Put some HSF $$ towards retraining

Chaguanas East MP Fazal Karim.  -
Chaguanas East MP Fazal Karim. -

CHAGUANAS East MP and former Tertiary Education and Skills Training Minister Fazal Karim, is calling on government to add on a training or retraining component to the Salary Relief Grant.

Karim, in an e-mailed press release, said government has projected 80,000 job losses as a result of the covid19 economic fallout and the country should retool or retrain workers to prepare the workforce for life after the pandemic ends and the economy recovers. To drive home his point, he quoted Andreas Schleicher, head of education at the OECD, who said this pandemic “is a great moment for learning.”

The former minister said government amended the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund Act to allow for withdrawals of up to US$1.5 billion per year and so far, government has committed to withdrawing TT$1 billion for social support services including the Salary Relief Grant and food cards; another TT$1 billion for trade payables; and TT$500 million for VAT refunds and income tax refunds.

He said the United States allocated US$30 billion of its US$2.2 trillion covid19 federal stimulus package to deal with the education system. Of the TT$2.5 billion to be withdrawn from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund, Karim said, “not one red cent has been allocated to education, training or retraining of the workforce.”

He said the government has not even considered investing one per cent, or TT$25 million, of the TT$2.5 billion drawdown from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund towards education and training. He explained that many countries around the world are using this ‘downtime’ to reskill their labour force while the two Ministers in Education were busy thumping their chests at a recent press conference about placing past papers online.

Karim lamented the fact that, in the last five years, the Ministry of Education failed to adequately train and resource educators in online learning, transition to online assessments, or close the digital divide especially among special needs or underprivileged students.

He added that government signed on to the Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft, but the ministry failed to establish Office 365 accounts for every student and teacher. He said this is a simple solution which would have facilitated a smoother transition to online learning.

Instead, Karim said, the TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) and the country’s tertiary and TVET institutions now have to carry the burden of implementing a rushed digital solution because of the incompetence and tardiness of ministers Garcia and Francis.

The former minister urged “let us invest and innovate through education and training to come out stronger from this crisis.” He noted that Google classrooms and WhatsApp are currently being used by teachers and faculty locally to connect with students.

He also explained that international open source platforms have been developed which combine neuroscience and artificial intelligence to individualise learning, and that Trinidad and Tobago could leverage this to leapfrog into the future.

For his part, Karim said, he would be offering a range of blended learning programmes in the coming months to deal with the covid19 fallout. He intends to start courses in grow box, fish farming, poultry farming (broilers), garment construction, floral/balloon decoration, tiling, domestic house wiring, plumbing and car care and maintenance for women, to name a few, and that details would be made available through his constituency office within the next two weeks.

The MP invited those who have lost their jobs or students interested in learning a new skill to take up available opportunities to learn today so as to earn tomorrow.

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"Put some HSF $$ towards retraining"

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