Charles: UTT waives $24,000 tuition fee for teachers

Tobago teachers, from September, will not have to pay $24,000 in tuition fees to complete specialisation courses for their Bachelor of Education degrees at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT).

So announced Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles, in his contribution to last Thursday’s debate on the Tobago House of Assembly 2018/2019 budget proposals in the Assembly Chamber in Scarborough.

Charles said the teachers could not be promoted to Teacher I in primary schools, because they lacked certification in specialisation courses in Primary Education. He said these courses will be offered on a part-time basis to facilitate teachers who were working during the day.

“The university (UTT) was saying that they (teachers) had to pay $24,000 each, to be part of a bridging programme. I am happy to report to this House that after the conversations in April and a commitment given, UTT in a letter, said that they are pleased to present its plans to address your request in respect of the identified graduates of its Bachelor of Education, Secondary Specialisation,” he said.

Charles added: “They have agreed to waive the fees for this programme…What this means is that those teachers who are affected will be able to do this programme for free, gratis and for nothing in respect of tuition fees. This is a vexing issue and it has been an outstanding issue, however in a few months, I have been able to resolve this issue.”

In his contribution to the debate, Charles also spoke about restructuring of the Studley Park quarry, saying if he had not been resolute on this matter, Minority Leader Watson Duke, who is also the President of the Public Services Association (PSA), would have been able to derail the initiative.

“Studley Park today is a lean, mean operating machine. No longer are there issues concerning the inability to get aggregate and, in fact, Studley Park today is turning a profit. More importantly, the 100 plus workers who were employed at Studley Park, we didn’t send them home. We could have used the state of the economy as a base to send them home. We didn’t do that, we bit the bullet and we redeployed them.

“More than that, as part of the renegotiated settlement, we gave them three fortnights pay so that before Christmas last year, they got four fortnights pay,” he said.

Charles also spoke about the proposed construction of a new for the ANR Robinson International, addressing concerns raised by residents who would be displaced by the Government’s acquisition of land.

“Let me take the opportunity to assure those persons who are likely to be affected or displaced, that we are not averse to their pains. In fact, we understand it and that is why we have placed on the table, settlement proposals that were never done any time before.

“It is all in recognition of the emotional challenges that they are facing but as I said when we opened the bridge at Lambeau, we shall do right by them,” he said.