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Davies questions state's huge spend on tertiary education
Saturday, April 06, 2002
DAVIES... should we be allocating for tertiary institutions to train persons to migrate
FINANCE and Planning Minister Dr Omar Davies has questioned whether the Government should continue spending huge sums on tertiary education, in light of the increased incidence of migration by more educated persons, as a result of globalisation.
"Should we be allocating for tertiary institutions to train persons to migrate or should I choose to reallocate and deal with the basics and skills training?" Davies asked Wednesday in an address to the opening of a three-day seminar at the University of the West Indies.
"Is it that we are going to take one-sixth of the dollar allocated to education to train persons who have no allegiance or no feeling of an obligation to help in nation building, or should we, therefore, reallocate to deal with more fundamental issues?"
Davies said that during the last fiscal year, allocation to the UWI alone accounted for 3.4 per cent of total tax revenue and 17 per cent of total allocation to the education sector.
"This means that $1 in ever $6 spent on education comes to the UWI. This compares with 33 per cent of the education dollar to primary education and 29 per cent to secondary education. For every $2 spent on primary education, $1 was spent at the UWI," he stated, adding that for ever dollar of cost of the UWI, students were paying on average less than 20 cents of that dollar.
"How much of this expenditure can be justified on tertiary education in general, and the UWI in particular, as compared with spending a larger percentage in ensuring universal literacy and improved primary education?" the minister asked.
He noted that one aspect of social policy in the changing global environment was considering "what steps should be taken to re-ignite a sense of belonging in those in whom so much has been invested".
Said Davies: "Is it that it is no longer relevant to speak of a commitment to country or region? Is it that we are producing graduates who are citizens of the world? Is it that we are preparing trained personnel who are indifferent to working in Memphis or Mandeville, Cleveland or Clarendon? If this is so, how does one make the right decision in terms of social policy to allocate resources to train persons for migration as opposed to the development of the nation state?"
He noted that Government's investment in the university could be repaid by the institution helping the country to "design the creative strategies to build on our strengths to minimise our weaknesses in order to exploit opportunities for increased production and employment resulting from globalisation".
The seminar, titled 'Enabling Human and Economic Development', is being staged by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies and ends today.
The opening ceremony at which Davies spoke also heard from Herbert Lewis, president of the Jamaica Employers' Federation, who spoke about the challenges of harmonising human resource development and economic development to complete in an ever-changing market place.
He noted that as nations sought to improve the conditions of their people through economic growth and human resource development, co-operation was needed among governments, employers, trade unions and international organisations.
"Governments cannot do everything in developing human resources for economic and social growth," Lewis argued. "The formal education system and government manpower policies may establish the environment, but it is the employee institutions which take the graduates and the unemployed and develop them on the job."
Another speaker, Lloyd Goodleigh, general secretary of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions, discussed the importance of social protection in the viability of regional markets.
Said Goodleigh: "Social protection is crucial to the viability of the single market because it represents part and parcel of the regional strategy to cope with the negative consequences of globalisation... 50 per cent of the ratified conventions in the International Labour Organisation are about social protection."
Professor Andrew Downes, director of SALISES, said that the conference brought together researchers on the various campuses to discuss research work currently being done.
An annual event, the first conference was held in Barbados in 2000 under the theme 'Alternative Development in the Eastern Caribbean -- The Role of the Services Sector', while the second conference, held in Trinidad in March 2001, was titled 'Governance in a Changing Environment'.
Several papers from the seminar have been published in the Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies and Caribbean Dialogue.
SALISES was formed in 1999 as a research and graduate teaching entity focused on economic development policy, social policy and governance. This academic year, the first batch of graduate students was admitted to the programme.
Saturday, April 06, 2002
DAVIES... should we be allocating for tertiary institutions to train persons to migrate
FINANCE and Planning Minister Dr Omar Davies has questioned whether the Government should continue spending huge sums on tertiary education, in light of the increased incidence of migration by more educated persons, as a result of globalisation.
"Should we be allocating for tertiary institutions to train persons to migrate or should I choose to reallocate and deal with the basics and skills training?" Davies asked Wednesday in an address to the opening of a three-day seminar at the University of the West Indies.
"Is it that we are going to take one-sixth of the dollar allocated to education to train persons who have no allegiance or no feeling of an obligation to help in nation building, or should we, therefore, reallocate to deal with more fundamental issues?"
Davies said that during the last fiscal year, allocation to the UWI alone accounted for 3.4 per cent of total tax revenue and 17 per cent of total allocation to the education sector.
"This means that $1 in ever $6 spent on education comes to the UWI. This compares with 33 per cent of the education dollar to primary education and 29 per cent to secondary education. For every $2 spent on primary education, $1 was spent at the UWI," he stated, adding that for ever dollar of cost of the UWI, students were paying on average less than 20 cents of that dollar.
"How much of this expenditure can be justified on tertiary education in general, and the UWI in particular, as compared with spending a larger percentage in ensuring universal literacy and improved primary education?" the minister asked.
He noted that one aspect of social policy in the changing global environment was considering "what steps should be taken to re-ignite a sense of belonging in those in whom so much has been invested".
Said Davies: "Is it that it is no longer relevant to speak of a commitment to country or region? Is it that we are producing graduates who are citizens of the world? Is it that we are preparing trained personnel who are indifferent to working in Memphis or Mandeville, Cleveland or Clarendon? If this is so, how does one make the right decision in terms of social policy to allocate resources to train persons for migration as opposed to the development of the nation state?"
He noted that Government's investment in the university could be repaid by the institution helping the country to "design the creative strategies to build on our strengths to minimise our weaknesses in order to exploit opportunities for increased production and employment resulting from globalisation".
The seminar, titled 'Enabling Human and Economic Development', is being staged by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies and ends today.
The opening ceremony at which Davies spoke also heard from Herbert Lewis, president of the Jamaica Employers' Federation, who spoke about the challenges of harmonising human resource development and economic development to complete in an ever-changing market place.
He noted that as nations sought to improve the conditions of their people through economic growth and human resource development, co-operation was needed among governments, employers, trade unions and international organisations.
"Governments cannot do everything in developing human resources for economic and social growth," Lewis argued. "The formal education system and government manpower policies may establish the environment, but it is the employee institutions which take the graduates and the unemployed and develop them on the job."
Another speaker, Lloyd Goodleigh, general secretary of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions, discussed the importance of social protection in the viability of regional markets.
Said Goodleigh: "Social protection is crucial to the viability of the single market because it represents part and parcel of the regional strategy to cope with the negative consequences of globalisation... 50 per cent of the ratified conventions in the International Labour Organisation are about social protection."
Professor Andrew Downes, director of SALISES, said that the conference brought together researchers on the various campuses to discuss research work currently being done.
An annual event, the first conference was held in Barbados in 2000 under the theme 'Alternative Development in the Eastern Caribbean -- The Role of the Services Sector', while the second conference, held in Trinidad in March 2001, was titled 'Governance in a Changing Environment'.
Several papers from the seminar have been published in the Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies and Caribbean Dialogue.
SALISES was formed in 1999 as a research and graduate teaching entity focused on economic development policy, social policy and governance. This academic year, the first batch of graduate students was admitted to the programme.
World Bank study shows that migration takes a large share of the best educated in Jamaica. In this 1992 file photo, hundreds of Jamaicans line-up outside the US Embassy in Kingston hoping to get visas. 
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