Changing ‘John D’ can have negative social impact

THE EDITOR: Picture this. You are a 16-year-old black teen living in Laventille. You just achieved three subjects at CXC. On exiting the O’Level system, you’re now looking for options. Where do you go from here? UWI is out, but what about a craft course at John S Donaldson Technical Institute (JSDTI)? You enter JSDTI and spend one year doing a craft course and are successful. Maybe you could proceed to be a mechanic, depending on what craft course you completed or maybe you could move on and complete a technician diploma. You choose the latter and after a couple years you receive a technician’s diploma and in so doing made yourself very marketable. Now to my point. Suppose this craft course wasn’t available.

When you come out of high school, what are your options? Imagine after six months, nothing. After one year nothing, maybe some odd work here and there. But this is not what you want in life. You want something better for yourself. You want to achieve more for yourself, but as you see it there is no one willing to give you a chance because after all, you are from Laventille. Well Mr Prime Minister, this is reality. Do you know by converting JSDTI and San Fernando Technical Institute (SFTI) to the University of Trinidad and Tobago you have automatically alienated a lot of youths? By converting these institutes to only offer degree courses you are eliminating many people who could make a contribution to society. Youths who can make something of themselves you are throwing them by the wayside.

Money is being spent on education, but you are leaving out a very crucial sector of society: the weaker students. I remember as a young graduate teaching at JSDTI in the early ’70s and I had students from Beetham, Morvant and Laventille. I always thought people from these areas were not academically inclined. I was dead wrong, because some of my best students came from these areas. They had a point to prove and they did it. I will sometimes meet past students and one thing they would all agree on, was how much JSDTI did for them.

NIGEL THOMAS
Five Rivers