An Anguillian scholar has offered a number of suggestions which he thinks may be useful in the development of education and related matters in Anguilla. (One such suggestion is that there is perhaps a need for the provision of a strategically-located additional high school.)
The suggestions have come from Dr Arthur Richardson, a former Professor of Educational Psychology at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies. He was at the time delivering the Commencement Address at the first graduation ceremony of the Anguilla Community College on October 29.
Speaking in relation to the proposed second high school, Professor Richardson said: “This will take into account how pupils are dispersed through the length and breadth of the island. An additional campus would certainly lend itself to smaller class sizes at both campuses of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, and should go a long way in improving the current classroom learning environment at the secondary institutions.”
Professor Richardson also recommended that it should be recognised that there was a global focus on the use of technology in education. “If we are to develop as a learning society, we should have an appreciation of the growing value of technology not only in education but in all facets of our people’s lives,” he stated.
He went on: “I would go further to recommend one strategy by which the human resource initiative may be modelled. Consideration can be given to the establishment of a Register of Graduates (irrespective of their alma mater). The Register would describe the breadth of skills and talents that can be channelled towards literacy programmes, technical workshops, guidance and counselling and towards any other human enrichment programme.
“I make this point given my own personal experience in the establishment of the Anguilla Teacher Training Institute in the early 1990s. In that instance, we utilised graduates from the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School as well as from the Civil Service to function as tutors in the programme.”
Dr Richardson also saw the Anguilla Community College as “an institution with unlimited potential”. Meanwhile, he offered this view to the 2014 graduating class which included persons with Associate Degrees and Postgraduate Certificates: “As competent and qualified graduates we ought to think of ways in which we may be able to contribute to programme development and programme delivery. But we may also want to consider other ways in which our skills can be utilised – such as community development activities. These are all ways in which we can become energised with the desire to contribute to the development of this nation.”
