THE EDITOR, Sir:THE PRIME Minister of St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, recently lamented the fact that Caribbean students from member states are not utilising the campus' exchange programmes of the University of the West Indies (UWI) for integration and educational advancement. For Jamaicans, it is my opinion that the problem lies with the Student Loans Bureau (SLB).
When I applied to the SLB to study in Barbados, the 2001 SLB handbook mentioned that one could receive loans for studies in faculties at any of the three campuses of UWI. In reality, the SLB only recognizes law (Cave Hill) and engineering (St. Augustine).
As a UWI graduate (Cave Hill), who benefited from the student exchange programmes, I found that, for Jamaicans ,the SLB did not honour loan applicants from the faculty of humanities outside Jamaica.
Even when the Honorary Consul-General through the Ministry of Education intervened, due to the historical significance of my presence at Codrington College, SLB denied the application.
If it was not for the generosity of the Anglican community in Barbados and a grant from Codrington College, I would not have been able to graduate with second-class honours.
With the imminent emergence of the CSME, the SLB will need to get its act together, to enable Jamaicans to benefit from studying at other UWI campuses within the region.
I am, etc.,
DUDLEY C. MCLEAN II BA (Theology)
d.mc@cwjamaica.com
