Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says she is deeply con­cerned about the rec­om­men­da­tions pre­sent­ed to the Gov­ern­ment by a spe­cial task force to re­view the Gov­ern­ment As­sis­tance for Tu­ition Ex­pens­es (GATE) pro­gramme.

She de­scribed it as fright­en­ing to con­tem­plate the neg­a­tive ef­fects that cuts to GATE will have on the youth and the fu­ture de­vel­op­ment of the coun­try.

"It is dis­as­trous to im­ple­ment such cuts be­fore the start of the next aca­d­e­m­ic year," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said in a press re­lease yes­ter­day evening.

One of the sug­ges­tions of the task force re­port is that stu­dents en­rolled at uni­ver­si­ty would have to pay one third of their fees, while post­grad­u­ate stu­dents would lose all fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to con­tin­ue their stud­ies.

"I call on the Gov­ern­ment to re­ject these rec­om­men­da­tions," she said.

Com­bined with the gov­ern­ment's re­cent moves to cut schol­ar­ships by 15 per cent, end the lap­top pro­gramme for sec­ondary school stu­dents and halt the de­vel­op­ment of the UWI South Cam­pus, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said it ap­pears that the Dr Kei­th Row­ley ad­min­is­tra­tion was wag­ing an all-out war against stu­dents.

"Now, more than ever, is the time we must in­vest in stu­dents who will be­come the fu­ture lead­ers of our na­tion. The stu­dents of to­day will lead the di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion ef­forts of to­mor­row and the Row­ley ad­min­is­tra­tion seems in­tent on re­strict­ing ac­cess to high­er ed­u­ca­tion," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

"That is why I am call­ing on the Row­ley ad­min­is­tra­tion to act as a re­spon­si­ble Gov­ern­ment by re­ject­ing the task force rec­om­men­da­tions and by fo­cus­ing in­stead on ex­pand­ing GATE as they promised dur­ing the 2015 elec­tion cam­paign."