Free education is a hoax

YVONNE WEBB

Minister in the Ministry of Education Dr Lovell Francis has dispelled the notion that public school in Trinidad and Tobago is free.

“It is a tremendous hoax and a colossal failure, when we tell our students they are the recipients of something called a free education,” Francis said.

“That education our young people receive is not free,” he told the 2017 SEA Recognition ceremony held at NAPA on Saturday to honour the 200 students who topped the 2017 Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exams.

Lovell explained. “it is tremendously expensive. It is going to cost us $7.4 billion this year. “ This in reference to the :sum allocated to his ministry in the 2017/2018 fiscal package.

Education received the largest chunk of the budget and Lovell pointed out, “we could argue it is never going to be enough because there is always something that you want to do that you cannot do simply because the funding is not infinite. It is finite;”

In this vein, he told the students, accompanied by their parents, principals and teachers, they have to make choies and prioritise.’

Lovell told the audience which included Minister of Education Anthony Garcia and Education CEO Harrilal Seecharan, that they have prioritised education of the young people .

“So I am telling you now,” addressing the young scholars,” the education you receive and you will continue to receive until you are an adult, as long as you live here, is tremendously expensive,

“Your secondary schooling, right now, carries a colossal cost. The schooling you will receive when you go to the tertiary level, is remarkably expensive. Every semester a student goes to UWI or any like institution, it cost the state something like $100,000.’

Re emphasising that their schooling is exceedingly expensive, he also made the fundamental point that it is not paid for only by their parents, but by the entire society”

He explained the rationale for doing that was because of the expectation they have of their most brilliant students. He said he wanted them to understand that the investment made thrust upon them a social responsibility that whatever their achievement it must not be for the benefit of self but for their country that educated them.

“All of you are educated by all of us. All of us pay for your education and if at the end of your educational career, the only understanding you have is that your education was only supposed to function for your wellbeing, then you have misunderstood your responsibility.”

Lovell stressed the point, “we live in a society where we cannot allow our most brilliant students to be our most close minded and selfish student. We cannot because that would help to create the kind of society none us us want to live in.

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