The Editor, Sir:

Our educators and administrators need to consider the ramifications and full implications of their decisions. They especially need to select and choose their words and terms with a better grasp of global perspectives on education. The Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) shall end up as one more useless piece of certification, a waste of taxpayers' money and a waste of time for those who engage in this programme. Our administrators need to wake up and get with the programme. Globally the word certificate is an academic curse! They need to use the word "diploma".

The CCSLC is an excellent idea but it is cursed by its name. Any certification that is worth the piece of paper it is written on, cannot be called a certificate. It has to be at least called a diploma.

Why must our educators apologise for our standards and act as though they are afraid or ashamed? At the inception of the new teachers' diploma, the nation was told the name does not matter and it is the quality that counts. Yet despite the Education Act and the Teacher Certification Regulations bearing out its quality, public perception (rather misperception) prevailed and today too few know that a teacher's diploma by law and standard is the equivalent of a first degree and then some. The SSC and JSC are also two types of heralded certifications that went belly up. Why make the same mistake again?

I am, etc.,

MIMALLEN

mimallen@shaw.ca

Calgary AB, Canada

Via Go-Jamaica