Very much in the fashion of his predecessors, Roger Bent, the president of the Guild of Students at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, (UWI), wants the Jamaican Government to do more for Jamaican students who attend the UWI.

It was "only fair", Mr Bent suggests, that students, with 80 per cent of the economic cost of their university education being borne by taxpayers, get additional help, given that the Government has already provided support for the private sector in the face of the current economic crisis.

It is unfortunate that Mr Bent felt it necessary to juxtapose his call for help against what appeared to be a coded, but clear assumption that there was a bailout of businesses, so it is 'our time now'. For, one or two of his proposals for maintaining students in university are congruent with suggestions previously made by this newspaper and are worthy of serious debate.

Indeed, Mr Bent and his guild may have used the opportunity to engage in a broader discourse, not only on the matters of immediate issue, but on the status of tertiary education in Jamaica and how the country might allocate its limited resources for the best results.

Economic circumstance

Any demand, from whatever quarter, for additional resources from the Government, has to be considered against the backdrop of the country's economic circumstance - which is weak and worsening.

The Government, for the current fiscal year, allocated $58.3 billion to education, or 11 per cent of its overall projected expenditure.

However, when debt servicing is excluded, the allocation is nearer to 25 per cent of the budget. Or, put another way, the country is spending over $1.12 billion a week, or $160 million a day, on education. Yet, fewer than 20 per cent leave high school with the matriculation requirements for tertiary education, or qualified for what the 2004 Education Task Force called "a decent job".

Clearly, the foundation on which Jamaica prepares for tertiary education is weak and requires repair. Resource allocation is part of the issue. For example, tertiary education now gets approximately a fifth of the money spent on education, of which the institution attended by Mr Bent receives 69 per cent.

Public subsidies

There seems to be a legitimate question of whether the UWI should get more, or whether it should be required to reallocate its resources, given the prevailing conditions. About 70 per cent of the Jamaican graduates from the UWI are in the social sciences and humanities, while this newspaper believes that, given Jamaica's proposed development trajectory, greater emphasis should be placed on science and technology, engineering and agriculture.

We believe that public subsidies should be shifted from the over-subscribed faculties and skewed in favour of those more likely to facilitate the development thrust. In other words, we may not be able to afford an 80 per cent subsidy to students wishing to study literature, history or foreign languages. This, of course, is not the entire answer. The situation demands creative thinking.

Mr Bent, for instance, suggested campus employment for students to help them pay their fees. We feel that a broader programme may be useful, such as a deeper integration between the UWI and corporate Jamaica - the kind of engagement that provides not only income for students, but valuable work experience that goes towards credits.

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