May 29/2003: - A date has been set for the official opening of the Dominica State College, the Sun can reveal.

    The official opening is set for July 25th, almost one year after the local tertiary institution began operations, Education Minister Roosevelt Skerritt has confirmed.

    "The college staff is working on (finalising) the programme (but) the opening is on July 25th," Skerritt told the Sun.

    The college began operations in September 2002. College officials wanted to host the official opening in January 2003, but there were some difficulties with the intended date, stated Skerrit. A date in March was also considered but that too, proved problematic.

    "We wanted it in March but the Prime Minister was unavailable and we really want the Prime Minister to be there. Also some of the guest speakers who we had identified couldn't make it," the education minister said.

    The college was beset by problems in the early days with differences between the initiators and officials of the ministry of education threatening to stymie its development. The education ministry officials complained that they were being kept in the dark while the management committee accused the officials of being lazy.

    There was also questions about fees and uniforms and the opening of the college.

    However, Skerritt said those problems were behind them and college was set to become "one of the biggest achievements in Dominica since independence."

    "There were teething problems," Skerritt admitted, "but those things have been dealt with. As you go along you will find there are problems to be addressed. We were not surprised at the teething problems," the minister told the Sun.

    He said that in the six months since the college a lot more Dominicans have had the opportunity to further their education, particularly in nursing and education.

    For example, stated the minister, a pre-nursing programme has been introduced to allow people who fall short of the requirements the enter the nursing programme an opportunity to qualify.

    "We never had a pre-nursing programme and now have 53 people in the pre-nursing programme," he said, adding that Dominica had to seek to deal with the problems posed by the recruitment of its nurses by the metropolitan countries.

    In addition, he said, there were over 75 people in the certificate in primary education programme in comparison to an average of 25 before the opening of the college.

    The ministers said that under the Stabex programme, EC$1.6 million was set aside for training in tourism and hospitality, including certificate and associate degree programmes.

    The college will pilot core curricula being developed by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) for Caribbean tertiary institutions offering tourism/hospitality at the associate degree level, the Sun was told.

    The CTO, through the Caribbean Tourism Human Resource Council, contracted two consultants last year to develop the core curricula and a final report is due any time now, with piloting scheduled in September.

    "Dominica is very carefully following the activities that we are engaged in in the council, said Bonita Morgan, CTO's director of human resources.

    "They are developing their state college to be able to offer tourism and hospitality programmes at the associate degree level so when they heard that we were engaged in this activity of reviewing, revising and developing core curricula for this programme they said they would put their programme on hold so that they can benefit from the outputs of our programme.

    "So they have been involved from the very start in our discussions about this revised curriculum for this associate degree programme and they have telegraphed very early that they want to be one of the pilot institutions that implements the programme in September 2003," stated Morgan.