Government won't fund students who fail to meet required GPA

The government of Trinidad & Tobago is cutting off funding for students at the tertiary level who do not maintain an acceptable academic standing at their respective educational institutions.

The funding comes from the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme, which pays fees for tens of thousands of students across the country. 

In the past the government continued to pay for the students regardless of their performance. However, the present administration is now insisting that it would not tolerate academic failure. This means that thousands of students whose Grade Point Average (GPA) did not reach the minimum range from 1.0 to 2.0 would have to pay their way until they could improve their grades.

Local media reports say close to 1,100 students at the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of T&T (Costaatt) are affected along with 2,000 students at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and 900 at the University of T&T (UTT).

Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim said Saturday the Government won't finance failure. He added, however, that students who improve their grades would receive the GATE funding. This does not contradict the government's pledge to expand the GATE programme.

(2010)

Karim had warned since last year that he would penalise students who failed to maintain an acceptable GPA and those who were "programme-hoppers". 

The minister told the Guardian newspaper he met on Friday with Finance Minister Larry Howai and "we agreed to certain conditions for improving the GATE output." 

He added, "Certainly one of those will be maintaining the GPA. It will also be based on performance in terms of both the training institutions and the students who are benefitting from GATE...we expect a minimum performance.” 

The Guardian also reported that from January 2012 GATE will stop paying for courses at approved regional tertiary education institutions if the same courses are available in Trinidad & Tobago. The paper said GATE would also stop paying fees for pre-medical programmes at St George's University.

Karim told the Guardian the GATE budget increased sixfold between 2005 and 2011 moving from $102 million to $650 million. The state funded education budget crossed $3 billion during that period, Karim said.

The minister was emphatic that the move is not about disenfranchising anyone from education. “This is to ensure there is success in the system and maintaining a certain level of performance and increasing the graduation rate,” he stated.
Figures at Karim's ministry show that enrolment/student access to the GATE programme for the fiscal year 2009/2010 was 52,406. In late July, Karim said 52,341 students were enrolled at the three major tertiary-level institutions and private institutions for this year.