Dionne Rose, Parliamentary Reporter
Andrew Holness
OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN on education, Andrew Holness, is batting for the Government to train persons with the intention of exporting labour in the education sector and ultimately increasing remittances received by the nation.
Mr. Holness made the recommendation during his contribution to a debate on a resolution to give the Mico Teachers' College university status, moved by Maxine Henry-Wilson, Minister of Education and Youth.
"There is a concern that when we educate people up to tertiary level in Jamaica, they migrate and so we view it from a negative perspective and I would like to challenge the (Education) Minister to look at it from a positive perspective," he told the House of Representatives on Wednesday. "Train people to increase the diaspora, which in turn increases our remittances. So we may need to look at education as an export industry."
Mr. Holness said Jamaica has the capacity to do so and, as such, should follow similar steps taken by India and Ireland, countries he said have looked at education as an export industry.
Responding to the Opposition spokesman's comments, Mrs. Henry-Wilson said the export of education was already taking place through the Caribbean Single Market (CSM). She however noted that the Government was currently looking at entering into managed migration.
'CUTTING EDGE'
She said before this can be done, the Government has to prepare the sector by placing it on the "cutting edge" of accreditation.
Meanwhile the Mico resolution, which was approved by the House, will enable the 172-year-old institution to assume more autonomous function, so that it can offer a wider range of offers in terms of diploma and degree programmes.
This will also allow the college to establish a board of directors that will be chief policy makers for the institution. It will give the board of directors of the college the power to determine the fees to be charged, after consultation with the minister.
Mrs. Henry-Wilson said the model that the Government was pursuing was to allow all teachers' colleges a certain level of autonomy in terms of affiliated relationships with other universities in order to offer degree programmes.
