Hello good day and good morrow to you my lovelies and how are you on this amazing day? What makes this day amazing you ask? Well all of my classes for today got cancelled. Yay! What was that? I shouldn’t ‘yay’ for that because education is important? Well you know, I…I wouldn’t willingly miss a class. Once there is class, I’m there but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a day off every now and then. I plan on doing some studying today as well. I’m not going to waste it. I’m updating am I not.
Sooo, today I would like to talk about education. Just a few things to note, in Trinidad the when it comes to education things are limited. I have to mention that if you are living in the West it’s even more limited as most tertiary schools are either eastward or southward. One of my former teachers said that it was because people assumed that most persons willing to further their education are living in the east. I call bullshit on this. Whoever has the brains to build a proper internationally recognize tertiary level school in the west will make lots of money, it’s hard to travel to the east, almost every day, to go to school.
Another thing is that now the government is trying to find ways to cut the money they spend on the education. WHAT? Seriously? Come on now. First you complain about the ‘youths’ not taking advance of all the opportunities that are being afforded to them (THAT IS BECAUSE YOU DON’T ADVERTISE SHIT PROPERLY) and now you want to cut GATE funding from some of the programs. Come on now, even I know better ways of getting money from the education system than that.
For those of you not from Trinidad and not familiar with GATE, it is a ministry run program that allows the people who qualify to go to school and the ministry will pay for all the tertiary expenses. You just pay 200TT to register and sign a contract that says you will work here for 2 or 3 years or something like that. Sounds cool right, you can even get a ministry HELP loan to pay for all your other expenses (for example for books and non tertiary expenses [for example have you noticed that lots of colleges have non tertiary expenses for total rubbish and the total cost of all this Tata, comes up to almost the tuition fees or even more?]).
Now some of the wonderful teachers from the primary and secondary sector are on strike for more money. School now starts back and kids have to stay home already? The only ones who seem to losing out are the kids who are being denied an education and I know some of you are saying that’s okay because kids don’t care about learning anyway. Well you would be wrong. Lots of kids want to learn and they try really hard. I know that the teachers are trying to get more money but I don’t really think that the ministry is paying them any mind to begin with, EVEN with all the striking. Also I don’t think it’s the best example being set for the kids. Teachers really have to look at the examples they set for the children because at the end of the day kids learn from what they see. On the other hand, this is proof that the ministry is trying to cut money from the wrong sector.
Next thing is that to a lot of people if you not going UWI, you are wasting your life. I mean I am not going UWI, and so what. I get a great education that is totally dependent on me and is internationally recognize. UWI may be the shit to a lot of people and it is a very good college but it’s not the only one and that doesn’t give you the right to put any other school down. Like so many people do. You know what, there are lots of other schools and programs offered in Trinidad and Tobago that are just as great.
Honest I don’t know what is going on with the ministry. To me they seem the be implementing a lot of bad ideas that even I can tell is not going to work out in the way that they want it to. Don’t get me wrong they have done lots of good too, but there is just something about them that seems so raw. Like a new government that doesn’t really know what its doing so it’s trying out some things hoping it works. Even when they are trying for the best and has good intentions in mind, they fall short a bunch of times. I don’t know what is going on.
Trying to cut out the spending on education? Why? How about trying to find ways to make the unknown programs that you have, work? I mean seriously, what is a nation without its education? For some people, the only way they can afford to even consider college is with some of the programs that are being offered. When you take something like that away, what are you giving them to better themselves? Just to learn a skill with our hands? We can’t all be builders and carpenters we need to have creative thinkers and aspiration leaders too. Otherwise what is the point, we’ll never grow, never learn and then our country will lose a vast number of our potentials to other countries. Come on all, we can do better than that.
Words of advice for today: Sometimes I think the government forgets that they are there to work for the benefit of the country and its people, so every now and then, we need to give them a little nudge to remind them. We are all smarter that they give us credit for. I’m not talking about where I’m from only, I mean all over the world, wherever you’re from. Don’t let anyone underestimate you.
P.S. I think the differculty of finding anything on websites here (especially Ministry websites) deserves a post on its own.
So tell me your thoughts. Ciao for now, laters and Auf Wiedersehen.
As per usual the image is not mine and copy-write for it goes to the intended parties).
Sooo, today I would like to talk about education. Just a few things to note, in Trinidad the when it comes to education things are limited. I have to mention that if you are living in the West it’s even more limited as most tertiary schools are either eastward or southward. One of my former teachers said that it was because people assumed that most persons willing to further their education are living in the east. I call bullshit on this. Whoever has the brains to build a proper internationally recognize tertiary level school in the west will make lots of money, it’s hard to travel to the east, almost every day, to go to school.
Another thing is that now the government is trying to find ways to cut the money they spend on the education. WHAT? Seriously? Come on now. First you complain about the ‘youths’ not taking advance of all the opportunities that are being afforded to them (THAT IS BECAUSE YOU DON’T ADVERTISE SHIT PROPERLY) and now you want to cut GATE funding from some of the programs. Come on now, even I know better ways of getting money from the education system than that.
For those of you not from Trinidad and not familiar with GATE, it is a ministry run program that allows the people who qualify to go to school and the ministry will pay for all the tertiary expenses. You just pay 200TT to register and sign a contract that says you will work here for 2 or 3 years or something like that. Sounds cool right, you can even get a ministry HELP loan to pay for all your other expenses (for example for books and non tertiary expenses [for example have you noticed that lots of colleges have non tertiary expenses for total rubbish and the total cost of all this Tata, comes up to almost the tuition fees or even more?]).
Now some of the wonderful teachers from the primary and secondary sector are on strike for more money. School now starts back and kids have to stay home already? The only ones who seem to losing out are the kids who are being denied an education and I know some of you are saying that’s okay because kids don’t care about learning anyway. Well you would be wrong. Lots of kids want to learn and they try really hard. I know that the teachers are trying to get more money but I don’t really think that the ministry is paying them any mind to begin with, EVEN with all the striking. Also I don’t think it’s the best example being set for the kids. Teachers really have to look at the examples they set for the children because at the end of the day kids learn from what they see. On the other hand, this is proof that the ministry is trying to cut money from the wrong sector.
Next thing is that to a lot of people if you not going UWI, you are wasting your life. I mean I am not going UWI, and so what. I get a great education that is totally dependent on me and is internationally recognize. UWI may be the shit to a lot of people and it is a very good college but it’s not the only one and that doesn’t give you the right to put any other school down. Like so many people do. You know what, there are lots of other schools and programs offered in Trinidad and Tobago that are just as great.
Honest I don’t know what is going on with the ministry. To me they seem the be implementing a lot of bad ideas that even I can tell is not going to work out in the way that they want it to. Don’t get me wrong they have done lots of good too, but there is just something about them that seems so raw. Like a new government that doesn’t really know what its doing so it’s trying out some things hoping it works. Even when they are trying for the best and has good intentions in mind, they fall short a bunch of times. I don’t know what is going on.
Trying to cut out the spending on education? Why? How about trying to find ways to make the unknown programs that you have, work? I mean seriously, what is a nation without its education? For some people, the only way they can afford to even consider college is with some of the programs that are being offered. When you take something like that away, what are you giving them to better themselves? Just to learn a skill with our hands? We can’t all be builders and carpenters we need to have creative thinkers and aspiration leaders too. Otherwise what is the point, we’ll never grow, never learn and then our country will lose a vast number of our potentials to other countries. Come on all, we can do better than that.
Words of advice for today: Sometimes I think the government forgets that they are there to work for the benefit of the country and its people, so every now and then, we need to give them a little nudge to remind them. We are all smarter that they give us credit for. I’m not talking about where I’m from only, I mean all over the world, wherever you’re from. Don’t let anyone underestimate you.
P.S. I think the differculty of finding anything on websites here (especially Ministry websites) deserves a post on its own.
So tell me your thoughts. Ciao for now, laters and Auf Wiedersehen.
Love this post, especially the UWI part. I hate when my mom tells everyone that I go there, because I don't want to be there. It's awful. I'm just unfortunate enough to not have any other options; as in nowhere -and I mean no other institution in my country- offers a degree in my field of interest. It sucks. >:/
ReplyDeleteI have an issue with the whole concentration of tertiary education in the south and east too. Especially when they have full time classes in the nighttime and I live over an hour away from the campus. Not to mention most of the students there live on campus, just off campus, or in the south or east. You know how impossible it is to find someone coming past town. *sighs*
Anywho. Great post, I totally get your point and people need to stop making Crappy UWI sound like the greatest thing since slice bread. If you can go anywhere else, I would tell you go.
Loved your feedback. Nice to hear from the perspective of someone who lives it. They need to have shuttles going into town every half our or something. Something that taking you from directly on the campus.
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