improve education to ensure full employment for Caymanians but the report said there “is no clear link between the vision and priorities for education and economic priorities”.

The OAG said there was no indication as to how the education system will produce graduates with the skills the job market needs. In particular, the auditors noted the absence of any clear link between scholarship funding, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and whether what those students are being paid to learn will meet the requirements of the available jobs.

The report paints a worrying picture of government’s failure to examine how public funds are being used in one of its major priority areas. With everyone calling for more investment in education because of the continually disappointing results, this audit implies that the problem is not a shortage of cash.

Despite the damning findings of the OAG, the Ministry of Education issued a statement following publication of the report claiming it was providing world-class educational opportunities while tackling a myriad of societal ills, including illiteracy, unemployment, criminality and lower economic growth.

“We ensure that each dollar that is spent delivers value for money so that we can tackle these global challenges effectively,” officials said.

The ministry said it would continue to build on the initiatives it had already implemented to improve student progress and attainment and would seek to provide further research-based initiatives that target the specific needs of students. Officials acknowledged the importance of a strategic plan for education and said that the ministry would include this in its future plans.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×