Heather RobinsonIN 1978 I was accepted by the University of the West Indies to pursue an undergraduate degree. For the first year I was a part-time student while working as an appointed civil servant. There is no doubt that any programme that combines full-time work and study is at best a very hard and tedious task. In my second year I became a full-time student with study leave and full pay for six months. When the first month's half-pay was received, I promptly returned to my place of work even before my exams were completed to ensure that there would be no more half pay. Happily my second-year results encouraged my employer to continue paying me my full salary throughout my final year and with my loan from the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB) I graduated.
The life of a student is never an easy one. During this last week Jamaica has been made aware of the situation in which some UWI students have found themselves having not paid their tuition fees. These adults have waited until the eleventh hour to seek to find a solution to this problem, which clearly is of their own making. There must be some who are desperately poor and unable to pay their fees along with their other educational expenses. There are also some who believe that the receipt of an education should be at someone else's expense. And there are some who have borrowed from the SLB and who are unable to fill the gap between the loan and the total cost of a degree in medicine.
It is on one such student that I wish to focus, realising that there are others like her of whom I am unaware. Growing up in rural Jamaica and having successfully completed nine CXC subjects with six distinctions and second year CAPE with four 1s and two 2s is an extraordinary achievement. Some believe that a child's development is to a large extent dependent on the home from which the child comes. This student is the daughter of a caring mother who does days' work as a domestic helper. Her father is absent. This student was able to develop a vision and a dream to become a medical doctor. She applied to the Faculty of Medicine at UWI, Mona and was accepted. The application to the SLB was approved. But there is a big gap between the student loan (which covers the tuition) and the other expenses.
STUDYING MEDICINE
Studying medicine is not cheap. An additional $200,000 is needed on an annual basis to cover books, supplies, living and other expenses. Thanks to the generosity of many kind-hearted and decent Jamaicans that gap has been filled for the school year 2003/2004. But this was not an easy task, and when the new semester starts for 2004/2005 the process will start all over again, including re-applying each year to the SLB. This medical student needs a guaranteed and sustained source of funding for the next four years.
MINIMUM WAGE
Corporate Jamaica has not responded well to the requests for help. How poor does one have to be to get the assistance of corporate Jamaica? Is a mother who earns less than minimum wage not poor enough? Or does a child who is bright and ambitious not worthy enough of such assistance? Does it matter that this first-year medical student has maintained an 'A' average? Wouldn't the provision of a scholarship for this student satisfy the corporate donations profile of some of the most profitable companies in Jamaica?
Perhaps the next time the board of directors of these companies meet and decide that sponsorship of a float in carnival or of a football competition is more important than knowing and ensuring that Jamaica produces another doctor, it is time enough for the question to be asked again: How poor is poor? A re-working of the corporate donation budgets could well result in a slight reduction in donations to carnival and football and a little more or indeed something for educational assistance to the very bright and poor. My instinct tells me that there is someone who cares, but did not know, and is willing to ensure that Jamaica produces another doctor.
Heather Robinson is a senior life underwriter and former Member of Parliament.
