TH CHAPTER VI Technical Education HE SIGNIFICANCE attached to the development of "technical," "vocational," and "practical" education, including agricultural education, by governmental and educational leaders in the British Caribbean areas has already been noted. Although still in its infancy, this kind of education and training is receiving increasing attention and can scarcely fail to continue to expand as the demand for vocational and technological skills develops, and the value of such education is increasingly recognized. Manifestations of the trend include various developments previously mentioned, such as (1) the inclusion of "practical" subjects in the curriculum and programs of some of the regular primary, post-primary, and secondary schools; (2) the participation of the British Caribbean territories in the Caribbean vocational training program in Puerto Rico; and (3) the establishment of the position of Technical Education Adviser in the Office of the Federal Education Adviser in the new West Indies Government. In this chapter a further evidence of the trend, the founding and expansion of technical institutes and schools at both the postprimary and advanced levels will be discussed more particularly. Non-agricultural and agricultural education will be dealt with separately. Post-Primary Technical Education There have been in existence in recent years in the British Caribbean areas two types of institutions at the post-primary level for non-agricultural vocational education and training-the secondary technical school and the technical institute. The technical institute is primarily intended for vocational training in specific trades, emphasizing training for those already employed in industrial or service trades. Such persons usually receive training on released time under some special arrangement, such as an apprenticeship system, or an after-working hours schedule. The secondary technical school provides a secondary education emphasizing specialized technical subjects, but including also basic academic subjects, and does not draw its students from those already employed.1 1 The distinction is set forth in Comptroller for Development and Welfare in the West Indies, Memorandum on Technical Education in the British Caribbean (Barbados, 1956), p. 11. In accordance with this distinction in function and curriculum, there is also a distinction in the examinations for which students are being prepared. Technical institutes in the main prepare their students to take one or more of the regular external examinations attesting to their skill as craftsmen and artisans, such as the examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute, whereas the students at technical secondary schools usually concentrate first on the examinations for the School Certificate or the General Certificate of Education, including a heavy concentration of subjects with a technical bias, though by no means exclusively so. In 1954 a new type of General Certificate of Education, placing a strong emphasis on technical subjects, was developed with the establishment of the Associated Examining Board. This Board took its place with the other eight examining boards empowered to award the GCE. "Its standards are in every way equal to those of the other boards but it has been created with a view to meeting the needs of candidates whose abilities lie in the technical or practical fields rather than in arts, languages or pure sciences." 2 Such students may also take one or more of the trade or craft examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute, or the examinations of the Royal Society of Arts in commercial subjects such as typewriting and bookkeeping. They may also continue with more intensive and advanced training in a trade or craft, perhaps becoming apprenticed at that point and undertaking the kind of specialized training given in a technical institute. Each of these two main types of institutions for technical education may to some extent carry on the functions of the other. Thus, in 1958-59, there were five post-primary or secondary level institutions for technical education in the British Caribbean. In Barbados and British Guiana there were technical institutes, which as previously noted also functioned to provide a technical "stream" of subjects for regular secondary school students. In Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Honduras, there were secondary technical schools which also functioned at night as technical institutes. Barbados and British Guiana In Barbados, technical education dates from 1948 when classes for training in trades and crafts began with the opening of the Evening Institute for Adult Education. In 1955 the new Technical Institute opened its doors, with 100 day-release apprentices and 20 evening students. In 1956 the technical training work of the Evening Institute was absorbed into the Technical Institute. By 1958-59 the latter had developed three or four main types of programs. The principal emphasis was on training of apprentices in 2 Ibid., p. 14. crafts and trades on a daytime release and an evening class basis. A second emphasis was the daytime program in technical subjects for students enrolled in certain of the regular secondary schools. A third was the similar arrangement for giving training in technical subjects to certain of those attending Erdiston Teacher Training College and planning to teach such subjects. And a fourth emphasis was evening trade courses for those of more mature years who desired advanced training in their specialties. Because of the nature of these various programs, there were no students pursuing fulltime programs at the Institute. Several variations in the types of day and evening programs were available in the first and fourth categories mentioned. For those undergoing training as trade apprentices, the fields of specialization included automobile engineering, machine shop, carpentry and joinery, electric installation, plumbing, sugar factory engineering, radio servicing, welding, and masonry. Most of these fields necessitated 1 year of pre-technical study plus 5 years of technical training, normally on either a one day a week release arrangement, or an evening class basis, or a combination of the two. In 1957-58 the total number of students on roll in the various programs of the Institute was 425. A gradual annual increase in enrollment was planned, contingent upon expansion of facilities, with the maximum number of classes to be reached by 1962-63. Among the future plans of the Institute was a program of special training as "student apprentices" for those secondary school students who had included a technical "stream" at the Institute as part of their secondary education and wished to enter a technical pursuit as a craftsman. This would be a departure from the usual type of career for students who attend a secondary school. The Government Technical Institute at Georgetown, British Guiana, though organized on a larger scale than the Technical Institute at Barbados and showing some variations and additions, follows basically the same general pattern. Founded in 1951 to provide training for craftsmen and technicians, the Institute runs the bulk of its courses on a part-time day-release or evening basis. A variation of the part-time system, and one finding increasing favor, is the Block-Release principle designed to meet the needs of those from other parts of the country. This enables them alternately to work and to attend full-time courses for 12-week periods until they have completed their full training program. The Institute advises students desiring training to become apprentices with a Master licensed by the local Board of Industrial Training. This Board, as part of its scheme of training for apprentices, has approved programs of training in various Engineering and Building trades in cooperation with the Technical Institute. Usually apprentices study on the day-release basis are released by their employers one day a week to attend classes at the Institute throughout the 5 years of the apprenticeship. Both these and the 12-week Block-Release courses are designed to lead to Intermediate Examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute. Evening courses are available for those unable to secure day- or Block-Release. Several miscellaneous courses of varying duration are also available, including Telecommunications Engineering and Seamanship. The Institute requires all students planning to enroll in a regular craft course to take a preliminary course. The preliminary course includes instruction in basic and technical English, mathematics, elementary science, and technical drawing, and may be taken under a day or evening part-time arrangement. It can also be taken on an "extra-mural" basis at several extension centers in other urban areas. Entrance examinations are required and the minimum age of admission is 15. Like the Technical Institute at Barbados, its British Guiana counterpart also has programs of instruction in technical subjects and their teaching for those enrolled in teacher-training programs elsewhere. As noted it also offers instruction in these subjects for those attending a number of Georgetown secondary schools. Shorttime and special evening courses of practical instruction for adults are also offered. A total of some 1,600 persons were enrolled in the various programs of the Institute during the 1958-59 session.3 In discussing vocational education in British Guiana, mention must be made of the Carnegie Trade School for Women. Althougn the Technical Institute is open on the same basis to girls and women as to boys and men, and offers instruction to women as architectural tracers and in a few commercial subjects, its course offerings by their nature make for an overwhelming male enrollment. The Carnegie Trade School for Women at Georgetown has been operating as a center primarily for home economics instruction and training at the post-primary level since 1933. Some general education subjects are also included in the curriculum. Established and supported by a Carnegie Institution grant for the first 4 years of its existence, the school was a pioneer in the field of home economics in the British Caribbean. In recent years it has greatly enlarged its facilities and equipment and has increased its enrollment. Its regular 3-year daytime program for girls of post-primary age partakes of the nature of a technical secondary school program for girls. It also serves as a center for the instruction of women students enrolled in home economics subjects at the Government Teacher Training College, as well as for special in-service courses for teachers. In addition, it 3 "Government Technical Institute, Georgetown, British Guiana," The Caribbean, 13: 226-230, December 1959. sponsors evening and adult classes at its Georgetown headquarters and also in rural areas, and has conducted special training courses for domestics selected on a contract basis for service overseas. Trinidad and Jamaica Trinidad, Jamaica, and British Honduras are the three British Caribbean territories that have developed secondary technical schools. which, as noted, also function as technical institutes at night. In Trinidad until 1955 vocational education and training, aside from a few "practical" subjects in the curriculum of the regular elementary schools, consisted exclusively of in-service craft and trade training under the aegis of the Government's Board of Industrial Training organized in 1922. It took two forms-apprenticeship training in evening and part-time day-release classes at local "training centres" for 61 proclaimed trades, and in-service training for workers in certain industries, notably petroleum and sugar. Those receiving such training constitute the bulk of those receiving education in technical subjects in the territory. In 1956 there was a total of 3,218 persons receiving instruction in such classes in various vocational subjects. Of these, 2,809 were men and 409 women.* In 1955 the present so-called Technical Institute came into being as the only technical school administered by the Government's Education Department. It grew out of a former Junior Technical School which had been started by the Board of Industrial Training, and the latter continues to use the Institute's facilities for evening training classes for apprentices. Located at San Fernando in the heart of Trinidad's oil and industrial district, some 45 miles south of the capital city of Port-of-Spain, the Institute is in reality a secondary school and is not to be confused in its basic characteristics with the Technical Institutes in Barbados and British Guiana. Equipment for shops and laboratories was made possible by grants from Colonial Development and Welfare Funds and assistance from UNESCO. At the outset the Institute offered a 3-year secondary level program of studies combining academic and technical subjects. The program has been gradually lengthened, and in 1959 it was to become 5 years in length, preparing students for the examinations for the General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level. In the beginning stages of the 3-year program a special locally issued certificate signifying completion of the course was granted. Entrance to the Institute is by examination at age 112 or 12, the educational level on entrance being approximately the same as for the secondary grammar schools. In the fall of 1958 the enrollment of the school was about 200 students, all of whom were boys. As in the secondary 4 Government of Trinidad and Tobago, Administration Report of the Education Department for the Year 1956, p. 20. |