ALL PERSONS NOT BORN EQUAL

Even among children born of the same parents, you may find that one is brighter than the other and seems to perform better academically than the other while the other may show signs of being more innovative and imaginative.

This should explain why in class of 30 students being taught by the same teacher at the same time on the same subjects, some will pass their exams, some will excel, while some will fail miserably. Not all students are capable of absorbing the same degree of academic training.

Which brings me to the subject of the government’s proposal of tertiary education for all.

We have been informed that a disturbing number of secondary school leavers have not obtained passes in a number of subjects in their final exam and that even among those who did obtain passes, there are a high percentage of them who cannot read and write the English language with any degree of competence. My question therefore is, how will these students qualify for entrance into any university when they clearly cannot meet the required entrance standards?

My next question is, with a greatly increased volume of university graduates coming onto the job market every three or four years, are there going to be enough vacancies to absorb all these qualified (inexperienced) individuals in positions that would meed their expectations?

Or are the majority of them going to have to migrate to find suitable employment consistent with their standard of academic training?

This brings me to another subject, the question of what is going to be done with the vast amount of young persons who will not meet the entrance requirements for university education?

The obvious answer seems to lie in the establishing of a sufficient number of well-equipped and staffed trade school that can turn out a quantity of highly skilled and competent craftsmen and women in a variety of disciplines that would be readily absorbed by the various manufacturing and building establishments that are crying our for good competent workers, in just about every possible trade.

It is public knowledge that there is a considerable shortage of good craftsmen and women on the local market, to the extent that the Government is talking about importing skilled labour from neighbouring countries in order to fill the void.

This unfortunate decision will result in a number of serious problems, not least of all a considerable rise in unemployment accompanied by a housing shortage which is already quite a problem, as well as a further demand for food stuff which will have to be imported (since the Government has no agricultural policy in place) which, will in turn result in a further drain on our foreign reserves.

Let us not even ponder on the social upheaval that will ensue. These are just some of the problems that readily come to mind, but I am sure that there must be several more that will present themselves along the way, not to mention the mammoth increase in the already intolerable incidence of serious crime.

MARTIN KAVANAGH

La Romaine