Published:
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Fazal Karim
During the period May 2010 to September 2015, the Kamla Persad-Bissessar-led government, of which I was proud to be a part, led the unprecedented expansion of education from nursery to tertiary. Back then the policies of “No child will be left behind” and “education as the basis for people-centred development” transcended every decision made by the People’s Partnership government. Sadly, those policies lie in the past as the Gate programme is now under the knife of the Rowley-led Government.
Pre-2001 many parents, including myself, accessed loans through the Student Revolving Loan or the University Student Guarantee Loan to fund the tertiary level education of our children. In September 2001, the UNC government introduced the ‘Dollar for Dollar’ Education Plan which funded 50 per cent of the cost of tuition fees for students enrolled at public institutions. The PNM government replaced Dollar for Dollar with the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (Gate) Programme supporting both public and private institutions. The PNM unfortunately foisted a half-baked programme into operation without considering its sustainability.
Cabinet by Minute No 229 of January 22, 2004, agreed to fund students up to 100 per cent of tuition fees based on the completion and assessment of a Means Testing Questionnaire (MTQ). The Means Test was abandoned in 2006. The Gate was opened wide without the required safeguards. The Gate programme was poorly managed with little checks and balances. This was evidenced by the lack of adherence to procedures by institutions, high student dropout rates, students registering for multiple programmes simultaneously, students switching programmes and institutions without any approval or notification, students repeating the same programmes, and overall very little accountability, tracking and auditing of public and private institutions.
When the People’s Partnership government assumed office in 2010, one of the first decisions made was to secure and then expand the Gate Programme, which grew to over TT$650 million annually. At that time, the PNM spread propaganda that Gate was going to be closed but the People’s Partnership government kept the Gate open for ALL, despite inheriting a broken programme in need of a systematic overhaul.
Our first response as a government in 2010 was the commissioning of national consultations. With feedback from the wider national community, we did the following:
• Introduced a Gate Standing Committee, under the auspices of the then Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education, to improve the efficacy of the Gate Programme.
• Ensured that Gate Clearance applied to all students and institutions—whether private or public—prior to enrolling into programmes. This initiative significantly reduced the abuse of “programme hopping” and the government continuously paying for failures and dropouts.
• Implemented the Gate e-services technology platform to automate application and payment processing. This led to data capture at every level which today can be audited and persons held accountable.
• Expanded the Gate Programme with new policies to support TVET Programmes recognising the need to shift from rote to active learning. Such new TVET programmes were considered on the basis of labour market studies and Caricom approved qualifications such as the Caribbean Vocational Qualifications (CVQs).
• Supported new programmes, projects and initiatives that were led by demand ie determined by industry. This was evidenced by our opening of the UTT Aviation Campus to service the needs of the Aviation Maintenance Sector, the opening of the NESC Drilling School to develop skills for the Energy Services sector and support their growth in the international market, the opening of the Tobago Technology Centre through MIC Institute of Technology catering to the needs of Tobago and the opening of the Automotive Technology Centre at NESC Woodford Lodge jointly with the Automotive Industry to meet the Automotive Maintenance technology based competency development.
Despite public assurances from Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in the run up to the 2015 general elections that the Gate Programme would not be ‘interfered with’ all indications suggest that the PNM will renege on its promise yet again.
On July 7, US President Barack Obama caused quite a stir when he remarked at the memorial service for the slain police officers in Dallas that, “We flood communities with so many guns that it is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book.” Ironically, the PNM, in under ten months, has stopped laptops in the secondary school system, re-introduced taxes on computers and books and now the Gate Programme is going to be 'streamlined' which will translate into closure sooner rather than later.
With thousands of CSEC and CAPE students scheduled to receive results in the first two weeks of August, the PNM has now burdened our young people with undue stress and fear about the future of the Gate Programme. The new academic year is less than two months away. Why is the PNM compromising the future of our young people? I, therefore pose the following questions to the Honourable Minister of Education and the Honourable Prime Minister:
• Will the Gate report be made public? If not I will pursue through the Freedom of Information Act to obtain this document?
• With the much anticipated cutbacks to the Gate Programme, how will students who are deemed ‘ineligible for funding’ find thousands of dollars to pay for a tertiary education? Will the HELP Programme be expanded to cater for students unable to access Gate?
• What criteria will be used for the expected Means Test? Any investigation into the financial well-being of parents to determine their children’s eligibility for financial assistance should be rejected as no test will ensure objectivity and transparency towards equitable benefit. In an Andrew Biggs article in the National Affairs Magazine, he states, “Means-testing entitlement benefits could punish the very people who work the hardest and save the most, depressing economic activity and discouraging good behaviour. The cure for our fiscal problems could thus end up being worse than the disease.”
Fazal Karim is a former Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education
Columnist
Fazal Karim