I was heartened when I saw the headline in this newspaper a few days ago, ‘Thanks, Alia’. In an environment where we sometimes destroy winners, it is refreshing to see us encouraging our stars even in difficult circumstances.

In a different capacity, having been instrumental in establishing the Faculty of Science and Sport at the University of Technology (UTech), Jamaica, I had met with Jamaica’s swimming sensation in order to explore the possibilities of her pursuing studies in our faculty while continuing her swimming preparation. I found her to be so pleasant and patriotic. It was clear that she was not just swimming for herself, but for Jamaica. We must continue to encourage our winners.

The well-known parable of the talents illustrates the principle of encouraging success. The talent was taken from the servant who had buried his master’s talent and had generated no returns and it was given to the servant who had generated an additional five talents with the five that he was given initially. There is an alternative notion that would say that it is not fair for one servant to have 10 talents while another had four and yet another had only one. This alternative would look favourably at taking away five talents from the servant who had 10, give one to the servant who had four, and the other four to the servant who had one, so that all three servants would have five talents. Needless to say, the servant who would have had the five talents taken from him, having traded successfully to gain them, would not be highly motivated to go trading again. And the one who received four additional talents for doing nothing would have no reason to do anything. Quite opposite to that, the ‘good book’ supported encouragement for good effort and success.

The principle applies in the support we give to some of our institutions. In the tertiary sector, one institution receives approximately $150,000 per annum per student while another receives approximately $550,000 per annum per student, an imbalance of which present consideration towards a resolution should be applauded. Both produce high-quality graduates, charging similar fees to students. There is hardly any rocket science in figuring out that the first is operating more efficiently than the second, in the sense of giving ‘more bang for the buck’ or return on investment. This is not by chance as the cadre of staff at the first-mentioned institution has a very high proportion of academics who are also practitioners who are able to draw from industry experience both in preparing students and in managing institutional operations. I am proud to be associated with the first, even while appreciating the benefit I got from being trained at the second.

With very little resources, the first continues to outperform every other university in the world in terms of the slate of athletics champions that they produce, many of whom represented Jamaica in the Rio Olympics. It is also interesting that the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, in congratulating Jamaica on the 54th anniversary of its Independence, speaking on behalf of the US President Barack Obama, singled out for special mention, a project that supports “the principles of social inclusion, diversity, and tolerance” being executed successfully by the same institution. Such is what we have as our national university. We must support our winners. UTech, Jamaica to the World! Jamaica to the World!

Up to 2010, as indicated in the 2009-2010 annual report of the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ), UTech, Jamaica was the most prolific tertiary institution in Jamaica in terms of the number of courses accredited, having 31 accredited courses listed in that report. Northern Caribbean University was next with 24. In regard to such institutions, the then Executive Director Dr Ethley London had this to say in the report: “For almost 20 years, the UCJ has provided quality assurance service to Jamaican tertiary education through programmatic accreditation, but now finds it useful to proceed towards institutional accreditation for the more mature institutions. This will assist in preventing duplication of efforts by institutions, especially those with many accredited programmes. These institutions would have over the years improved their internal quality assurance mechanisms and therefore should be ready for the process of institutional reviews.” UTech, Jamaica is now engaged in focused interaction with the UCJ towards institutional accreditation, which will very soon provide further verification of success.

Jamaica is a great country and is already a preferred place for people to live, work, raise families and do business, even as we strive to make it even more so by 2030. The recent events in Rio provide even further confirmation of our greatness. Let’s continue to support our winners.

Professor Colin Gyles is acting president of the University of Technology, Jamaica.