Education Minister Anthony Garcia yesterday left the door open as to whether Government may yet change its mind about stopping Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (Gate) funding to people 50 and over.
He made the comment as he tried to clear up some issues and respond to comments made about some of the sweeping changes to the programme on Wednesday during an interview on I95.5FM.
Confronted on the rationale for cutting the programme to people over 50 with immediate effect, Garcia said, “There is always the possibility that after looking at things with a much finer microscope, there might be the possibility of some changes.”
The decision has come under fire by some sectors of the public and some of the student bodies, who have noted that mature students make up a sizeable amount of their student population.
But Garcia said faced with the age and income factor, the Task Force set up to review the programme “had to set certain thresholds.” Among the recommendations was a household whose income was $9,000 and less per month be given 100 per cent funding, while it was recommended not to continue funding persons aged 50 and over.
Seeking to explain the rationale behind these recommendations, he said, “It was felt throughout discussions that a person having attained the age of 50 would have been gainfully employed for a large number of years and would have afforded persons time to accumulate some savings if they were desirous of pursuing tertiary education.”
He stressed, however, that people already in the system would continue to receive funding until the end of their programmes, while those now enrolling and once accepted into their programme would receive funding for one year. Garcia said this measure would now force people to put their house in order.
Noting that his ministry had begun reviewing the education system since February, Garcia said three national consultations were held in order to give the public an opportunity to voice their concerns about different areas and make recommendations for improvements.
He said the major area of concern was the Gate programme, as well as the exam regimes currently in place. He said the public was quite clear in its call to cut the Gate funding by 50 per cent, following which the Task Force was convened and mandated to undertake a comprehensive review of the programme since its inception.
Denying that the decisions determined by Cabinet were rushed, Garcia said, “The decisions were not rushed. They were taken after careful consideration by all members of the Cabinet.” He said the major consideration for cuts to Gate was “our economic circumstance.”
“We are in a stringent and dire economic situation today, in a country where the price of oil and natural gas has suffered tremendous losses. Not everybody would appreciate the fact that two years ago the price of oil was $125 a barrel, whereas today it is lower than $45 a barrel.”
He said the savings to be realised from the cuts would be in line with Government’s thrust to save more, but said they remained committed to spending up to $500 million annually on Gate, $200 million less than the current yearly expenditure on the programme.
Schols for research
While it has also been announced that there will be no funding for postgraduate degrees unless they are in an area designated as aligning with government's developmental goals, Garcia said consideration “may be given to someone pursuing a postgraduate programme in research.”
Reinforcing his earlier comment that decisions were not cast in stone and could undergo changes in the future, Garcia said the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) was currently conducting a study on T&T’s developmental needs and that a number of areas had been identified, including agriculture and agro-processing, maritime, energy, petroleum, financial services, creative industries, information and communication technology, aviation, medicine, construction, teaching, tourism, and research and development.
He said Government had spent in excess of $10 billion over the last five years on recurrent expenditure, with other major bills cropping up in infrastructure, Gate, HELP loans and scholarships.
On the move to stop providing funding for medical students to attend St George’s University, Grenada, Garcia said it cost approximately $71,000 per year for one student to undergo medical training at any one of the UWI campuses in Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica, while it was three times more for a student in Grenada, which ranged between $199,000 and $250,000. He said there was also the problem where students studying in Grenada were being groomed for the US market, and they failed to return and perform the obligatory service at the end of their degree programmes. He also said ministry officials now had one year in which to come up with a transparent and fair means test which would be administered to all students seeking Gate funding.
The minister also confirmed that several people at the University of T&T had been sent on administrative leave as an audit was underway to determine the exact status of the university. He said the institution’s original mandate was that of encouraging entrepreneurship and creativity but there were efforts to “disestablish UTT” by previous officials.