THE EDITOR, Sir:
I SUPPORT the call of Winston Dear, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, for the Montego Bay Community College, Caribbean Institute of Technology, Sam Sharpe Teachers' College, and the teaching section of the Cornwall Regional Hospital to merge and form the 'University Of Montego Bay'.
The western region is badly in need of a university. While I was there, I was in the fourth form of a prominent high school in Westmoreland. About half of my classes were without teachers because most of then were taking classes at NCU in Mandeville, or UWI in Kingston.
What made matters worse was the fact that the school is on a shift school system. This was bad for me because, at the time, I was preparing for my CXCs and GCEs, and I had to do most of the work by myself. This is something that also affects the school's performance, because without teachers, the work is always difficult, or it will never get done because not every student is going to be the one who teaches himself/herself.
I remember that about half of the students in the class who I think would have passed accounts at the CXC level after a short period of time didn't bother to show interest in business subjects, or changed to other vocational classes. I also had a hard time with other subject such as principles of business (PoB) and office procedure (OP), because I had the same teacher for all three subjects. It is a really big problem that the Government needs to do something about.
Before attending that school in Westmoreland, I was attending another high school in the hills of St. Catherine. The same problem existed there. I think it is still happening, because a teacher friend of mine spoke to me and told me that she is still taking classes at UWI. This is really bad.
I am, etc.,
WILLIAM MCCOOK
Florida, USA
