WESTERN BUREAU – Custos of Trelawny Royland Barrett has said that the parish is in need of tertiary level institution that would help to hone the skills of a the youths in the area.

“We need the institution right now. We need it more than ever before, but no move has been made in that direction. I think somebody should begin to agitate and wake up the government to that reality,” Barrett told the Observer.

Added he: “(School leavers)… can go to the community college in Montego Bay, or they can go on to the one in Brown’s Town, or they can choose to go to some institution in the cooperate area. All that costs money… It also causes dislocation from their families… It is time that a tertiary educational institution like a community college be erected in the parish of Trelawny.”

According to the custos, the need for such an institution has been underscored by the planned developments for the parish, in tandem with the hosting of Cricket World Cup 2007.

It is the greenfield site in Trelawny that is to host the opening ceremony and a number of warm-up matches for those games.

“Now that developments are being announced for the parish, it behooves us to begin to equip our students to take active part in… areas (like) the hotel industry, tourism generally, administration and so on,” he said, adding that a community college would adequately fulfill this requirement.

It is against this background that he has been in dialogue with administrators at the Montego Bay Community College, with a view to having an extension of that institution in Trelawny. But the community college is looking to open an extension elsewhere so that the prospects for Falmouth will have to be looked at a later date.

“We looked at Falmouth because he (Barrett) discussed it with us in meetings… We also looked at Frome (in Westmoreland)… Our research was showing that the need was greater for Frome. The (education) ministry has given us the approval to start an extension campus where the former Frome High School was located,” Dorothy Pringle, head of academic affairs and public relations at the college, told the Observer this week.

Added she: “As soon as we have get that off the ground then now we will look at the options or the needs for Falmouth. We have it on our agenda and some level of research was done.”

Meanwhile, Barrett said that an area at Hague in the parish was earmarked as far back as 1997, under the Greater Falmouth Redevelopment Plan, for the construction of a tertiary institution. With the developments to take place in the parish over the next few years, he said the construction was timely.