IT IS NOT surprising to hear that the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic will be raising tuition fees. After all, the polytechnic is no different from the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies, which has been publicly shouting about the dire economic straits in which it finds itself.
The introduction of fees there will bring some relief.
Fortunately, our tertiary level institutions are primarily non-profit
colleges and should not institute fees that will be a burden on students, low-income or otherwise.
On the flip side, students must be prepared to bear financial responsibility for some portion of their education and training. The stark reality is that there is no free meal. The balance to which we must aspire is that we must not have a situation where students are left deep in debt and with little possibility of getting well-paying jobs upon graduation.
Many opponents of fees often overlook some of the important results which introducing or increasing fees may bring about. Hopefully, one of the major ones is that a halt is brought to the bad habit of students either dropping out before completing their degree, diploma or certificate programmes.
There are those proponents of fees who are against “a free ride” and feel that more people need to pay their way. The reality is that with its finances under stress and facing the undeniable need to cut back expenditure and balance its budget, Government will be forced to scale back on its funding
of tertiary education as had become the custom in this country over many years.
The objective must be to find more cost-effective ways to deliver quality education
to develop this island’s workforce. This will require all of our tertiary level institutes to stretch their limited dollars and pay greater attention to cost containment.
These ways will include reducing overlapping posts, reviewing the layers of top management and effectively utilising plant rather than looking towards physical expansion. The use of technology for online delivery of education must be enhanced with the objective of creating greater efficiency. We must also be able to deliver education via this method at a cheaper cost than by way of the traditional classroom.
The value of what this country’s
tertiary level institutions offer must also be seriously questioned, because what is given must be of value, in terms of both the time and money invested. After all, students want to be assured of jobs, employers want graduates properly equipped for the workforce, and the tertiary institutions must be results driven.
It is evident that, economic cutbacks or not, this country must provide equal opportunities for all our students wanting
to pursue a tertiary education or training opportunity, be it at the Cave Hill campus, Barbados Community College, the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic or Erdiston Teachers’ Training College. Clearly, all of them will need to revamp their operations
to face the new realities.
