Bridgetown.
The current new arrangements for funding tertiary education, if persisted with, will mean that the enrolment of Barbadians students at the University of the West Indies not just at the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados will have to be reduced by 50 percent, this is the view of Leader of the Oppostion Owen Arthur.
"Barbados already has a deficit in relation to tertiary traning, such a decline in enrolment would be catasrophic", Arthur told members of the Barbados Employers' Confederation yesterday.
"A sustainable programme for funding tertiary education has to be devised. As a temporary measure, contribution rates to the National Insurance Scheme should be reduced, and the equivalent amount converted into a Higher Education Levy. The existing Registered Education Saving Plan should be modified to allow not only relief from the withholding tax on interest, but the full contribution as a tax credit so that people can begin to save more for their children's university education", says Arthur.
You must be logged in to post a comment.