What About The Community College?

Sometimes things have a way of popping up and causing much excitement to everyone and then, before long, nothing more is heard about them and one is left wondering what has happened. So it appears in the case of the proposed Tertiary Community College which received overwhelming support from stakeholders and other persons in Anguilla when it was first publicly mentioned in January this year.

Six or seven months may not be a long time since such a welcome project was spoken about. However, it is thought that because of its importance to Anguilla, as a developing island nation, and the need to further develop our young people, that the project should be constantly kept before the attention of the public.

What is known so far is that at the request of the Anguilla Government a study was undertaken and presented by two officials of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies. They were Professor Arthur Richardson of Anguilla, who is the Director of the School of Education and Coordinator of the Learning Resource Centre there; and Dr. Bevis Peters, Director of the Tertiary Level Institutions Unit for External Studies and Programmes. The Government was said to be fully committed to the project and was pleased with the support it was receiving from all and sundry.

Under the proposal, the college would cover a variety of technical, vocational and academic areas including the humanities. There would be credit and non-credit programmes. The latter would include certificate, diploma, undergraduate and bachelor level studies. The Sixth Form would be incorporated under the umbrella of the college. As part of the consultancy, by the two gentlemen, an audit of available academic and technical qualified persons would be undertaken aimed at developing a staff for the delivery of the college programmes. Even sources of funding appeared to have been sorted out for the institution.

The proposed project may have surfaced again in the minds of some of our people with the graduation of the Sixth Form students, on Tuesday this week, after two years of A-level studies at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School. It is understood that a number of them are planning to further their studies at various institutions abroad and among them will be those whose relatives can ill afford the expense and other difficulties involved. The day that Anguilla has a higher institution of learning will be a relief to many of our people whose children will be able to remain within the comfort and safety of their island and achieve a college level education.

Anguilla is among the few Caribbean islands without adequate facilities and systems for tertiary education. Such a college would signal a new thrust in educational advancement on the island. It would give children, from the cradle roll upwards, a desire to aspire to achieve a first and, perhaps, a second degree on home ground. It would provide a quick opportunity for Sixth Form graduates to continue their academic pursuits at home rather than wasting precious time in under-paying jobs or, for that matter, being unemployed. It would help to solve some of the frustrations of our ambitious youth. Anguilla would be on par with other regional islands with advanced educational facilities as it seeks to develop its people on all fronts.

We hope that more information will soon be forthcoming on the proposed Tertiary Community College and that it will not be long before the project becomes a reality. Anguilla is facing considerable odds on every hand. It must seek to create a niche for itself and its people in the global environment. Anything it takes to accomplish this must be explored with all haste. The community college is one of those things we must achieve.