MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Mayor of Mandeville and chairman of the Manchester Municipal Corporation Donovan Mitchell wants Jamaican universities to do more by way of research to assist the country resolve problems afflicting education.

“I do expect some more from you,” Mitchell told a University of the West Indies forum in Mandeville recently.

“We keep hearing about failing schools and passing schools and all of that, but I don’t think the universities… [have] taken the time out to really do the research to find out what is it that is causing failing schools and passing schools,” he said.

Mitchell, an alumnus of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus’ supervisory management course, was earlier this month presenting the keynote address at the launch of a photo exhibition charting the history at the campus’s location at Caledonia Mall in Mandeville.

The Mandeville mayor said that in many instances, years of schooling were not equating to the requisite competencies needed to function effectively in a knowledge-based economy and that needed to change.

Arguing that “training makes one more able to completely perform and create value in whatever field or occupation one chooses”, Mitchell also called for university training in local governance.

He told his audience that as public relations officer for the Trinidad-headquartered Association of Local Government Authorities, he has recognised the need.

“… I happen to travel [to] just about 15 or 17 countries within the Caribbean. The University of the West Indies campus in Trinidad is the only campus I know in this region that teaches anything on local governance. They have a programme, a certificate programme, in local governance. I think [that in the case of] Jamaica, as one of the leading countries in local government reform, that The UWI should start thinking about doing a programme [so that] persons can really look at local government and local governance as a way forward,” he said.

The Open Campus is celebrating its 10th anniversary while The University of the West Indies is on its 70th.

Among ways the main campus of The UWI and the Open Campus are said to have progressed in advancing learning over the years are through their libraries and information services.

Mitchell believes that the Government could work with The UWI to find a way to improve how information is documented through digitisation.

“I think The UWI needs to sit down with the Government and to find a way to clean up what we call registries — it’s a mess. If The UWI can do it for themselves, then I think they will be able to do a programme that will help the Government of Jamaica to do and to keep these things (records) in place [effectively]…” he said.

The Open Campus, considered the fourth campus of The UWI, has opened up educational opportunities to a vast cross section of the population through short courses, undergraduate and graduate programmes that can be done face-to face, online and from many locations.

Karen Ford-Warner, campus registrar of the Open Campus, said that 17 countries in the Caribbean are serviced, and that there are more than 44 sites.

“The Open Campus is a special creature that has come about. It was created under our last strategic plan and it was the culmination of a journey that began along with the start of the university back in 1948. In fact, I am advised that the original Extra Mural actually opened its doors in (19)47, even before the launch of what was then the University College of the West Indies. The antecedents of this campus go way, way back.

“We are always building on the backs, shoulders and other body parts of people who have had the vision, the foresight, the tenacity, the courage, the diligence, the professionalism and just the hard-working spirit to actually think it is important to build a foundation for the future,” she said.

Natricia Goodwin-Brown, site coordinator for the Open Campus in Mandeville, in relating the history, said that it started as The University of the West Indies Distance Teaching Experiment (UWI-DITE) at the Church Teachers’ College campus in 1988.

It then became The University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre (UWI-DEC) in 1996 and, as it matured, found the new location and took on the name of the UWI Open Campus in 2008.

Levene Griffiths, head of the Jamaica Eastern region sites of the Open Campus, said that other photo exhibits were unveiled to mark the year-long celebration.

— Alicia Sutherland