Holness hints at new deal for university students

BY ERICA VIRTUE Observer writer virtuee@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, February 25, 2010

EDUCATION Minister Andrew Holness has hinted at a new deal for university students that would remove current disadvantages and end the "inefficient, inequitable and ineffective" way in which tertiary education is now provided.

"It is not the intention of any new directive or Government policy to limit access to tertiary education. We believe that there is another way to provide tertiary education that will increase access and reduce the burden of tertiary education," Holness reassured students at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus Tuesday night.

He said that Government would not abandon the students in their time of financial need, but insisted that the current loan arrangement between institutions and students had to be realigned.

Holness, a UWI alum, was one of two ministers who addressed a forum put on by Generation 2000 -- the young political and professional arm of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party -- at the Rex Nettleford Hall on the campus.

"Effectively, we are saying that the present way of providing tertiary education is inefficient, inequitable and ineffective. There is another way," Holness stressed.

He said any new policy would be gradual, with adequate notice, and would ensure that "no one is worse off and at least one person is better off".

He also promised compensation for anyone who was dislocated during the process, adding that a current student at university should not be "disadvantaged by a new system" being introduced.

Holness said there were private benefits from achieving tertiary education, and the argument being examined by the Government was how much subsidy should be given to the process, relative to its private benefits.

The minister said the discourse had reached this stage because decades ago a policy decision was made by Government to fund tertiary education, a clear reference to Michael Manley's Free Education policy of the 1970s.

He believed that the social benefits from that policy "were needed at the time of the policy decision". But that now meant Government was paying, on average, 80 per cent of the economic cost for students at the UWI.

Furthermore, each year Government was spending $14 billion for 60,000 students at the tertiary level -- all institutions combined -- while $2 billion was spent on early childhood, about $7 billion on primary education, and $12 billion on secondary schools.

"But if we continue to spend on education in this way, effectively what we are doing, is providing for 60,000 and literally denying the other 250,000 (early childhood, primary and secondary)," he said, adding that based on the current results at the secondary level, only 11,000 of about 250,000 students could move directly on to tertiary education.

He said the only way to expand tertiary education was to spend more to improve the quality at the output, and pointed out that only the elite was provided for in the current structure.

In the meantime, the education minister said both Government and parents must start saving from early for their children's tertiary education.

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Holness hints at new deal for university students