Rationalisation worries students, teachers

Some students attending teachers' colleges find the Ministry of Education's rationalisation of the teacher's colleges to be highly "unfriendly" them, claiming that it will increase the cost of education.

The rationalisation, which channels student-teachers to schools which offer specialised education instead of a wide range of subjects, has also not made some lecturers at these institutions happy because they see the move as a threat to their jobs.

William Darling, a student of the Sam Sharpe Teachers College, told The Sunday Gleaner recently that the move would increase the cost of education to students. He said that students whose programmes will take them away from their communities will have to factor boarding and transportation costs into their budget.

"This may be cost-effective for Government but not for us," he said. "Students will have to pay to live elsewhere or increase the costs of their transportation." The rationalisation programme, which starts in September, is aimed at easing the undersubscription of some courses, which had resulted in class sizes of four and five students when an ideal number is 15. It is also designed to cut the cost of running the schools.

But notwithstanding the apprehension of the students and lecturers, the Government is commending itself for a programme which it conceptualised in 1995 and said was cost and quality effective. According to Philbert Dhyll, director of the Tertiary Unit at the Ministry, "costs to students were considered but available resources is a greater informant of the Ministry's decision.

"We have made changes that will maximise the human and infrastructural resources available, students will receive higher quality training in specialised institutions, and quality cannot be sacrificed to make education cheaper to students."

Mr. Dhyll said that there was an influx of teachers in areas such as social studies and history, while a shortage exists for mathematics and computer. This will be curtailed by rationalisation, he claimed.

Critical subjects

"The schools are selected to offer the programmes that the national educational system needs, this ensures that space will be available for those who want to focus on critical subjects such as math, geography and computer," Mr. Dhyll said recently.

But Corine Ellis, a student of the Shortwood Teachers College in St. Andrew was concerned about the future. She feels that lecturers will be faced with job cuts in the long run, which will threaten her own employment opportunities.

"Lecturers who get cut out of the system now, will more likely to get a job at a high school than I would be, and if they are out of work then I am going to have to compete with them for jobs," she said.

A lecturer at a teacher's college in Kingston, who did not want to be named in this story, said: "We hear that there are going to be staff cuts but we're still not sure what's happening, of course we are insecure."

However, to allay fears of staff cuts communications officer at the Ministry of Education, Edwin Thomas states that "horizontal and vertical shifts in staff are more likely than cuts." He admits though that "the effect of rationalisation is not fully known at this time," and added that "the impact won't be felt for another two years anyway."

This is so as first and second year students presently in the college system will be allowed to finish the programmes, hence securing the positions of students and teachers.

To facilitate the introduction of the programme in September, colleges have been linked electronically to form a database accessible by all. Applications will be stored in the database, enabling colleges to simultaneously identify, select or refer qualified students.

Mr. Dhyll told The Sunday Gleaner that "the computers are in place and would allow electronic cross-referencing of students. Money has also been allocated to schools to hire personnel to man these computers."

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