Updated: Rowley: $8.2 billion spent on GATE since 2014

SINCE its inception in 2014, $8.2 billion has been invested in the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses Programme (GATE), according to the Prime Minister.
Dr Rowley provided this data in a Facebook post on Friday evening. He had spoken at the Education Ministry's Spotlight on Education, Transforming Education at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) on Thursday.

He said a total of 225,000 students have benefited from the programme, which has recently been revised.
Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly recently announced that GATE funding would be provided for one programme per student up to undergraduate level, and that funding for post-graduate programmes was discontinued effective immediately.

Rowley said past and current governments have "remained committed to providing this type of social support to ensure citizens can access opportunities in education."
He said the programme had to be revised because of TT's "substantial fall in revenue due to plummeting oil and gas prices."

"As the national budget is reduced, the new scholarship policy together with the new national bursary policy will ensure fairness in the distribution of resources.“There is some element of equity that has to be sought after and found to ensure that those who need the help get it, and those who can help themselves do so largely without being excluded from the support that the state has to offer.”

At the recent media conference, Gadsby-Dolly had announced national scholarships would be reduced from 400 to 100.
Rowley said from 2015 to 2019, 1,977 scholarships were awarded to students at a cost of approximately $630 million.

From that total, 669 were open scholarships and 1,308 were additional scholarships.
The cost of an open medical scholarship is $600,000 per year, open non-medical scholarships cost $450,000 per year and additional scholarships cost $225,000 per year.
One secondary school teacher told Newsday the revisions will undoubtedly affect those "who are really in need."

"Although part of the GATE is still there and a means test will be done, most people lost jobs and those who are still employed are working on 2014 salaries, so making ends meet will be difficult.
"As for scholarships, the ones who can afford the extra lessons and come from 'prestige' schools have the advantage of qualifying for the scholarships. Those who cannot make that cut, yet again, are the losers."

The teacher said there are many students who ought to have received scholarships who did not. Case in "And their parents can't afford to send them, even with GATE. They have will continue to have and the have nots will always have to struggle."
Rowley said Government has allocated more than $42 billion to the education sector over the period 2014-2021."In 2014, the Ministry of Education was allocated 5.9 per cent of the national budget or $3.86 billion. This figure grew to a peak allocation in 2016, when the ministry received 11.1 per cent or $6.26 billion."

He said despite the "shrinkage" of the national budget over the years, education "still holds the attention of the government.
"These allocations represent the commitment in terms of the support and the sacrifice that is being made to fund the sector."
He also said the total allocation for tertiary education and technical and vocational education training for 2021 is over $1 billion."Moving forward, the government may not be in a position to continue funding all 2,500 tertiary level programmes offered in TT.

"We have to trim it down and in doing so that may mean that some programmes will have to fall by the wayside in the support basket. Not that they will not be studied by some people, but they will do so outside of the state support."He said programmes that contribute the most to national and personal development are the ones that we will continue to be funded.

This story has been updated with additional details. The original story was published under the title Rowley: $8.2 billion spent on GATE since 2014

SINCE its inception in 2014, $8.2 billion has been invested in the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses Programme (GATE), according to the Prime Minister.
Dr Rowley provided this data in a Facebook post on Friday evening. He had spoken at the Education Ministry's Spotlight on Education, Transforming Education at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) on Thursday.
He said a total of 225,000 students have benefited from the programme, which has recently been revised.
Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly recently announced that GATE funding would be provided for one programme per student up to undergraduate level, and that funding for post-graduate programmes was discontinued effective immediately.
Rowley said past and current governments have "remained committed to providing this type of social support to ensure citizens can access opportunities in education."
He said the programme had to be revised because of TT's "substantial fall in revenue due to plummeting oil and gas prices."
"As the national budget is reduced, the new scholarship policy together with the new national bursary policy will ensure fairness in the distribution of resources.“There is some element of equity that has to be sought after and found to ensure that those who need the help get it, and those who can help themselves do so largely without being excluded from the support that the state has to offer.”
At the recent media conference, Gadsby-Dolly had announced national scholarships would be reduced from 400 to 100.
Rowley said from 2015 to 2019, 1,977 scholarships were awarded to students at a cost of approximately $630 million.
From that total, 669 were open scholarships and 1,308 were additional scholarships.
The cost of an open medical scholarship is $600,000 per year, open non-medical scholarships cost $450,000 per year and additional scholarships cost $225,000 per year.