Public Admin Minister: Bursaries will guide students

ADDRESSING concerns over the Ministry of Education’s recent decision to replace scholarships with 400 bursaries, Minister of Public Administration and Digital Transformation Allyson West said bursaries would allow government to guide students into areas which would help “promote the nation’s agenda.”

She was responding to the fact that “a lot of people have been complaining about the government’s shift away from 400 scholarships, to 100 scholarships and 400 bursaries.” She was answering questions at the UN’s Big Data forum on Wednesday.

She said she had already spoken with the Minister of Education and said one of the areas which needs support is digital transformation, data analytics and others. “So as the nation moves toward this, we have students coming up educated and ready to join the workforce,” she said.

In November Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly announced that Government would make “critical adjustments” to the GATE programme and the scholarship programme and would reduce the numbers with immediate effect.

She added that between 2008 and 2019, about 1,586 national scholarships were awarded, at a cost of $800 million.

At the conference, West said government determined to ensure that no one was left behind as Trinidad and Tobago moves forward to a digital society. She highlighted programmes that ensured the inclusion of several groups, including the youth and the elderly.

“We have introduced the TT WiFi programme, which is providing free WiFi in public spaces throughout TT, particularly in rural areas where WiFi is not readily available.

“The TT Access Centre is another important initiative that focuses on ensuring that people who cannot afford devices have access to spaces where they could get to devices, where they have free WiFi if they have devices, and where they could be trained in how to use devices and how to access government and other services.”

West said she was heartened to see that more elderly people in these areas were coming forward to learn about technology and how to access government systems virtually.

“We are hoping to get the elderly in particular more into the use of digital programmes so they would not be left behind as we digitise.”