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For the past decade, T&T has con­sis­tent­ly pri­ori­tised ed­u­ca­tion, health, and na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in its na­tion­al bud­gets, ded­i­cat­ing the largest shares of ex­pen­di­ture to these three pil­lars re­gard­less of fluc­tu­at­ing rev­enues and fis­cal deficits.

In 2015, with a na­tion­al bud­get of $64.6 bil­lion, ed­u­ca­tion re­ceived the top al­lo­ca­tion at $10.126 bil­lion (16 per cent). Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and Health fol­lowed with $6.994 bil­lion (11 per cent) and $5.545 bil­lion (9 per cent), re­spec­tive­ly.

While Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty briefly over­took Ed­u­ca­tion in 2016 with a $10.81 bil­lion al­lo­ca­tion, the trend quick­ly re­vert­ed.