THE EDITOR, Sir
Of late, the concerted cries of my friends have echoed the maltreatment of Jamaican institutions that are supposed to be beacons of service and harbingers of hope. The beginning of the New Year and new semester at the UWI has been marked by anything but efficiency.
And probably late grades and little choice in course selection could be countenanced if the administrative hierarchy, more often than not, demonstrated a passionate sensitivity to the concerns of the lowly peons of the academy.
Is it too much to ask, Sir, that the institution of highest learning demonstrate the same? Why does UWI have to take three years? Why don't we have weekend college where courses toward a degree can be sat on weekends? Why do we have to send papers abroad to have them second-marked? Why the lack of transparency, the apparent inflexibility and the general administration of disservice?
I would like to see some potential unlocked but the spirits of territoriality and provincialism have bound the creative expression and the academic culture. Our education system does not teach us to become our own masters; rather, it enmeshes us in the mentality that we must work for someone else. Education is human capital enrichment that is other-serving and not self-serving.
Thus, the system of wage-slavery is perpetuated and even when the sense of hopelessness ought to be broken it is not. Why is it so? Because individuals still see their education as vehicles that are fuelled by the vision of someone other than themselves. And the man of lesser vision will always be captive to the man of greater vision.
What is a goal of 15 per cent for the proportion of the population that should be university educated? What impact will that make, both qualitatively and quantitatively? Tertiary education has to be more aggressively promoted and be made far more accessible.
The barriers to entry need to be broken down and the walls of separation be undermined. Why must the majority of tertiary institutions be located in the Corporate Area? And why should the cost be increasing at a time when the economy has not been growing at any appreciable rate?
The university has trained leaders but it has not led. There are so many individuals who are so intimidated by excellence and by the advance of others, whose own insecurities and maldispositions colour their ability to reach out to students who simply want to be released into their destinies. And there are others who have not fulfilled the promise of brilliance and the responsibility of ushering in a new paradigm of socio-cultural leadership.
This is a harsh criticism and not universally true, for there are those who, in spite of the contradiction of their circumstances, genuinely care for the student. Probably when we realise that the university was made for the student and not the student for the university, then the requisite attitudinal realignment will be pursued. I hope so.
I am, etc.,
RYAN ONEAL PHILLIP PALMER
roppalmer@hotmail.com
71 Penwood Road
Kingston 11
Via Go-Jamaica
