The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College is owed more than $ 2,000,000 by the government under the Tuition assistance Programme. Such claim was made by Hon Myron Walwyn. According to him, the college has not received any payments since the second half of 2009 and it was counted that the debt for tuition is $ 2,747,947.
The Minister of Education was asked if the money would be paid in 2012 to cover tuition and received the answer, stating that “the subvention to the college and payments based on the Tuition Assistance Progrmme are separate items. Subvention payments Madame Speaker are planned according to a schedule agreed by the institution and the ministry of Finance while the College separately bills the relevant ministry for the Tuition Assistance Programme based on the charges generated by students in the programme.”
It is seen that the question was not answered by the minister and when it was asked again, the answer remained the same – the minister tried to explain that there are two different types of payments.
It is important to remind that last month during one of the press conferences; Walwyn mentioned that because of the debt, it was not the time to think about expansion of the amount of the student who pays tuition in order to study at the college.
An ongoing Middle State Commission on Higher education process is expected to examine the college and decide whether it is viable or not. As for now, the educational establishment is subsidized by the government and more than three quarters of the students are reenrolled and they have an opportunity to participate in their programme of free tuition which is granted to the local students. However, those people who come from other localities do not have an opportunity to get such benefit.
President of HLSCC state that it is a political issue to decide who of the students is going to benefit from m the programme. Ti was also mentioned that the college currently makes efforts to raise its funds.
Walwyn commented on the fact, claiming the issue would be discussed later, but the problem of re-look of the assistance of payment of tuition is the central one and it should be solved in order to move forward. He also mentioned about the importance of the tertiary education to previous governments and mentioned that the current one is not an exception.
According to Walwyn, the college remains viable, but the issue of fund raising is an urgent one and the whole survival of the educational establishment depends upon it.
In the process of the conference Dr. Dawson mentioned that he does not see the stage whether government stopped providing support of the college. He also claimed that he believed the problem was is varied demands on the funding of the government, the institutions, and the college and emphasized the fact that institutions like the college “will rally have to find diverse means of funding that we can have at our disposal to ensure sustainability.”
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