Senate Passes Bill To Empower Council Of Community Colleges Of Jamaica

The Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica (Amendment, Validation and Indemnity) Act, 2021 was passed in the Senate, recently.

The Bill seeks to expressly empower the Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica (CCCJ) to grant and confer academic awards and distinctions and to rescind such awards and distinctions where the Council may have good and sufficient cause so to do, and validate and confirm previous acts of the Council in granting such academic awards and distinctions and to provide for indemnification in respect thereof.

Piloting the Bill, Leader of Government Business in the Senate and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, said it seeks to make manifestly clear the authority of the CCCJ with regard to the conferral and rescission of academic awards.

She said while Section four of the  Council of Community Colleges  of Jamaica Act sets out the academic and administrative functions of the Council, “it does not capture expressly the grant or conferral of academic awards or their rescission”.

“The Act addresses the setting of standards for students, the development of curricula, holding of exams, and all other matters leading up to conferral but not expressly conferral, so the Bill seeks  to correct that situation and seeks to validate and indemnify actions taken since 1993, which is when the Council itself was formed,” she said.

Mrs. Johnson Smith explained that members of the Council, in good faith and in the purported exercise of their jurisdiction, issued awards that were authenticated by the signature of the principal of the respective college, the chairman of the Council and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry with responsibility for education.

“The Council continued this practice on incorporation until it became aware that the CCCJ Act had this particular challenge,” she said, adding that Cabinet affirmed the need for legislation to expressly empower the Council of Community Colleges to grant and confer academic awards and distinctions and to rescind such awards where the Council may have good and sufficient cause.

Senator Johnson Smith said the CCCJ is a statutory agency that operates under the Ministry of Education and was established by the Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica Act of 2001 to manage the affairs of community colleges of Jamaica.

She informed that there are 10 affiliated colleges islandwide, with an outreach of 27 locations.

“These institutions also cater to approximately 14,000 students per year and offer affordable and flexible access to tertiary programmes,” she noted.

The Minister said they offer disciplines such as engineering, digital forensics, business, hospitality and tourism management, agriculture, applied education, criminal justice, social work and psychology, “all areas important to national development and important to employment in critical areas across the island”.

In her remarks, Opposition Senator, Sophia Fraser Binns, said the passage of the legislation is important, as community colleges play a critical role as institutions of higher education, particularly in the rural areas.