SO Internationally respected health expert and Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Sir George Alleyne, chose to end his public silence last week on the ongoing controversies over the Barbados Government’s decision to terminate, from the 2014 academic year, tuition-free education at the Cave Hill Campus.
Sir George may have succeeded, as I understand it, in more than just disappointing the estimated 6 000 plus Barbadian students as well as the campus’ management and staff for failing to reflect at least some of their own concerns about continuing disregard by government for the consultative process.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart would be encouraged by Sir George’s endorsement of the announced decision in the 2013 budget – without any prior consultation with the UWI campus – to introduce the new policy for payment of an annual 20 percent tuition fee by students while the government covers 80 per cent of economic cost.
At the core of this problem is not opposition to the right of a democratically elected government to introduce its cost-sharing tuition fee policy, confronted as it is with widening fiscal and economic challenges. What is most perplexing is the failure on the part of government to show any interest in the consultative process that remains a cardinal feature of democratic governance.
And Minister of Education, Ronald Jones, in particular has been quite unhelpful in a public presentation on September 15, that equated National Hero Errol Barrow’s free tertiary education vision as one to avoid “the middle class of Barbados never taking responsibility for themselves . . .” (Daily Nation, September 16). What a gross misconception!
It is even more disturbing to know that long before Finance Minister Chris Sinckler’s 2013 Budget presentation disclosed the new tuition fee-paying scheme, Mr Jones was in possession
of a seminal report, commissioned by the Ministry of Education, on a “framework for the reform of tertiary education in Barbados”.
Grounded in a vision for “creating knowledge-based households in Barbados”, the report was submitted as The Beckles’ Commission on Higher Education (named after its chairman, Sir Hilary Beckles, pro-vice-chancellor and Principal of the Cave Hill Campus).
It is recognized as a timely contribution by a team of tertiary level professionals and practitioners from four local campuses – Cave Hill; Barbados Community College; Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic and Erdiston Teachers’ College. Among the recommendations is one for a new cost-sharing model with 85 per cent contribution from Government; ten per cent
by the private sector and five percent by the “consumers” (students).
Students are already paying $800 annually as social amenities fee–(no ‘freeness there) – that amount to some six million dollars yearly for operations of the Cave Hill campus. So why the prolonged lack of consultation by the Government on its tuition fee-paying decision in the context of the a new financing model for the Cave Hill Campus as proposed by the Beckles Commission?
Ultimately, the reluctance to engage in dialogue with the Cave Hill Campus on the coming 20 per cent tuition fee could engender bitterness and disillusionment when goodwill and commitment for shared national objectives seem so essential.
