Dr Winford James
trinicenter.com

Put the University of T&T in Tobago

November 09, 2003
by Dr Winford James


Essentially in order to expand local access to university education and, rationally, to innovation, the Manning administration is planning to locate the proposed University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) at Wallerfield in east Trinidad. But other people, like Senator Ken Ramchand, mindful of the proximity of Wallerfield to the St. Augustine campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI), have called for UTT to be sited in San Fernando. I disagree with both groups: UTT should be sited in Tobago.

Apart from increasing local university access, Manning is no doubt thinking of stimulating a whole new range of economic activities on the Corridor and, specifically, of redirecting the patterns of entrepreneurship and wealth creation in favour of groups who have, systematically and structurally, been denied entrance into the centre or the ascending heights of wealth creation, whichever metaphor better captures the obscenely disproportionate economic advantage enjoyed small minorities in this country. At least, I hope he is. But Ramchand is right to question the bias towards establishing tertiary plant in the Corridor/North and against the South (where, incidentally, Manning has his personal constituency). Apart from Corinth Teachers' College and San Fernando Tech, what does South have? The Corridor/North has John Donaldson Tech, a host of COSTAATT facilities, a host of private providers of tertiary education and training, Valsayn Teachers' College, the Hospitality Institute, the Institute of Business, the Hugh Wooding Law School, and UWI, among others. Wouldn't it then be fairer to share the government sites around the island of Trinidad and give South UTT?

Fairer in the context of the island of Trinidad, yes. But what about the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, senator? And, Mr. Prime Minister, why Wallerfield and not Tobago?

It is you, Mr. Manning, who are championing 'Vision 2020' and the major initiatives to make the country - the entire country! - achieve the status of 'developed country'. And you must be aware of Tobago's developmental disadvantages over the years, many of them under PNM administrations. In particular, you must know that there is no technical institute in the island and no university; only a branch of the Hospitality Institute. You must know that, not too too unlike the ways in which the West Indies was underdeveloped by Europe, Tobago has been underdeveloped by Trinidad. How? If you must be reminded, by a long-lasting PNM policy of treating Tobago as a place not to be industrialised, but rather to be kept pristine and unspoilt, with a heavy dependence on government transfers for predominantly government services.

So that today there is little private sector activity and even littler local private sector activity. And one major recurring consequence, despite a new thrust in state-led development activity (begun in the Robinson-led THA and deepened under the Charles-led THA and now under the London-led THA), is a perennial haemorrhaging of Tobagonian intellectual talent into Trinidad and beyond from late teenage. Every year, Tobagonians emigrate in their hundreds for higher levels of training and education, and many, well aware of the low zeniths of opportunity on the island (including a fledgling private sector, non-preparedness for the big development contracts, and stagnation for years and years in the same position in the government service) do not return to work; and some who do return, in the optimism of finding materially changed conditions, find themselves obliged to retreat - again.

Imagine with me, Sir, putting UTT in Tobago. In this one master move, you would revolutionize economic patterns in the island. The island would be focused, as it has never before, on accessing university education. More Tobagonians would stay in the island and go to university. Trinidadians and other West Indians would flock the island. There would be a boom in the construction industry in the island, with student apartments, restaurants, and places of entertainment sprouting like mad. Agriculture, agriprocessing, poultry farming etc would be reinvigorated. All kinds of downstream activities would take place.

And the local population, sir, would grow towards a much more competitive size.

Think of how that initiative would help Tobago 'catch up' with Trinidad, to use a favourite development word of Chief Secretary London's. He has been talking of the need for Tobago to catch up with Trinidad - not that it is evident in any articulated framework how it might do so. But UTT is a golden opportunity to give Project Catch-up meaning. Put it in Tobago, not Wallerfield or South. It would certainly help in the achievement of 'developed (whole) country' status.

And the PNM does want to hold on to Tobago more than a little longer, doesn't it?


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