No Plans to Divert Funding From Tertiary Education – Holness

MONTEGO BAY — Minister of Education, Hon. Andrew Holness, has stated Government's commitment to continue to expand access to tertiary education in Jamaica.

He said contrary to public opinion, there is no plan to divert funding from the tertiary level to early childhood and primary schools, noting that, in fact, support to the sector will be increased.

“The Government is not intent on shifting expenditure away from tertiary education. I have been leading this debate in trying to stimulate understanding of the new direction in supporting tertiary education and people have interpreted that to mean that we will be shifting resources from tertiary in favour of early childhood or primary or secondary – that’s not the case,” he stated. 

Mr. Holness was speaking on August 17 at a scholarship award ceremony for tertiary level students from St. James held at the Sunset Beach Resort and Spa in Montego Bay.

According to the Education Minister, support for tertiary education is critical to national development initiatives.  

“If we are talking about creating new jobs, if we are talking about creating new industries, if we are talking about research and development, if we are talking about growing the economy, we must talk directly about supporting and expanding tertiary education,” he stated. 

“All the businesses that are sponsoring students (are making) a strategic investment … to ensure that from the labour pool, they will have persons who can help to expand the management, the research, the customer service, the marketing of their business. So it is critically important for government to maintain and emphasise tertiary education,” he noted further.

He indicated, however, that Government will be looking at new ways of providing support at this level. 

“What we will have to do is to implement a new policy. And that new policy is that the closer you are to market, and the closer you are to being employed, is the greater the cost of the tertiary burden that the student will bear.  That doesn’t mean that we will take away the funding. What it means is that we should provide greater funding by developing a credit market,” Mr. Holness pointed out.

He explained that the aim is to treat tertiary education as a tangible asset that students can use to access funds.

“So, you would have greater access to loan funding to sponsor your tertiary education.  We would remove the need, therefore, for guarantors, which, in fact, are major obstacles for many students.  We would remove this requirement that you start repaying your loan as soon as you have finished.  We would make the loan income contingent and when you get a job, that’s when you start repaying your loan. We would extend the length of your loan… so instead of giving you 15 years, we would extend to 30 years, so you would have a longer period of pay back,” he explained.

A total of 11 students from the parish of St. James, who will be attending tertiary institutions in September, were presented with scholarships totalling $1.55 million by the Rotary Club of Montego Bay East.

Minister Holness congratulated all the recipients and wished them the best in their studies.

By GLENIS ROSE, JIS Reporter