Are scholarships assisting in the brain drain?

20.MAR.08

EDITOR: The exodus of highly trained professionals: nurses, doctors, teachers, attorneys, electrical engineers from our island has reached its zenith.{{more}}

In the early to mid-1980’s, I was a student at the St Vincent Grammar School. This term a math teacher, next term another. Things were even worse at the rural secondary schools. Some students stayed even an entire term without some of the most vital teachers.

The word brain drain was foreign to me. I later found out the meaning of it when my brother went off to Mona, Jamaica, and never returned.

As a civil servant in St Vincent during the early 1990’s, I started to lose workmates as scholarship awardees. I now live in the USA and got the chance to meet quite of few of them. Naming just a few, they are: an airport developer in Ohio, a doctor in a reputable hospital in Georgia, and an electrical engineer in New York City. After pondering all of this, I ask myself, is it the pasture or the money that is greener?

So what will happen to all those scholars who have gone off to Malaysia, the UK, Taiwan, and even in the region? I am quite optimistic that our human capital will be beefed up by their hopeful return.

Remember, we have quite a large number of young men who have already traded their skills and strength for positions in the British military. Let’s work hard to keep our sons and daughters of the soil at home.

I am hoping that our soon to come international airport will be a boost. I remembered listening to a SHAKE UP radio programme while I was home for the New Year’s. The Announcer boasted about a few good scholars now serving our people. He mentioned Mr Derry Williams of the National Commercial Bank, young lawyer Marks, Lawyer Stapleton and many others.

Well, that’s a blessing.

Son of the soil
TV Charles