Education System to be assessed at UTech Symposium July 19

Jamaica’s education system will be assessed at a symposium scheduled to take place on Thursday, July 19, at the Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies, University of Technology  (UTech),  beginning at  10:00 a.m.

Being held under the theme: 'Jamaica's Education System:  a Degenerative or Progressive Legacy’, the symposium is one of a number of commemorative events being staged by UTech in celebration of Jamaica’s 50th Anniversary of Independence.

Chairperson of the UTech Independence 50 Symposium Planning Committee, Sheila Coulson, told JIS News that the symposium will examine the education system in nation building and the role it has played since 1962.

“We want to focus on education broadly. Has education achieved what it was meant to achieve in terms of developing this new nation?” she said, adding that it will bring a “serious focus” to the activities to mark Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of Independence.

“We felt that at 50 years, it’s an appropriate time for not only the usual celebrations, but  also a time for serious reflection, for us to reflect on where we are, from where we have come, how far we have come and what are some of the imperatives going forward as a nation,” she said.

Keynote speaker at the Symposium is Professor Don Robotham, who is Professor of Anthropology and Director of Advanced Research Collaborative, City University of New York.   There will be a general discussion as well as a panel discussion.  

Members of the panel include Lecturer and former Head of the School of Technical and Vocational Education (SOTAVE) ,  UTech; Shermaine Barrett, Lecturer and Researcher in the field of Education Transformation at the University of the West Indies;  Dr. Disraeli Hutton and Chairman of E-Learning Jamaica Company Limited and human rights activist, Yvonne McCalla-Sobers.

Registration begins at 9:00 a.m. and persons are being asked to be seated by 10:00 a.m.

By E. Hartman Reckord, JIS PRO