Government has not made any final decision regarding the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme.
Advising that final recommendations will be made public within the next week- and-a-half, Education Minister Anthony Garcia is again urging potential university entrants to move ahead with plans to apply as normal.
Contacted for an update following yesterday’s meeting of the Finance and General Purposes Committee (FNGP), Garcia confirmed that GATE was “among the issues discussed.”
Pressed to speak about the meeting, Garcia added: “Cabinet is reviewing the recommendations with a view to deciding whether we are going to accept them or if we are going to reject the recommendations or vary or modify any of them.”
Last Thursday, Garcia presented a copy of the 70-page task force report to all members of the Cabinet, following which it was leaked to the media.
Adding he was pursuing an investigation into the leak, Garcia said: “I have now returned from the sub-committee meeting where it was looked at. Again, there are somethings we have to have further discussions on. It is not yet ready to be released to the general public, probably in the next week-and-a-half.”
In a release yesterday, Garcia stressed that they were awaiting Cabinet’s decision on the recommendations put forward by the GATE Task Force.
Concerned and vexed over the leak, Garcia said the report was presented in two parts to Cabinet on July 14 but despite that, he has sought to reassure the student population that the recommendations put forward by the task force were not yet final.
He added: “It is common knowledge that there are inefficiencies in the GATE programme and the ministry saw it fit to embark on an exercise to review the process.
“We needed to be presented with feasible solutions, hence, the production of a report was commissioned. The report has been submitted and is yet to be considered by the ministry’s higher authority.
“As it stands at present, any views on the issue are solely those of the report makers and not the ministry as no final decision has been made.”