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Greypatch wrote:http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161564391
No politics involved
Beneficiaries:
by Juhel Browne juhel.browne@trinidadexpress.com
Tuesday, December 1st 2009
Government Senator Laurel Lezama benefitted from a total of $300,000 in State financial assistance from the Culture and Gender Affairs Ministry for the pursuit of a Bachelors degree in law and politics from the University of Westminster Regents Campus in London in 2005 and 2006.
This was disclosed in the list of grant recipients from ministry that was made public on November 9, through legal action by the Indo-Trinbago Equality Council (ITEC).
In an interview with the Express last evening, Lezama said that she had to go through a rigorous screening process before her application was approved and thought the financial assistance offered by the ministry was public knowledge.
Lezama said she did not receive a single cent from the money personally.
’It went to the university. It didn’t cover all of my expenses,’ Lezama said.
Asked about concerns raised by ITEC that the grants amounted to political discrimination, Lezama said, ’I don’t believe that it was specifically to party people at all. When I went to the interview, I did not know any person there. ... It was people who clearly had needs. I spoke to one young lady from Debe, a slim, slim girl of East Indian descent. From our conversation she clearly was not any form of political activist.’
Paige De Leon, who is the communications manager with the Office of the Prime Minister, received $173,640 in financial assistance in pursuit of her Masters in International Diplomacy at a university in Paris, France, in 2005 .
De Leon told the Express yesterday she had applied to several institutions including the ministry before her application was approved and, like Lezama, said ’no money was ever given’ to her directly
See it ok according to the senator who was the "lucky" recieve 300k TTD.
Them feel everybody are fools in T&T
SCHOLS FOR THE POOR
Culture Ministry responds to secret list controversy
Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com
Wednesday, December 2nd 2009
Tertiary education students who are young, poor, needy and vulnerable are the ones who are meant to receive financial assistance from the Ministry of Culture to pursue their studies.
In response to the controversy swirling over the secret list of scholarship recipients refused in the Parliament but now made public though the court, the Culture Ministry yesterday issued a news release stating that ’applicants and/or their house- holds must provide evidence of financial need in respect of study/training expenses’.
It also stated that ’beneficiaries may be required to enter into an agreement with the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to serve within their respective communities or the country for a designated period of time.’
Culture Minister Marlene McDonald, who only took office in November 2007, had told the Parliament last year that the monies really comprised ’financial assistance and I have been informed that there is no binding contract between the student and the Ministry’.
The Ministry also noted yesterday that tertiary education programmes being pursued by those who receive the State financial assistance it provides ’must be relevant to the needs of the community or the country’.
The once-secret list of names of those to whom the Ministry had disbursed a total of $46 million in financial assistance for the tertiary studies from 2003 to 2007 was obtained by the Indo-Trinbago Equality Council (ITEC) through a request it made in the High Court under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).
’The Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs is grateful for the keen media interest in the Community Development Financial Assistance [Studies] Programme through which Government has proudly invested in the education of the young, the poor, the needy and the vulnerable in our communities,’ the Ministry stated yesterday.
It also expressed its pleasure that at least two of the former recipients of financial assistance have chosen to selflessly channel their talents, after their studies abroad, to serving their country at the highest levels, namely in the Senate (Government Senator Laurel Lezama) and at the Office of the Prime Minister (the Prime Minister’s communications manager, Paige De Leon).
’Their contributions towards stemming and reversing the brain drain-an aim of the Vision 2020 National Strategic Plan-is highly commendable and worthy of emulation by other former students who may not already be working in the service of the public,’ the Ministry stated.
It identified certain key elements of the programme as follows:
Financial Assistance may be granted annually for a maximum period of four years.
Consideration will be given for local, regional or overseas studies/ training to a maximum of $25,000 per annum for local programmes, 2,500 British pounds per annum for programmes in the United Kingdom and US$5,000 per annum for programmes in other countries.
Awards above those specified may be considered but only in exceptional cases.
The Selection Committee may elect to interview any applicant where necessary.
Consideration will be given for local, regional or overseas studies/ training to a maximum of $25,000 per annum for local programmes, 2,500 British pounds per annum for programmes in the United Kingdom and US$5,000 per annum for programmes in other countries.
SCHOLS FOR THE POOR
Culture Ministry responds to secret list controversy
Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com
Wednesday, December 2nd 2009
Tertiary education students who are young, poor, needy and vulnerable are the ones who are meant to receive financial assistance from the Ministry of Culture to pursue their studies.
In response to the controversy swirling over the secret list of scholarship recipients refused in the Parliament but now made public though the court, the Culture Ministry yesterday issued a news release stating that ’applicants and/or their house- holds must provide evidence of financial need in respect of study/training expenses’.
It also stated that ’beneficiaries may be required to enter into an agreement with the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to serve within their respective communities or the country for a designated period of time.’
Culture Minister Marlene McDonald, who only took office in November 2007, had told the Parliament last year that the monies really comprised ’financial assistance and I have been informed that there is no binding contract between the student and the Ministry’.
The Ministry also noted yesterday that tertiary education programmes being pursued by those who receive the State financial assistance it provides ’must be relevant to the needs of the community or the country’.
The once-secret list of names of those to whom the Ministry had disbursed a total of $46 million in financial assistance for the tertiary studies from 2003 to 2007 was obtained by the Indo-Trinbago Equality Council (ITEC) through a request it made in the High Court under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).
’The Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs is grateful for the keen media interest in the Community Development Financial Assistance [Studies] Programme through which Government has proudly invested in the education of the young, the poor, the needy and the vulnerable in our communities,’ the Ministry stated yesterday.
It also expressed its pleasure that at least two of the former recipients of financial assistance have chosen to selflessly channel their talents, after their studies abroad, to serving their country at the highest levels, namely in the Senate (Government Senator Laurel Lezama) and at the Office of the Prime Minister (the Prime Minister’s communications manager, Paige De Leon).
’Their contributions towards stemming and reversing the brain drain-an aim of the Vision 2020 National Strategic Plan-is highly commendable and worthy of emulation by other former students who may not already be working in the service of the public,’ the Ministry stated.
It identified certain key elements of the programme as follows:
Financial Assistance may be granted annually for a maximum period of four years.
Consideration will be given for local, regional or overseas studies/ training to a maximum of $25,000 per annum for local programmes, 2,500 British pounds per annum for programmes in the United Kingdom and US$5,000 per annum for programmes in other countries.
Awards above those specified may be considered but only in exceptional cases.
The Selection Committee may elect to interview any applicant where necessary.
Country_Bookie wrote:People get money to go you-wee and study English??? And dat is on top of GATE which would have covered their tuition. Lawd fadder!! Back in my days plenty of d ppl who were studying English was only there ‘cos they got blanked from the program they really wanted to study.
Country_Bookie wrote:Do any universities in the WI offer courses on Caribbean culture? Or u hadda go foreign if u wanna study that?
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