University of the West Indies consultant at Cave Hill, Barbados, Dr. Bevis Peters, has presented the master plan for the proposed National Community College to the Executive Council in Anguilla.

L-R: Rodney Rey, Dr. Peters, Mr. Evans Rogers, Ms. Clarendon, Bernice Critchlow-Earle and Dawn Reid

“The master plan is saying to Anguillians that the Government is committed to the establishment of a centre of excellence for the training of its human resources,” he told a local press briefing. “The Anguilla Government will now be joining the rest of CARICOM in providing a publicly-supported tertiary education institution on the island.”

Dr. Peters and Anguillian-born Dr. Arthur Richardson, also of the UWI Cave Hill Campus, were the authors of the original concept document on the planned community college for Anguilla.

Dr. Peters went on: “The master plan will provide for a comprehensive range of programmes. It will cater to a wide diverse group of students - whether they are school-leavers, people who want to come back to upgrade themselves or want to be just part of some kind of tertiary education experience. It will of course provide for the training of persons in the technical vocational areas – building trades, electronics, engineering etc. We are also going to incorporate to our best ability the teacher-training component and we will look to see to what extent we can provide for what is called “university transfer.”

There are sixth formers who want to go on to university, so we need to provide either the A-level programme or an associate degree that would allow students to transfer into those programmes.”

He explained that an important part of the plan was a governance and administrative structure in place to ensure that there was sufficient flexibility and accountability in the operations of the college. “We are proposing that a Board be appointed by the Minister of Education to speak to the policies of the college, oversight of programmes, fees and generally be the managing body for the college,” he stated. “A President will be appointed to provide the academic and executive leadership for the college. Under the President will be some critical core people who will be responsible for the programming aspects of the college…so the college is going to be a statutory corporation with oversight from the Ministry, but it will be mainly an autonomous body similar to what is happening in the rest of the region.”

Minister of Social Development, Evans Rogers, said the Government was committed to establishing a National Community College and to ensure that the hospitality phase is implemented by September or early October. He stated that it would take some serious work to realise the implementation of the first phase and that someone from the Ministry will be assigned to this part of the project.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Rodney Rey, who chaired the press briefing, said every effort was being made to have somewhere to begin the operations of the college by the end of September or mid October. It is understood from the Minister that the section of the Comprehensive School now being used by the Home Economics Centre may serve as a suitable location with some structural changes.

Dr. Peters was among three consultants who met with Government officials last week to discuss the college. The others were Bernice Critchlow-Earle, a consultant on hospitality training attached to the Caribbean Development Bank, and Desrie Clarendon also of the CDB. Mr. Rey expressed gratitude to the CDB for having approached the Anguilla Government to assist with the plans for the implementation of the Community College.

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