Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke (right) presents a charter to the Sirlan College of Medicine
for the establishment of an offshore medical training facility for Jamaica to Dr. Bernard Lanter, principal of Sirlan College of Medicine, at King's House, St. Andrew yesterday.
Junior Dowie photo
Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT yesterday officially gave the go ahead to partners of the Sirlan College of Medicine to set up Jamaica's first offshore medical training facility.
The United States-based off-shore college, a JAMPRO-led initiative, will be setting up its campuses on the top floors of the Oceana Hotel in downtown Kingston with classes set to begin in September 2005.
Bernard Lanter, one of the principal partners of the institution, told The Gleaner that the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ) has already accredited the school. He added that the school has also received the blessings of the Ministry of Education and also the Ministry of Health.
"We have met with the accre-ditation council, (headed by) Dr. (Ethley) London who provisionally accredited our school. So, we have taken all the steps and we are going step by step to start the school properly," he said.
125 STUDENTS
Dr. Sheldon Sirota, another partner of the college, said that it hoped to begin with 125 students in the first year, offering programmes in dentistry, veterinary science, nursing science, and education. Also offered on the curriculum, he said, would be other programmes such as medical technology, pharmacy, surgery, public health, biomedical and sanitary engineering at the bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. levels.
"That is our goal, to make this a school that will conform to all of the standards and the requirements of a very highly acceptable United States and United Kingdom (U.K.) type school. We are looking to make it a very high class, high-grade operation with full time faculty and students," said Dr. Sirota.
The college will be offering four scholarships to Jamaican-born students valued at US$30,000 per year. It will also be recruiting lecturers to teach the clinical courses.
"It is our goal to get as many clinicians ... to teach the courses locally and we are going to put out feelers for those who are of quality and have had training teaching the basic sciences," he said.
Dr. Paul Robertson, minister of development said that the establishment of the school was a great moment for the country adding that, "Jamaica needs to begin to believe in itself as a country, which is knowledge-based and on which knowledge will lead us to development."
