MONTEGO BAY, St James — Education Minister Deacon Ronald Thwaites has again encouraged tertiary institutions to direct students to study in areas which will qualify them for available employment on the job market, saying its takes nearly three years for some university graduates to secure employment,

“I see statistics pointing out, ruefully, that it takes tertiary students 32 months before they get a job and that is very difficult because students loan have to pay back, you have family obligations, you have personal obligations. And there is an opportunity cost in that lag. But how much of that cost of that lag is because students are taking courses which are not really related to opportunities for advancement to the world of employment?” the education minister questioned.

“Look at the marketplace of the nation, of the region, and of the world and say, what are the competencies that are required in order to provide employment, in order to provide national development.”

He made reference to the huge gaps in, for example, areas of special education, mathematics and the sciences which you can’t be filled, “yet teachers’ colleges are turning out graduates in fields in which we are oversupplied in the teaching profession”.

Thwaites was speaking at the Joint Committee for Tertiary Education (JCTE) Conference, hosted in partnership with the Ministry of Education at the Holiday Inn Resort, Montego Bay, St James last week.

The education minister articulated the need for a transformational process to open the eyes of young students to acquire the competencies that are necessary in the 21st century.

“It involves a change of philosophy, in my view, which I commend to the consideration of this conference,” Thwaites said.

“We are still largely affected by a history which tells us that it is persons who win Jamaica Scholarships and Rhodes Scholarships who are the ones who are really bright. And that indeed the classic designations of a good education involves certification at Oxford or London. But of course these are very useful things and they have served many of us well, but I wonder if those designations and those philosophical categories are in fact serviceable in the 21st century.

“If you reflect on it, what we have done is to say to industry, commerce investors — whether bauxite, agriculture, tourism etcetera — you take these people who are the graduates of our institutions and you must accept them because they have 12 subjects at CSEC or a doctorate in this or that and since they are certified by these institutions they are obviously qualified for whatever it is that needs to be done. There is a certain presumptiveness in that approach.”