Gopeesingh playing politics with education

THE EDITOR: The Ministry of Education, like other ministries, is determined to make hard decisions to effectively manage its $7.2 billion budget. Its decision to temporarily suspend tea services was severely criticised by former minister of education Dr Tim Gopeesingh.

He described the action by the ministry as shameful and unprecedented. However, his criticisms of the ministry he presided over only two and a half years ago can be described as dishonest and deceptive. Gopeesingh appears to be playing politics with education.

The billions of dollars owed to contractors and other suppliers for goods and services were not incurred only over the last two and a half years. It would be interesting for the former minister to tell us how much money the Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL) owed contractors when he left office in 2015. My information is that it was over $1.5 billion, with many incomplete schools.

One example is the Princes Town East Secondary School which keeps shutting down every day. Another school where students were deprived of an education for a very long time is Aranguez Secondary. Both schools were constructed and opened under Gopeesingh.

Newspaper reports on January 13 stated that a High Court judge ordered EFCL to pay close to $.7 million to a contractor who supplied $1.2 million in cafeteria equipment to three secondary schools. This contractor entered into an agreement with EFCL in March 2011.

Another company was awarded $22 million for 14 contracts for the provision of construction and other services to schools between 2011 and 2015. Gopeesingh was the education minister during those years.

According to the report, these are only two of the more than two dozen legal matters before the courts in which companies are suing EFCL for unpaid monies for work done during the period when Gopeesingh was the minister with responsibility for EFCL.

Finally, the ministry under Anthony Garcia is taking steps to stop wastage and streamline the transportation arrangements for students with the PTSC. Garcia told a media conference last week the ministry spends about $50 million annually on this service.

The ministry is paying for 34,000 seats. However, less than 12,000 students use this service, therefore the ministry is paying for more than 20,000 unoccupied seats. It’s interesting to note that this has been the situation for the last seven years.

Considering the examples outlined and the amount of monies owed to contractors and suppliers, how much of the $7.2 billion the present minister really has at his disposal to spend on the other sections of the education sector?

JOHN RAMPERSAD, Couva