Sat: Let committee allocate schols

COMMENTING on the brouhaha over whether too many scholarships are awarded for CAPE Sciences and Maths at the expense of other subjects, Maha Sabha leader Sat Maharaj said this should be worked out by a committee.

Education Minister Anthony Garcia had originally suggested a shift in scholarships to other subjects, in light of the fact of some 188 awarded for Sciences and 103 for Maths, out of 394 in all subjects. Congress of the People leader Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan had retorted the Sciences and Maths are a good grounding for other fields that many pupils indeed go into later on. Garcia in turn partly stood by his remarks but also said they were his initial feelings and that a committee will ultimately make the decision. On Wednesday Newsday caught up with Maharaj at the Lakshmi Girls Hindu College annual graduation ceremony at the school hall in St Augustine. “Many years ago, there was a standing committee called the Manpower Research Committee. Their job was to anticipate the direction of the development (of Trinidad and Tobago) and what kind or personnel we would need,” he said. Maharaj said the committee would state if the country needed more scientists, builders, doctors or the like. “But for more than 30 years now that committee has been dismantled, so they have no data to go on. The minister is talking but there’s no data to tell us what we require in the different areas. There’s absolutely no study, so it’s pure guesswork. “There must be a standing committee to advise the Government and the Ministry of Education on the direction of the world and what kind of manpower we need.”