Garcia, Karim vie over GATE

CHAGUANAS East MP Fazal Karim claimed the GATE programme to subsidise tertiary education has crashed. Education Minister Anthony Garcia flatly denied this and accused Karim of cheap politicking. Karim in a statement said the 2019 Auditor General’s Report showed a big drop in tertiary enrolment to 30,000 last year from 60,000 seven years before.

He said the GATE programme was cut from $700 million to $400 million.

Karim accused the PNM of breaking its 2015 general-election promise to make GATE available to all citizens who needed it, such that thousands of students were denied access.

He said the 2017 budget introduced a means test, rejected students over 50 years of age, limited GATE to accredited institutions and programmes, among other things.

Saying GATE was "a re-branded UNC Dollar for Dollar education plan," Karim accused Garcia of wishing to destroy that legacy, showing disdain and contempt for children’s education, and taking TT from prosperity to poverty.

Garcia told Newsday GATE was “one of the jewels of TT’s education system.”

He said, “It was restructured so everyone will have an equal chance and opportunity to pursue tertiary education.”

The minister said parents and educators throughout the Caribbean had applauded the re-structuring.

“GATE was subject to abuse with programme hopping and wanton wastage.”

Garcia said a reduction in GATE funding was achieved by savings the ministry had achieved, but that it was totally false to say tertiary enrolment had dropped by half. Pressed if enrolment had fallen from 60,000 to 30,000, he said, “The information before me from UWI indicated a slight reduction in student enrolment, because programme hopping was cut out.”

Garcia rejected Karim’s claims of legacy-destroying as “cheap politicking.”

“Mr Karim is trying to score political points because he knows he is in grave danger of losing his seat.”

He dismissed Karim’s claims that TT’s academic and technical/vocational institutes were under threat financially and school pupils were getting no online tuition during the covid19 lockdown. Garcia urged him to gets the facts so as to not hoodwink the population.

“I don’t know where he gets his information.”