The T&T Association of Retired/Responsible Persons is very disappointed that Government didn’t consult with it before closing the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (Gate)) programme on new over-50 applicants.
TTARP president, Peter Pena, said so yesterday after Education Minister Anthony Garcia announced from this month, new applicants over age 50 would no longer be able to access Gate assistance. However, those over-50s continuing studies in undergraduate programmes would obtain funding to complete studies.
Pena noted that TTARP’s position on the Gate matter, issued last week, was that it didn’t agree with the proposal that people over 50 doing new applications for study would not be able to access Gate.
TTARP, however, had agreed with the proposal for having funding for continuing students over the age of 50 years in undergraduate programmes to complete their programmes but had viewed the recommendations as discriminatory.
“While the association sees the need to eliminate abuse of Government social programmes, more so within the context of declining national revenues, we believe investment in human capital through educational opportunities should be across the board and not be seemingly discriminating against ageing,” TTARP had stated in a release.
It had called for meaningful discussion on the matter between the Government, TTARP and other stakeholders before final decisions were taken this week.
However, Pena said yesterday: “As far as I am aware we were not consulted and we are concerned that something of such a serious nature was withdrawn without consultation.” He didn’t want to say more on the matter or how TTARP felt about Gate being “slammed shut” on new applicants over 50 who had planned to study.
But an irate member of the TTARP executive was less diplomatic than Pena.
Speaking off record, the executive member said: “Why is the Government penalising people of 50 and over? At age 50 you have worked for 30 years and contributed to T&T and for those in good health, they can at that stage have free time to go to school if they didn’t have time to do that before, since they may have been occupied with work, family and other responsibilities.
“The youths, while they need education, have contributed little, yet they will be getting the resources, via Gate, to study and as we know, most of them get qualified and go away to work or study further, causing brain drain.
“People have a right to aspire to do things at any age. Is it that Government doesn’t want people to learn anything more after age 50? Should they simply park up and vegetate? That’s a counter-productive approach for a developing country.”