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For­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of ne­glect­ing the na­tion’s youth and ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor in its 2026 na­tion­al bud­get, warn­ing that progress made over the past decade is be­ing re­versed.

Gads­by-Dol­ly said the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance de­vot­ed min­i­mal at­ten­tion to ed­u­ca­tion in his bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion, de­scrib­ing it as “al­most an af­ter­thought.”

“Ed­u­ca­tion was al­most left out of the bud­get con­tri­bu­tion,” she said. “The fo­cus was mi­nus­cule, al­most like an af­ter­thought—1,800 words de­vot­ed to ed­u­ca­tion and youth out of 20,000 words de­liv­ered over three hours. That’s less than nine per cent.”