More Educational Opportunities for Saint Lucian Students

Contact: Rose Marie Harris

Wednesday, November 28, 2001 - A number of Saint Lucian students will have the opportunity to study at the State University of New York (SUNY) soon.  An invitation has been extended to the Government of Saint Lucia to take up the many educational opportunities being offered by that university.

Dr. Donald Peters of SUNY, who was on island earlier this week, said Saint Lucia is the second Caribbean country to be given such as opportunity.   The initiative, he explains, began with Dominica, and St. Vincent will be the third Caribbean country to benefit.

“The State University of New York is a liberalised university and offers majors in sixty four areas, including most arts and science, biology and chemistry subjects and we have professional studies which include nursing, physiological, communication arts, computer science and international business.  We are a creditable university and we are well known all over the world.”

This new development in education is the brainchild of Dominica’s Minister for Education, Honourable Roosevelt Skerrit.  According to the Minister, Saint Lucia and Dominica face similar challenges in developing the young mind.

“I can assure Saint Lucians that the State University of New York can provide them with assistance not only in scholarships but in other areas in terms of training staff and personnel and it’s a good challenge for us in the region and with the whole process of OECS integration and the whole reform that we are doing in education, we have to come together and shared our experiences,” said the Dominican Education Minister.

Saint Lucia’s Permanent Secretary in the Department of Education and Human Resource Development, Dr. Didacus Jules, has commended the iniative by the Dominican Minister for Education and SUNY to incorporate St. Lucia in this new drive and says plans are afoot to develop the programme in a more structured way.  

“We are now discussing too, the signing of a collaboration agreement between the State University of New York and the ministry so that we can have a structured programme of partial scholarships and, we are hoping, a couple full scholarships that will be based on academic merit and needs assessments to be implemented over the next five years,” Dr. Jules said.

For parents and students interested in this new initiative, further information may be obtained from the Ministry of Education, Human Resource Development, Youth and Sports.

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