Gareth Manning, Staff Reporter

EDUCATION IS now among the sectors taking a beating from the global financial crisis.

Heads of community colleges told The Sunday Gleaner during a recent Editors' Forum at The Gleaner's central Kingston office that many students have been finding it difficult to pay fees since the start of the financial meltdown in the United States earlier this year.

In other cases, some principals say, training courses being offered to workers in affected sectors have had to be delayed because there are not enough applicants.

Principal of the Brown's Town Community College, James Walsh, said a course designed to meet the demands of the bauxite sector, for example, has become a victim of the recession. The sector has been experiencing a blow from the falling demand for aluminium.

Price of aluminium

"We have developed the course ... and it's like we don't know when (it will be implemented) because the price of aluminium has gone down again," he said.

Traditional corporate support from some private-sector companies has also declined as a result of the crisis, Walsh pointed out.

"Just recently, I had discussions with people in the bauxite (industry) and there is fear," Walsh disclosed. "Somebody who you could approach and they would, maybe, give a gift for the staff incentive or for anything - say about $50,000 - now they say I can't give you anything. So I've actually felt the fear of recession," he added.

Principal of Excelsior Community College, Dr Dahlia Repole, said there were signs that students were already being adversely affected for the economic downturn.

Many have been finding it difficult to pay their school fees, she said, causing schools to adjust their fee-payment plans. The fee-payment difficulties come at a time when many colleges are facing shrinking budgets due to contracting subventions from Government.

"Nearly all of us have a part-payment process and some of us seek sponsorship outside. We have an agreement with our students and ... we really do work with them," Repole disclosed.

Creative solutions

Geraldine Barnes-Findlay, vice-principal of Knox Community College with campuses in Clarendon and Manchester, and Angela Samuels-Harris, principal of Montego Bay Community College in St James, said their institutions were faced with similar problems, but they had managed to find creative ways of dealing with the challenges.

At Montego Bay Community College, for example, every November the institution hosts a story-telling festival to raise funds for the welfare of its needy students.

"So, students who cannot manage lunch or bus fare, they are refered to the guidance counsellor and we try to assist where possible," said Samuels-Harris.

But though community colleges are being affected by the crisis, many are preparing students to take advantage of opportunities the economic crisis might provide.

Entrepreneurism

According to the educators, entrepreneurism is now a thrust of most colleges to ensure students can provide employment for themselves and others.

For example, since the collapse of the garment industry in Montego Bay, Samuels-Harris said her college's clothing and fashion design programme has moved from training a workforce for the garment industry to training students to start up and run their own businesses.

The same is done for programmes such as architecture and hospitality.

"We train them to hit the ground (running) in terms of getting ready for the workplace and the workforce," stated Samuels-Harris.

gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com