this was a trade school giving specific vocation or job training. At that time, in similar fashion to the Technical Institute in Trinidad, it changed its character, insofar as its day classes were concerned, to that of a school giving a secondary education with a strong technical bent. Its night classes, or Evening Institutes, continue to provide specialized training in the manner of a technical institute for those preparing for craft examinations, and there were approximately 1,000 night school students in 1958.

The daytime program of the Kingston Technical School is 4 years in duration. Students usually enter at about age 13 from the elementary school system, by means of an entrance examination and on the payment of fees. The school is able to take only a fraction of those who apply each year. In recent years the number of applicants has run around 1,000, of whom 150 to 200 have been accepted. In 1958-59 the total enrollment of the school was about 600 to 650, about evenly divided between boys and girls.

The 4-year program has three main technical specialties-commercial and home economics lines for girls and technical and trade subjects for boys. In the first 2 years, the subjects followed are predominantly academic and are intended to round out a general education; in the last 2 years, they are a mixture of "practical” and academic. Woodwork, metal work, building construction, engineering workshop, and mechanical drawing were the principal technical subjects offered in 1958-59. Shop work in electricity, automobile mechanics, and plumbing was not available despite statements of need for preliminary training in these specialties.

Students at the Technical School generally are preparing themselves for the General Certificate of Education examinations, Ordinary Level, of the Associated Examining Board, with some taking the examination of the Royal Society of Arts in commercial subjects, and the beginning examinations of the City and Guilds of London Institute in technical subjects. Employment opportunities for those completing the program are reported to be good, with boys usually becoming apprentices in some trade and taking further training in preparation for the examinations for one of the trades or crafts. Girls specializing in the commercial course may obtain employment in business offices.

The value placed by government education planners and specialists on the type of education offered at the Kingston Technical School is attested to by the inclusion of plans for additional schools of this nature in Jamaica's 10-Year Development Plan. This Plan also includes provision for the establishment of departments of secondary technical education in existing secondary schools. Complete and de

tailed programs for the development of technical education remained to be formulated when the 10-Year Plan was announced.

General Problems and Trends

Certain of the problems and trends in technical education in the British Caribbean areas have been pin-pointed by conferences of area technical education leaders. Thus, at the First Conference of Principals of Technical Institutes and others concerned with Technical Education in the British Caribbean, held at the headquarters of the West Indies Development and Welfare Organization in Barbados in 1955, a number of these problems were discussed. Attention was given to the shortage of adequately trained teaching staff in "practical" and technical subjects at all levels and the problems involved in training them. The consensus of the views of those at the meeting was that additional teachers of "craft subjects" at the elementary level could be recruited and trained locally in Technical Institutes, though it was recognized that there was a "grievous lack" of teachers of woodwork and metal work at this level in the region. The 1957 Regional Conference on Teacher Training also considered this aspect of teacher training and came to similar conclusions, pointing out that such specialist teachers should be trained as teachers and not merely in the techniques of their specialist subjects. With respect to the advanced education and training necessary for teachers in Technical Institutes and Schools, the 1955 Technical Education Conference considered that they would have to receive such training abroad, since facilities were lacking in the Caribbean area; in the meantime, the short-term solution of the staffing problem would be to bring instructors to the West Indies.

Another matter discussed at the 1955 Technical Education Conference was the relative merits of the Secondary Technical School and the Technical Institute in meeting the needs of the area for technicians. Those at the meeting were generally of the view that the Technical Institute was more likely to be able to supply the quantities of craftsmen required to meet the urgent needs of the region. The need for sound general education as the essential background and foundation for technical education was also emphasized for both Secondary Technical Schools and Technical Institutes. It was recognized that while the programs of the Technical Institute may draw some students from Secondary Schools, the main flow of the intake may be expected for some time to come to be from Elementary, Senior, Post-Primary, and Secondary Modern Schools. There was agreement on the necessity for a preliminary pre-vocational course for all new students undertaking vocational education

at an Institute. The Conference also noted that the natural connection between technical education and agriculture should be widely recognized, and that the program of technical education should include agricultural subjects. In 1957 those concerned with technical education held their Second Conference in Jamaica and considered these matters further.

Advanced Technical Education

Not only are the British Caribbean areas concerned with the development of vocational education at the levels already discussed; but there is also interest in developing technical education and institutions at a more advanced level. Plans were already in the formative stage for the development of such institutions in Jamaica and Trinidad in 1956, when, as a reflection of this interest, a Mission on Higher Technical Education in the British Caribbean was appointed by the British Colonial Secretary in December of that year. The immediate background for the Mission's appointment stemmed from the situation in Jamaica, where both the Jamaican Government and the University College of the West Indies were planning to develop advanced courses in engineering. Thus, concern over a possible duplication of effort in engineering education and problems in the relationship between the University College and a proposed technical college prompted a study by a three-man team of British specialists of the wide field of advanced technical education in the British Caribbean. Serving as Chairman of the Mission was the Education Adviser to the Comptroller for Development and Welfare in the West Indies, and the West Indian Territorial Governments appointed representatives to serve as Liaison Officers to the Mission.

The Mission's terms of reference were "to consider proposed developments in the field of Higher Technical and Technological education in the British Caribbean in relation to present and future needs; and, in the light of probable financial resources, to make recommendations." The Mission "interpreted 'higher technical education' to mean the provision of courses of two kinds: first, courses leading to a university degree; second, courses leading to a higher certificate or to a diploma." In amplification, it went on to state that "we have concerned ourselves with the need not only for the professional engineer, architect, and pharmacist, but also for the men or women to assist them." 8

6 Luke, Sir Stephen, Comptroller for Development and Welfare in the West Indies, Development and Welfare in the West Indies, 1957 (United Kingdom Colonial Office, 1958), p. 47.

7 Colonial Office, Report of the Mission on Higher Technical Education in the British Caribbean (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1957), p. iii.

8 Ibid., p. 1.

The Mission spent about 2 months in the British Caribbean areas early in 1957. It survey the whole gamut of technical education and training in the British Caribbean, not only with reference to needs and plans at the advanced level as indicated in its terms of reference and in its interpretation of the term "higher technical education," but also at the lower and intermediate levels, and in addition gave attention to the problem of adequate general education for those pursuing technical studies. The summary of its principal recommendations are reproduced from its Report as Appendix B to this Bulletin. The extent to which these recommendations will set the pattern for the development of advanced technical education in the area was not clear in 1958-59. There were indications that it was not likely the Mission's line of thinking and specific recommendations would be followed in certain respects, although there was general recognition in the area of the need for the development of facilities for technical education at all levels. Insofar as advanced technical education is concerned, the principal manifestations of plans for developments along the lines of the Mission's recommendations were seen on 1958-59 in the opening of the Jamaica Institute of Technology (the Kingston Technical College of the Mission's Report) and in the program of the University College of the West Indies to develop an Engineering Faculty. (The former is discussed immediately below; the latter development will be included in the succeeding chapter on the UCWI.)

Jamaica Institute of Technology

The Jamaica Institute of Technology had its origin in the decision of the Jamaican Government in 1955 to establish a technical college. Its purpose is twofold, according to the Jamaican 10-Year Plan for National Development: (1) to provide trade training at various levels by serving as a technical institute for evening and night classes for apprentices and persons employed in the daytime, thereby helping to fill the need for skilled craftsmen and artisans; and (2) to provide for higher Technical Education up to pre-professional standards for full-time students proceeding to higher levels of training. Thus, the Plan called for the Institute to meet a dual purpose at different levels of instruction.

The site chosen for the Institute includes the former headquarters and facilities of the Hope Agricultural School, which is now expanded and established at another location as the Jamaica School of Agriculture. The Institute is located outside of Kingston about a mile from the University College of the West Indies. With an initial grant of £200,000 from the Colonial Development and Welfare central allocation for higher education in 1957, the first stage of

the Institute's development included the beginning of the construction of a large workshop, block laboratories, drawing offices, and residential and administrative buildings. The second stage, which it was anticipated would normally commence in 1960, was planned to include extension of the laboratory and classroom buildings for subjects such as commerce and home economics, and an additional building to provide facilities for higher level work capable of reaching to professional standards, including the theoretical work necessary for professional engineering qualifications.

Backed by the support of the United Kingdom Colonial Office and the aforementioned Colonial Development and Welfare grant, the Institute opened its doors in 1958, taking in 50 full-time students that year in the preliminary courses of a 3-year program in engineering and mechanics. The entrance requirement for these students was the presentation of the General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level, or the equivalent, in three subjects-one of the sciences, mathematics, and English language. Thus, at the outset the educational background required for students in this program was below the level generally required for UCWI or British University entrance.

In 1958-59 the nature and level of the Institute's studies and training in various programs remained to be worked out. In the same situation were possible arrangements involving a recommendation of the Mission for Higher Technical Education regarding the admission of students from other British Caribbean territories. The possibility of the Institute's establishing and using laboratory and other facilities jointly with the projected Faculty of Engineering of the University College of the West Indies, as recommended by the Mission for Higher Technical Education, was apparently precluded by a decision early in 1960 to establish the University College's Engineering Faculty in Trinidad.

Trinidad Polytechnic Institute

With respect to the development of advanced technical education in Trinidad, the Mission for Higher Technical Education recommended that the existing Technical Institute at San Fernando and the proposed new Technical Institute at Port-of-Spain, referred to earlier in this chapter, become regional Technical Colleges for the British Eastern Caribbean areas, with offerings in advanced technical and commercial education, respectively. In 1958-59, Trinidad's 5-Year Development Program did not make provision for following these recommendations. The Mission's Report did not specifically mention Trinidad's additional project for a "Polytechnic Institute," and it was not clear in 1958-59 that this institution was intended