GATE - Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses

[sMASH]

makela have nothing to offer the country except for her last name.
if she want to have a political impact, she needs to actually undertake some projects and get some acheivemets done.
all the nice words she saying to the press, might as well start an account here and bump gum like the rest ah we. just as effective.

the party she fadda, i mean she try to start for the last election, she invited all the small parties, hoping they decide to fall under her banner, so she could coast on their strengths. i dont think any body take that chain up, so it fell down.
that was the most political thing she did, and it failed.

[Numb3r4]

UWI will be fine, I guess....it functioned before GATE and produced professionals it can continue to do so if it chooses...I guess....

In that case the students who want the education will pay upfront, or if they really want the education they will work part time and obtain that education, yes at UWI, as others have done before GATE.

They will rent cheaply and go to classes and come down on weekends to help their parents as they have done before all of this GATE or they will rent even more cheaply in Chaguanas or stay with their family "up nort" and travel if they want the education as they have done before GATE.

It probably won't be in the droves the amount of students but the ones that do care will do it and will do their best to succeed and become productive.

This amount of work and sacrifice may actually bode well for both the student and workplace.

I do believe that with the absence of GATE and tightening of access to foreign exchange we may see less students pursuing degrees abroad, and in that regards UWI might be a referred institution especially if they retain their international accredited programmes.

Specifically I'm referring to the children of the middle and upper middle class folks/professionals who may have had good industry jobs and could have sent their kids to Florida or Texas or NY (with maybe some kind of scholarship), these folks who still see the value of an education may settle for UWI.

After all this is said however the job market still remains, we still need to have a ready market for the skills produced, this falls squarely on the established business to provide some kind of job environment that can provide some kind of exposure to the real working world. It is ultimately clear that the government run job programmes are like every other government programme. "'nuff said"

With respect to entrepreneurship, that is more art than teachable skill, one you learn by either exposure/experience than by being immersed in academia. In this case though you still need a market and environment that would allow the person, student or graduate an avenue to try and fail and then try again. The ability to try again must be there and the failure must be fair and must be borne by young entrepreneur that's part of the learning process.

What folks don't get about entrepreneurship is that folks like that tend to come from a business environment or have some exposure to it thus business is part of their DNS so to speak that attitude.

The other kind comes from having access to resources which means that the person can try and experiment and fail and learn and still have the ability to try again.

[elec2020]

makela have nothing to offer the country except for her last name.
if she want to have a political impact, she needs to actually undertake some projects and get some acheivemets done.
all the nice words she saying to the press, might as well start an account here and bump gum like the rest ah we. just as effective.

the party she fadda, i mean she try to start for the last election, she invited all the small parties, hoping they decide to fall under her banner, so she could coast on their strengths. i dont think any body take that chain up, so it fell down.
that was the most political thing she did, and it failed.

For me she was saying the right things. Out of all that presented themselves in the elections. But you are right she has done nothing to warrant such attention and she lost real marks in my book by ducking this GE. Oh gosh nah man in politics u need experience so try a thing. No one expecting u to win first time. The important thing was to build a rapport. Sigh. At this rate is PNM till 2030.

[sMASH]

makela have nothing to offer the country except for her last name.
if she want to have a political impact, she needs to actually undertake some projects and get some acheivemets done.
all the nice words she saying to the press, might as well start an account here and bump gum like the rest ah we. just as effective.

the party she fadda, i mean she try to start for the last election, she invited all the small parties, hoping they decide to fall under her banner, so she could coast on their strengths. i dont think any body take that chain up, so it fell down.
that was the most political thing she did, and it failed.

For me she was saying the right things. Out of all that presented themselves in the elections. But you are right she has done nothing to warrant such attention and she lost real marks in my book by ducking this GE. Oh gosh nah man in politics u need experience so try a thing. No one expecting u to win first time. The important thing was to build a rapport. Sigh. At this rate is PNM till 2030.

here is my problem. i think most every thing should be a meritocracy. i dont think u should get office because u can say the right words to the right people at the right time. i think that u should be given positions based on ur past work and intention to do more. and government/public service should operate the same way.
if ur on the outside and want to jump in, at least rack up some acheivements, some social projects, some movements that shows that u willing change things, able to change things.

u dont hear about any charity work that makela start or involved in, not society like cancer or heart, not animal rights, no club, no professional acheivement.

any body could say the right things... jess vibes tuner and u will get plenty.

y she want to get in, is when ur in, u get to meet the people pulling the strings, and get to make deals with the state assets.

u could tell me what rowley do that make him worthy of being chosen to be a prime minister candidate? the man was just able to make the deals that got him the positions to take manning spot when the time arose

[elec2020]

^thats how it is globally though. Case in point Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. Both rode the wave of racial/anti-immigrant politics and both won their elections easily. After a while people started/starting to realise that both are fools who should have never been in power (for example Boris' ministry is caught in a big drama where government officials were handing out PPE contracts to their friends for kickbacks). While you make very solid points you left out one crucial detail. The average person is an idiot. The average person don't care about what good you have done in your life and what qualifications you have. All they care about is the vibe they get from you and the skeletons in your closet. To be fair the informed people share some of the blame because they don't discuss or associate much with the uninformed. To tell them why focusing on construction will not revive the economy. But sigh. Whatever. As i said we more than likely looking at PNM till 2030. By then the other parties should have gotten their sheit together and joined up together as one. Imo thats the only way PNM will lose as say what you want about them but u rarely hear about any internal politics drama with them. They always on the same page and i guess people value that.

[Redman]

here is my problem. i think most every thing should be a meritocracy. i dont think u should get office because u can say the right words to the right people at the right time. i think that u should be given positions based on ur past work and intention to do more. and government/public service should operate the same way.
if ur on the outside and want to jump in, at least rack up some acheivements, some social projects, some movements that shows that u willing change things, able to change things.

Sounds great....until the population gets involved.

You have 5 kids....mom wants to go for ice cream.....dad wants to study......guess who gets the vote.

Two party systems devolve to politics being filled with the lowest common denominators that will hold a voting block together.
All a has to do is wait for people to get fed up with b.

Look at us, and the US.

Similarities abound and both systems put up the lesser of two evils...with a minority mandate.


If you’ve gotten only 30% of the population supporting you,how do you get a population to buy in to necessary changes?

We prove that it is not working.

[widdyphuck]

Not against GATE cutting but against Tertiary Institutions jacking up the costs of tuition just to milk the system..
Less scholarships and access to education I bet prices gonna drop for courses..
Too many Institutions pop up over night providing useless education all for access to GATE money.
If you have children save for them to go to school. Instead of making 10 children, make 2 but give them the best of everything..
My perspective.

[sMASH]

u call that free market. the counter for that would be accreditation metrics and GATE scrutiny according what was said before, if fulfilling a need to the country.

if u want, u coudl throw up a kite making school. but that dont mean GATE HAVE to offer a schol or tuition for it.


i think all education shoudl be free, like youtube is. but we dont have enough funds to do that.
and locals, if qualified and experienced, have gone abroad to work in more affluent feilds. they return a lot of forex to TT when they send back for family and come to spend in the country.
so to me limiting education and incentives ONLY to what in necessary locally, is limiting the country's forex potential.

so, what about do something like what america does for its education... university loans.
but not loans. what about, if any one wants to do a degree, they qualify via the means test, and they pay back 5% of their salaries for the next 10 years?

so that way, the country gets a direct, albeit delayed, return in its expenditure on education, whether the person works locally or abroad, and if abroad, they pay a lot more.



cause the argument is, u dont want the tax payer to spend money to educate people when they leave to apply it and earn outside. but the result of that is, if they cant afford to educate themselves, they remain here in low paying jobs. untapped potential. and if they cant earn above the personal allowance for income, they will not be paying income taxes or not as much. might even fall into the CEPEP program, which means the state will still be funding them.. but in a non profitable way.

if they dont get qualified, some other country will have one of thier citizens taking that vacancy.
so might as well spend the money, qualify and train them here, and let them patriate some of that foreign salary.

[zoom rader]

You all have to understand that the Red Government way of practicing and thinking is to de-educate the population and the non red government people .

To many free thinkers are around and a danger to the Red Government.

First they kill off energy & Chemical Industries with thousands of Job loses as we have seen.

Then they attack education to lessen an educated population which is mainly non Red Government people .

They are placing a glass ceiling on the Non Red Government folk , they what you all to be like those in the Beetham, Laventille and east west corridor.

We have now been set back by 50 years , its like they want another cane cutting community of obedient workers who will not question the Status quo and just take what ever is pushed in their faces.

We will soon be an island of Store Clerks, Waiters & Cepep workers.

[widdyphuck]

GATE has practically over saturated every single sector in this country.
From Teaching, Engineering, Law,
Pharmacists, Doctors. Etc..
Show me one field that is not over saturated..
There is also a mismatch of graduates and the job they do..
Heard of a police officer with a mechanical engineering degree..how absurd...
I say reduce GATE and scholarship and let the market approach a new equilibrium..
Also leave America out of our discussion because there system is designed to load up the students with massive amounts of student loans which some will never be able to repay..
Current student loan outstanding is 1.6 trillion US dollars.

[Numb3r4]

Added to the oversaturation is the economic contraction so we now have young folks with little to no experience competing with older folks with experience. Not good.

But to add to your point don't some of those fields need more people especially if we want to diversify?
Take engineering, if we seriously trying to diversify and mode into manufacturing wouldn't we need more of them?

Even agriculture if we get to a point where we want to better mechanize the industry won't we need technically trained folks if not engineers but mechanics and technicians and such?

Even doctors we have a rapidly aging population and rural areas than are underserved, wouldn't more doctors (& nurses) be an asset?

I understand that in both those cases start-up is expensive going on your own so that is why it's difficult so go out on your own in addition to needing experience.

[widdyphuck]

The government cant employ everyone that has a tertiary degree because it will cost too much in salaries in Relation to what they get back..
Same with private sector..Wage bill gets to high.. Universities understand this but continue to ram out there classes to milk the GATE fund. Nothing wrong with graduates but the over supply killed Trinidad..
Time for a big reset..

[zoom rader]

The government cant employ everyone that has a tertiary degree because it will cost too much in salaries in Relation to what they get back..
Same with private sector..Wage bill gets to high.. Universities understand this but continue to ram out there classes to milk the GATE fund. Nothing wrong with graduates but the over supply killed Trinidad..
Time for a big reset..

We gone back 50 years

Land of cane cutters

[widdyphuck]

Dont need to go so far back..Just dont over saturate the place with graduates..

[zoom rader]

Dont need to go so far back..Just dont over saturate the place with graduates..

While arguments can be raise on tax payers monies for degrees, we need to stop all funding for useless carnival activities and fetes.

As the arguments say degree education brings little in return so does carnival.

Carnival has been funded long before gate and nothing has come out of it. Carnival promotes racism via the Tents.

Funding for religious and cultural groups also need to stop.

Groups such as youth actives should be funded like Boy scouts, Sea scouts, girl guides, youth music ( not pan) and youth sports.

[widdyphuck]

True cutting GATE is one thing but Carnival..Never under normal circumstances.
Inly pandemic. Trinis will never allow any political party to even attempt to do that.
Also I'm not looking at cutting GATE from a political stand point but from a STUDENT stand point..
Why lead a young person on making them feel they are advancing in life while Institutions just want the Gate financing..