SUNDAY 6TH DECEMBER, 2015 – UWI TODAY
3
EDITORIAL TEAM
CAMPUS PRINCIPAL
Professor Clement Sankat
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Dr. Dawn-Marie De Four-Gill
EDITOR
Ms. Vaneisa Baksh (
)
CONTACT US
The UWI Marketing and Communications Office
Tel: (868) 662-2002, exts. 82013 / 83997 or email:
Values in Education
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Only a few weeks ago
The UWI
St. Augustine Campus celebrated
a lmo s t 4 , 0 0 0 g r a du a t e s ,
comprising both undergraduate
and graduate students. While
it is always a wonderful feeling
to present these academically
successful young citizens, who
must now take their place in
society; wemust continuously ask
ourselves if we have adequately
equipped them with the resources they require to be truly
noble, respectful, and positive contributors to our society.
We witness ever so often, in many places of the world,
and even in our own country, many persons who have
travelled this road of academic success; but are in many
instances, influenced by a moral compass that manifest a
value system that is less than desirable, and sometimes even
damaging to society and humanity.
There is a pervasive view in our country that education
is principally about maintaining an academic qualification,
and about certification. But it must be more than this; it
is also about the values that will help to shape exemplary
citizens who can contribute not only to self-development,
but also to national development which is equally important.
While there has been an almost universal clamour for
skills development as we prepare them for the world of work,
we must not forget to prepare them for the world of living, of
sharing and giving, of respect for life and our rich diversity, of
caring, loving and of compassion. Without this preparation,
our society will be torn apart through competition, greed,
insatiable desires, bigotry and evenworse, loss of life through
acts of violence; as we are witnessing here, and in the world.
To this end, education must be about the development of
the whole, of body and soul, so that we create a future where
there is hope for peace, progress and happiness. Continuing
to do the same in our educational system, will bring the same
results at best, but the reality may perhaps be far worse. The
intervention, based upon an inculcation of universal values,
therefore cannot wait.
I believe that acquiring professional skills will not be
enough for our students to lead successful and meaningful
lives; these professional skills must be enhanced and guided
by a strong set of morals and values. Values such as honesty,
integrity, fairness, compassion, goodwill, caring for the
environment and for the less fortunate, respect for human
life, self-control, discipline, self-restraint, resolve, diligence,
fortitude, humility, respect for the rule of law, respect for life
and respect for one’s religious beliefs and traditions.
Although I have said that values education must be
inculcated in our higher education institutions, I do also
wish to emphasize that values education must be instilled
at every level of our education system; in our pre-schools,
primary and secondary schools as well as our universities
and other educational institutions. In other words, habits to
life and livingmust be formed early and reinforced steadily at
every stage. I think it would be remiss of me if I do not also
mention that our ‘homes’ have a formative responsibility. It
is in the institution of family that one first learns obedience,
respect for parents and the elderly, manners and love. It is
the institution of family that provides protection, guidance,
instruction, correction, affirmation and support. It is in the
family that you learn right from wrong. If we lose sight of
the important role of the family in society, we will put our
society at risk. In this context, we must all do our part in
our homes and in our institutions.
As an institution of higher education, while we
concentrate on education for progress and development, we
must also ensure that we pay attention to strengthening the
foundation of our students through the infusion of moral
and ethical principles while at university – for our graduates
and students will continue to become leaders in our society
as they are today. Moral and ethical principles certainly
would not suddenly appear when they enter public life; it
should therefore be initiated during their formative years,
at the time that they pursued their various courses of study.
Our institutions should also prepare our students for
a life of servant-hood. One of our former Prime Ministers,
the late Dr. Eric Williams, known to many as the ‘Father’
of our nation, at an historic inaugural occasion, as he
addressed the first graduating class of independent UWI in
Jamaica in 1963, told the graduates, “this education qualifies
you to work for the community.” He was encouraging our
graduates to understand that they must see it as their duty,
their responsibility to society, to use their knowledge and
skills to provide service.
We must always remember that there can be no greater
education of a person, than to teach the right way to live.
I propose to you, that this is what character education and
individual virtue is all about.
CLEMENT K. SANKAT
Pro Vice-Chancellor & Principal
CAMPUS NEWS
Did you know that
it is quite likely that Trinidad and
Tobago may never have a population size of 1.4 million
persons? Or that the size of the population of Trinidad
and Tobago may peak in the mid-2020s and begin
declining before 2030?
In 2000, the national census revealed that the size
of the population of Trinidad and Tobago was in the
vicinity of 1.26 million with 7% of the population being
65 years or older. Today, the population size of Trinidad
and Tobago is in the vicinity of 1.36 million with 9%
being 65 years or older. By 2055, population size will
have declined and is projected to be in the vicinity of 1.26
million but with 23% aged 65 years or older.
Our population dynamics will continue to spring
surprises on us, yet we continue to ignore such dynamics.
Interestingly, the invisible hand of such dynamics may
either result in our children and grandchildren praising
us or blaming us.
In Trinidad and Tobago, there has been very little if
any reverence for demographic and population-related
data that meet the full needs of professionals in the
area. Yet key decision-makers including some members
of the technocratic arm of the public sector and even
politicians, give little or no priority to the development
of such statistics, rendering human processes vulnerable
in the face of growing social problems. In essence,
these statistics constitute the only hope towards validly
approximating the facts associated with such problems
if they are to be remedied.
In January 2016, the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of
Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) will hosting a
conference,
“Population Issues and Dynamics in Trinidad
and Tobago: Theory, Practice and Policy for Post 2015
SDGs.”
The organizing group, the Caribbean Research
Cluster for Population and Sustainable Development,
is one of several research clusters associated with the
Fifty-Fifty Research Initiative that was established in
SALISES in 2012.
This will be the first of a series of country conferences
to be organized by the Cluster and it seeks to explore a
wide array of population issues that have affected
development prospects in Trinidad and Tobago.
Subsequent conferences will embrace a similar model
focusing on jurisdictions, specifically independent and
non-independent states mainly in the Anglophone
Caribbean.
It targets the public sector, private enterprise,
non-government organizations, community-based
organizations, faith-based organizations, grass-roots
organizations and especially students pursuing CAPE
studies and further tertiary level education.
Rarely, if ever, do local career guidance seminars
feature professions such as
“statistician,” “demographer,”
“research scientist”
or
“development policy analyst”
as
alternative professional career options for young persons.
CAPE graduates will be exposed to the activities and
potential contributions of such professionals and as
such, consider such options among their wide array of
career choices.
The three-day conference is scheduled for January
7-9, 2016 at the Learning Resource Centre, The UWI,
St. Augustine.
(Godfrey St Bernard)
Our Population
Dynamics
