Turks and Caicos Islands:
Ideally, education plays an important role in the development of the mind, character and the physical ability of an individual. This philosophy is a fundamental need within Caribbean states; therefore much focus should be directed toward developing education within the region. From my observation, the region also has an obligation to unite all its resources to develop and implement a standard educational and research program.
The Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Haiti are at the bottom of the literacy list despite the enormous schooling facilities present in those states. It is heart-breaking to know that Haiti has a literacy rate of 53 percent, which means that this country has more than four million people who are termed as illiterate. In the Dominican Republic there is an average of three million illiterate people and around 840,000 illiterate citizens live in Jamaica. These numbers should be staggering and stunning enough to engage our leaders to correct this issue before it escalates further. First, let me address our education standard and status to other parts of the world. In Canada and the United States, well qualified and experienced Caribbean citizens who migrate to those parts of the globe have to be re-trained and be placed back into the classrooms -- for the reason that our system, according to their beliefs, is below their educational standards.
To address this issue, the region has to first integrate its education system, coupled with a focus on scientific research. There is a need to combine all of our resources and set one standard. Again the OCES member-states have always facilitated regionalism. This time it is good to see that the More Developed States -- Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados -- have joined this regional effort. We have created CXC at the secondary level, and the University of the West Indies and the University of Guyana at the tertiary level. This is indeed a good start; however, there is a greater need to develop more programs and policy to finance and guide our education system.
Hitherto, it is important also that our education system focuses on programs, which would support exchanges and mobility -- a university program, which would support international exchange opportunities for many university and college students.
Similarly, programs to facilitate teachers from other countries into our system, which will be designed to encourage diversity, promote and spread good practices in education across the region. In so doing, the region would support comparable standards and compatible degrees throughout the Caribbean.
Conversely, the Caribbean must move ahead and start competing with the rest of the world through its education system. Efforts must be made to establish policy in this area to stimulate and coordinate research. The Caribbean must seek to allocate funds to finance Caribbean and national projects. Some areas that the Caribbean needs to diversify are geography, geology, oceanography, anthropology, archeology and other scientific research areas, including renewable energy to reduce our region’s dependence on foreign oil; taking into consideration our environment. As a matter of fact, our region should and can become the leader in this research area.
Throughout the Caribbean, education should be funded and made free to all citizens at the primary and secondary level. In this capacity, I do not support free education at the tertiary level; however, it should be affordable, while special programs facilitate scholarship for outstanding students and for students that do not meet the financial requirements. The reason for such opinion is that many students tend to perform less well when education is free of cost-- people value hard work over things, which are readily available. More so, the leaders of the region must sustain a regional fee at the tertiary level.
It is time for the Caribbean to produce doctors, physicians and surgeons, geographers, geologists, mathematicians, and astronauts that would lead missions into space. When are we going to have Caribbean representatives on an oceanography missions? When are we going to be on a geographic expedition?
The trend shows that the Caribbean is not making an effort to transform the education standards of the region-- an education standard that is compatible and comparable to the rest of the world. In this sense, I personally urge our leader to start investing in education and make our educational system a regional one. It is time for us to stop our dependence on developed countries and find a way forward for ourselves with their help.
Ideally, some citizens across our regions may find this article to be absurd – ridiculously unreasonable, unsound, or incongruous in nature. However, I strongly believe in these ideologies. The leaders must put their heads together to make this a reality. There are too many individual talents in the Caribbean that are going unnoticed, and some of which are adopted by developed countries.
I urge fellow West Indians to work hard toward this goal. The only way we could define hard work is through focus, determination and confidence.
August 9, 2010
Regionalism: The Caribbean prospective - Part 2
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