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Dr Tim wants PM to remove Garcia

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While the recommendations of the Gate Task Force have not as yet been accepted by the PNM Cabinet, former education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh says Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley should remove the incumbent minister Anthony Garcia for his handling of the education system over the past months.

One of the major recommendations of the report was for students to pay one-third of their fees. Under the current arrangement the full cost is being met by the State. 

Gopeesingh said the recommendation, if implemented, would “punish ambitious tertiary students.”

He said the recommended cutback on the progressive and successful Gate follows the abandonment of several proven, performance-driven and visionary initiatives implemented by the former PP regime.

He said the PNM Government stopped the computer laptops initiative for secondary school students, scrapped the Continuous Assessment Component (CAC), declined to deliver textbooks, shut down homework centres and cancelled construction of schools and Early Childhood and Care Centres (ECCE).

He said in less than a year, the Government and Garcia have dismantled much of the gains in the education sector. 

Gopeesingh said the expansion of Gate led to an increase in the rate of tertiary education from 42 per cent to 65 per cent

He said any systemic challenges to the initiative could have been appropriately dealt with through suitable measures, instead of cruelly punishing forward-thinking and progressive tertiary students.

He said the cumulative effect of those retrograde steps had been to undo the calculated progress of the Trinidad and Tobago society in meeting the challenges of the contemporary innovation-driven world.

Gate was introduced in 2004 under the then prime minister Patrick Manning. It offered students financial assistance for tertiary-level education by covering 100 per cent of tuition expenses for undergraduate students and up to 50 per cent of tuition expenses for postgraduate students.

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In March, Garcia announced the establishment of the task force to investigate the operations of the Gate programme and determine if it was making any significant contribution to the nation’s economic development.

The task force, chaired by management consultant Simms, included Theresa Davidson, director of Funding and Grants, Ministry of Education; Neville Niles, education research specialist; Dr Gaylene Holdup, Scholarship and Advanced Training Division, Ministry of Education; two Finance Ministry representatives; a Planning and Development Ministry representative; a Labour and Small Enterprise Ministry representative; a Tobago House of Assembly (THA) representative; Dr Rolph Baloghia, T&T Manufacturers’ Association.

It also included Natasha Subhero, T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce; Richard Saunders, campus registrar, UWI St Augustine Campus; Dr Ruby Alleyne, quality assurance, UTTA; Dr Harrison Guy, Human Resource Association of T&T; Dr Foaled Mutato, Women’s Institute for Alternative Development (WINA) and the president of the Guild of Undergraduates at the UWI, St Augustine.


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