M A N D E V I L L E , Manchester — Northern Caribbean University (NCU) is set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a group in the United States to help make education, particularly at the tertiary level, a priority for boys and young men.

The “faith-based” organisation, called Collaborate to Educate Our Sons (CEOS), is headed by Howard University Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature Dr Bertram Melbourne. Melbourne initiated a conference at the Seventh-Day Adventist institution recently to further explore the plans to have the programme in place.

“What we would like to do is …have young men at NCU mentoring boys at Victor Dixon (High)… and other high schools around. If we could have high school young men mentoring junior high and then junior high mentoring elementary, then we have a tree going,” he said. Melbourne said that “literature” has shown that if up to four “caring relationships” are available to support boys it will lessen the probability of deviant behaviour and keep them focused on the path of education.

He said that in time girls will also be included in the organisation, but at present boys have a greater need for mentorship. An alumnus and former chair of the Religion Department at NCU, Melbourne said that he is seeking to create a model of the programme at the Mandeville-based university before he moves to discuss a broadening of the initiative with the Ministry of Education.

Melbourne said that there is also an aspect of the programme which gives mentees opportunities to benefit from scholarships. In addition to getting boys to build and value their own lives, he said that other positives of the programme include better functioning families, a balanced set of professionals for future generations, more educated husbands for young women and a safer society.

A CEOS co-ordinator in Jamaica and Dean of Men at Cedar Hall at NCU, Obed Babb, said that CEOS has been around for about eight years and he expects the Memorandum of Understanding with NCU, to start the programme in Jamaica, to be in effect by the latest May of this year