by the British Government from Colonial Development and Welfare Funds. In addition, the new Principal reported in November 1959 that BWI $1,500,000 would be granted by the Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development, and that the remainder of the $20,000,000 needed would come from the Federal Government of the West Indies, Foundations, and other private sources. In this connection a fund raising project was launched in the United States late in 1959 under the name of "The American Friends of the University College of the West Indies." 18 Its Department of Education In view of the overall educational problems and needs of the British Caribbean areas, the role of the University College's Department of Education in helping meet these needs merits particular attention. Broadly considered, the work of the Department of Education since its establishment in the early 1950's has fallen into three main categories: (1) professional training for existing or prospective secondary school teachers leading to the Diploma in Education; (2) research on educational problems in the Caribbean; and (3) various types of services, advice, and consultation on educational matters at all levels to Governments, educational institutions, and teachers of the area-activities which are sometimes collectively referred to as the "Institute functions" of the Department. To carry out these various responsibilities, the Department has had a small staff, which in 1958-59 consisted of one part-time and four full-time teaching members, and one Research Fellow. Plans for an increase in the staff were being made in 1959. As part of the expansion two new Research Fellows were appointed to begin their duties in the fall of that year, not only in connection with the research program but also with respect to the other functions of the Department.19 To the first and third of the aforementioned functions special attention will be paid here. The second, or research function, is exemplified by the establishment of the Department's Centre for the Study of Education and research projects of staff members on various education problems in the British Caribbean. The emphasis in research is on the practical problems of the area. With respect to the first function mentioned, the 1-year course for the Diploma in Education is intended primarily as professional training for secondary school teachers who are already "graduates," i.e., who hold an undergraduate degree in a subject specialty. This 18 UCWI Newsletter, No. 813, Dec. 7, 1959. 19 UCWI Newsletter, No. 286, June 1, 1959. 551394-607 1-year course began in 1953 and the first Diplomas in Education were awarded in 1954. This was in line with the recommendation for the Irvine Committee that the University College establish such a course and award its own Diploma. As indicated, this Diploma, like the College's 1-year Diploma in chemical technology, is awarded by the University College in its own right and not, as in the case of regular degrees, by the University of London. The program for the Diploma in Education "is designed to provide a broad preparation for teaching with particular emphasis on the study of education in the British Caribbean in the light of an understanding of educational theory and practice in Western countries." 20 The main fields of study offered in 1958-59 were Principles and Philosophy of Education, Child Development, History and Sociology of Education, Methods of Teaching (including the teaching of subject specialties), and Practice of Education. To be admitted to the examinations for the Diploma, a student had to be a graduate of an approved university, pursue an approved program of studies of at least 1 year, and pass an examination consisting of two parts on (a) the theory of Education and (b) the practice of Education. The number of students enrolled in the course for the Diploma in Education over the period 1953-59, inclusive, has previously been given with the University College's general enrollment figures. The greatest number studying for this Diploma in any one year was 32 in the year 1958-59. At the beginning of the year 1959-60, 20 students were enrolled. From 1954, when the Diploma was first granted, through 1959, a total of 104 students received the Diploma.21 In 1959, 28 students, the largest number in any one year up to that time, received the Diploma. This figure included 10 each from the two territories of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, with the others from Antigua, Barbados, British Guiana, and St. Vincent. Although the idea that teachers in secondary schools need professional training is comparatively new in the British Caribbean and the facilities for this purpose at the University College are limited, professional opinion in the area looks to their expansion. Thus, the 1957 Regional Conference on the Training of Teachers recommended "that the University College of the West Indies should arrange for an early increase in the number of students reading [i.e., studying] for the Diploma in Education to at least fifty." 22 Of at least equal significance, in view of the fact that less than 50 percent of secondary 20 UCWI Calendar, 1958-59, p. 85. 21 This figure is based on the number shown in the UCWI Calendar for 1958-59, p. 106-7, plus those receiving the Diploma in 1959, as given in the UCWI Newsletter, No. 292, July 13, and No. 304, Oct. 5, 1959. Teacher Training Conference Report, p. 23. teachers were holders of university degrees at that time, was the Conference's recommendation "that the UCWI should provide a 1-year course similar to the Diploma in Education involving a study of local educational problems, for a limited number of non-graduate teachers holding or capable of holding positions of responsibility." 23 The initiation of such a program would, of course, require a change in the University College's requirement that those admitted to the Department of Education must have a university degree. During the early part of the 1959-60 academic year, it had not been possible to take steps to implement these two recommendations of the 1957 Conference, and it appeared that expansion of the Department of Education's facilities in this connection awaited consummation of the overall expansion program of the College. Within the Department there was also some consideration in 1958-59 of the possibility that its programs of professional training might better be spread over a 2-year period and worked in with simultaneous academic preparation. Long-range thinking in the Department also looked to the development of programs of more advanced work in Education and the granting of advanced degrees. The service, advisory, and consultative functions of the University College's Department of Education (which are not confined to secondary education) partake, as indicated, of what are sometimes referred to as Institute functions, since they resemble some of the functions of an Institute of Education as found in British Universities. Such an Institute had not yet been established at the University College in 1958-59, though under a 4-year grant from the Carnegie Corporation in 1954, a start had been made by the College in undertaking certain functions of an Institute of Education. One of the recommendations of the 1957 Teacher Training Conference was that the UCWI should develop such an Institute with broad functions, in cooperation with Governments and Training Colleges.24 The service, advisory, and consultative functions of the Department of Education have embraced such matters as (1) sponsoring education conferences; (2) assisting in in-service short courses, workshops, and seminars for teachers, often as part of the program of the University College's Extra-Mural Department, which is discussed in more detail in the next chapter on adult education; (3) giving assistance to the individual territories in assessing the courses, syllabuses, and examinations of Teacher Training Colleges; and (4) providing general advice to territorial Departments of Education and institutions. Examples of conferences sponsored or co-spon 23 Ibid., p. 24. 24 Ibid., p. 26. sored by the College's Department of Education have been the meeting of Heads of Secondary Schools in the British Caribbean in 1955, the 1957 Regional Conference on the Training of Teachers in the British Caribbean for which numerous of the working papers were prepared by staff members of the Department of Education, and a Conference on Selection of Students for Secondary Education in April 1959. One type of short in-service programs sponsored by the Department of Education has been general training courses for teachers in primary and all-age schools, usually organized in cooperation with territorial Departments of Education, Training Colleges, and Teachers Associations. Other in-service programs have dealt with specific problems, such as (1) the teaching of younger children, using the results of studies and research carried out at the University College, and (2) the teaching of specified secondary school subjects as exemplified by a short course for teachers of history on the desirability and problems of teaching West Indian history. As a result of the last-named course, the College's Department of Education produced a source book on West Indian history for use in the classroom. The 1957 Regional Conference on Teacher Training asked the University College to run more such courses in consultation with Government Education Departments, and envisaged the development of a more comprehensive system of in-service teacher training generally, in collaboration with the University College.2 25 Advisory assistance by the College's Department of Education to Teacher Training Colleges in formulating their programs, syllabuses, and examinations is exemplified by the cooperative program in British Honduras and Jamaica whereby staff members of that Department have worked with governmental and institutional representatives in certain phases of this work. One of the recommendations of the 1957 Teacher Training Conference was that, while the University College should not take over the function of examining students in Teacher Training Colleges and of issuing teaching certificates, it "should offer advice on the training of teachers, and assessment of the work of training colleges, on request and with full consultation." 26 The Conference also recommended that the UCWI should assist in the writing of a manual on the training of teachers to guide those so engaged. Among the other functions it recommended for a new Institute of Education at the UCWI was assistance in the development of a regional system of qualifications for teachers. The generally comprehensive nature of the consultative and advisory work of the University College's Education Department is 25 Ibid., p. 31. 26 Ibid., p. 25. illustrated by a tour of certain of the West Indian Territories undertaken by a staff member in 1959. This involved (1) consultative services on future programs of study at the new Leeward Islands Teacher Training College at Golden Grove in Antigua and at Erdiston Training College in Barbados; (2) the conducting of two courses for head teachers in Dominica; and (3) the planning of a 10-week summer training course in Grenada on the teaching of young children. The University College observed in connection with this tour that the different territories were making "more and more demands for help and advice in all aspects of education." It went on to state that the College's Education Department "was not yet staffed nor equipped to grant many of the requests, but it will obviously need to develop along lines which will enable such work to be carried on as an organised and systematic contribution to education in the West Indies." 27 A further example of the service role of the University College's Department of Education is the assistance it can render the Federal Government of the West Indies in advising the latter and representing it at conferences on educational matters. Thus, the head of the College's Education Department and the Federal Education Adviser served as the Federation delegates to the British Commonwealth Education Conference in July 1959, the UCWI having been asked by the Federal Government to nominate one representative.28 Community Service Activities Various community service activities and projects of the University College and its staff members in fields other than education also give evidence of its role in helping meet practical community needs. These are in addition to activities falling under the ExtraMural Department of the College, which are discussed in the next chapter. Among examples of such activities reported in the issues of the UCWI Newsletter in 1959 May cited the following: (1) research projects by the College's Chemistry Department on medicinal plants of Jamaica, the refining of salt from sea water, and improved methods of making charcoal (the principal fuel for family cooking in the Caribbean); (2) a 1-day refresher course on Diabetic Management sponsored by the College's Department of Medicine and Teaching Hospital; (3) a 5-week Seminar at the College on Economic Development in the Caribbean area as a whole, which was co-sponsored by the College and the Economic Development Institute of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and 27 UCWI Newsletter, No. 278, Apr. 6, 1959. |