OECS must develop and encourage the pursuit of higher education

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 – Regional educators have highlighted an urgent need for increasing access to quality, affordable, reliable and relevant tertiary education across the OECS region.

That important need was underscored at a regional Higher Education Conference which concluded in Saint Lucia on Wednesday.

In addressing a group of highly recognised regional educators at the opening of the conference, Saint Lucia's Education Minister Honourable Arsene James, emphasised the importance of having solid technical programmes in tertiary education systems across the OECS region.

“Curriculum material and subject offerings must be expanded to cater to the varied needs and interest of all our students because as you may well know, not all our students are academically inclined.”

The Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), Sir Dwight Venner, concurs with the views of the education minister, calling for OECS member states to develop and encourage the pursuit of higher education, in keeping with the broader development agenda of the region.

He says improving access to quality and affordable tertiary education in the OECS is one concern which ought to be addressed as a matter of priority, as member countries push forward with their development, and move even closer towards the establishment of the OECS Economic Union.

“Higher education will not be a passive instrument for development, it will be a state instrument for achieving development objectives. This will require a high level of coordination both of policies and sectors. It is clear in this context, that there will be an urgent need for the coordination of the education sector, but prior to that we have to decide and come to some consensus on what type of economies we want to create and the means for doing this.”

Sir Dwight Venner says although the programme approach adopted by developing countries like Germany, Japan and Singapore, may not be entirely relevant for OECS countries, there might be some important lessons which can be derived from their experiences.

The OECS Higher Education Conference is listed as the first of several major activities in the process of developing a regional education strategy as mandated by the OECS Authority.

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