The State will have to synchronise the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme and tertiary facilities to produce graduates the economy can absorb — and find alternative ways to educate people — since the absorptive capacity of the economy is a challenge, says Government Senator Franklin Khan.
“We’re seeing growing levels of under-employment and under-employment is worse than unemployment,” Khan said in the Senate yesterday.
Khan, the Leader of the Government bench, was speaking in the debate on an Opposition motion filed by United National Congress (UNC) senator Wade Mark calling for Government to report on the implementation of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which the United Nations (UN) mandated government to implement towards 2030.
T&T signed on to the plan during the September United Nations meeting. Goals range from eradicating poverty and hunger to eliminating inequality and empowering women.
Khan who complimented Mark for the motion said the Parliament would have a role to play in going forward on the goals. He said obviously not all goals could be achieved but Khan said the plan could not sustain six billion people at the level of lifestyle of the developed states.
Khan said the absorptive capacity of the economy was a challenge for the past government and also for the current government to absorb graduates for the system. In trying to retool programmes to produce graduates which could be more easily absorbed into the economy, he said it would be a challenge for the educational system.
Khan also said girls continued to out perform boys in education and at one point recently girls outnumbered boys at the University of the West Indies’ Faculty of Engineering. He said there was a gender issue with males and Government was putting together a plan to deal with that.
On the UN’s advice that the lifeblood of the SDGs had to be data-driven, Khan said the People’s Partnership had to take some blame on that point considering issues with the Central Statistical Office (CSO) in its term.
On Mark’s call for a national plan on the matter, Khan said the People’s National Movement’s (PNM) manifesto was a plan and some of the UN’s goals synchronised with its plans.
He said most of the issues of the SDGs were in PNM’s manifesto. “We have a 15-year plan and we hope to stay in government for 15 years,” he added.
Mark, piloting the motion, said Government had attended the recent UN conference where T&T signed on to the SDGs.
He said there was a need to reform the way things were done and ensure it was for the common good and not geared for particular interests. He called for the Parliament to be part of any T&T delegation on the issue of the SDGs.
Citing world issues, he also said the middle class was being eroded and cited in T&T Government’s recent housing policy change as contributing to the erosion.
Also in Senate, Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus said Government would be reviewing the Industrial Relations Act regarding the aspect regarding domestic workers which had lapsed in June and would hold consultations with tripartite parties on that and other aspects.