Saint Lucia places the spotlight on higher education

Monday, March 22, 2010 – Saint Lucia is playing host to a regional conference on higher education, where a select group of eminent regional and international educators will present papers and discuss a range of issues relating to tertiary education.

Saint Lucia's Governor General, Her Excellency Dame Pearlette Louisy, who is a former principal of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, is among the presenters.

The conference which opened Monday night was organised given the important role of higher education to improving the competitiveness of OECS countries.

It also comes on the heels of recent decisions by several countries in the region to upgrade colleges to universities.

The three day regional conference on higher education will contribute to the development of an education strategy for the region, as mandated by the OECS Authority at fiftieth meeting in November last year.

The participants will also focus highly on increasing access to quality, affordable, reliable and relevant higher education across the OECS region.

Speaking to the GIS ahead of the conference, the education minister reaffirmed government's commitment to facilitating higher education for all citizens.

Minister James says this is evident by government's plan to transform the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College into a university.

“The Government of Saint Lucia advocated Universal Secondary Education so that every child will receive an opportunity to attend a secondary school and because of that there is need to transform the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College into a university college to meet the expectations of those students who would move from secondary school and want to pursue tertiary level education,” the education minister said.

“As you know airfares are very high and the cost of university education abroad is also very high, so not many of our students get a chance to travel abroad to attend college or university. A university college will give more opportunities to our students who graduate from secondary school. Our only problem is finance, because the global recession has made difficult but we are committed and we are doing all in our power to ensure that this happens.”

Minister James along with the Director General of the OECS Secretariat, Dr Len Ishmael, delivered speeches at the opening of the conference.

Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, Sir Dwight Venner delivered the keynote address.

The higher education conference is organised by the OECS Secretariat with assistance from the University of the West Indies, the World Bank, UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning.

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