ABOUT A CENTURY AGO, high schools created a divide between academic and vocational education. The choices were simple. For the most part, middle- and upper-class students went through the academic track and then on to college, to become professionals and managers.
On the other hand, people drawn primarily from working-class backgrounds went through vocational tracks to become machinists, metal workers, electricians, agricultural workers, clerks, secretaries and saleswomen. In general and mistakenly so, it was felt that those who did not achieve academic success would automatically be destined to do well with their hands. Up to today, the society still prizes academic education over “life skills”.
In spite of all the changes that we have seen in terms of the expansion of educational provisions and the universalisation of education, the divide between academic and vocational education persists.
The term technical and vocational education needs no definition. Society has the clear notion that it refers to manual and practical activities related to specific trades or occupations or vocations.
In spite of numerous attempts to debunk the myths associated with technical and vocational education, the biases, the myths and prejudices still pervade. The big secret though in favour of technical and vocational education is that what it loses in status, it gains in its higher income generating capacity.
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles recently delivered the Seventh Annual Samuel Jackman Prescod Memorial Lecture. He spoke on the theme Unveiling The Myth Of Technical And Vocational Education In Barbados. Among the many profound statements that he made was the fact that “no society has prospered without a commitment to technical and vocational training and the application of science and technology”.
Given his association with the University of the West Indies, he was well placed to speak to the historical development of technical vocational education in Jamaica in relation to the movement from CAST to Utech and the untenable situation where the latter competes vigorously with the University of the West Indies at Mona.
In his usual eloquence, Professor Beckles articulated his concerns in relation to the chronic shortage of technical skills, the lack of digital application and the lack of comprehension of science and technical education across the region. He sought to dismantle the concept of an academic hierarchy by advocating integration and the recognition that all forms of knowledge are vital to the development of our society.
He promised to initiate dialogue in which the University of the West Indies will be a strategic partner of the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic (SJPP) with both being committed to one vision. In his usual optimistic outlook, Sir Hilary boldly declared that the Wildey campus was on the verge of “a great breakthrough”.
Any breakthrough for the SJPP must bridge the age-old divide that continues to delimit its role, function and perception in our society. It must break the rivalry for public attention, while at the same time, sharing the same resources with the Barbados Community College and the University of the West Indies.
An important part of the breakthrough proposed by Sir Hilary, must be the emergence of SJPP as an autonomous institution, not in competition, but offering certificates, diplomas and a range degrees in technical and vocational education.
In short, the first and most important part of bridging the divide is to move the institution from polytechnic status to a bona fide technical university offering the full range of qualifications. As Professor Beckles puts it, how do we “empower the graduates” of the SJPP to see themselves as “the science and technology platform” that will move Barbados and the region to the next level within a global environment?
A prerequisite for bridging the divide must be a broadbased re-education programme whose objective must be to disabuse the nation’s pshche of the many warped notions and myths held about technical and vocational education.
A key part of that mandate must be to get rid of the misnomer that there is a disconnect between the brain and the hand. You see the nonsense is that technical and vocational oriented students are brainless or if they do have brains, they are not required. Ultimately then, the whole concept of skill must now be redefined.
In the final analysis, when it is recognised that a new digital technology now drives the sector, perhaps a whole new perspective of technical and vocational education will emerge. Then and only then will we be able to properly bride the divide between academics and technical and vocational education.
• Matthew D. Farley is a secondary school principal, chairman of the National Forum On Education, and a social commentator. Email [email protected]
