Hydel University opens its doors
http://www.hydelgroupofschools.com/news/index.html
The 17-year-old institution, Hydel Group
of Schools, has added a tertiary arm to its educational offerings.
In a ceremony
held at the school's headquarters at Ferry, St Catherine, Sunday afternoon,
Education Minister Andrew Holness officially declared the Hydel University
open.
Founder and
president, Senator Hyacinth Bennett, while welcoming the school's first set of
students who officially began classes yesterday, admitted the institution has
endured its own share of challenges.
"Hydel has
encountered a number of potentially blistering challenges," she said. "But
at Hydel we do not know how to give up, whatever happens we have kept
going."
The group
already has 11 educational departments including programmes from kindergarten
to the secondary level.
The tertiary
arm will offer degree- and diploma-level training in early childhood and
primary education on both a part-time and full-time basis.
The programmes
to be offered by the Hydel University will be geared towards pre-trained
teachers. Bennett further said, by next year, the institution will be adding a
master's level programme to its list of offerings.
Prime Minister
Bruce Golding said the new addition was an achievement for education in
Jamaica.
"I don't
know of any other institution that caters to the human being from nursery stage
through kindergarten, primary, secondary, all the way up to university. Under
one management, at one location," he said.
'University
village'
He further
pointed out that it would not be long before the institution would outgrow its
present location and committed to establishing a long term "university
village" for similar schools.
"That's
why the UDC (Urban Development Corporation), in designing the use of the
Caymanas Land, intends to reserve a section of those lands for what we want to
call, in concept, a university village," the prime minister said. "We
want to provide enough lands for these new universities to set up a proper
campus, on a permanent basis with adequate space for them to grow."
Golding added
that, in this setting, the institutions would be able to take advantage of the
support system that would be created.
"There are
various services that they would be able to share by occupying space
collectively and they would be able to reduce the heavy costs of operating a
university."
He said the
project was still in its planning stages as the UDC board and management would
need to consult with the Ministry of Education and the various institutions.
He, however, said it was an initiative that he fully supported.
Golding added:
"It is something that we want to do because this expansion opportunity for
tertiary education is something that is important to the future of this
country."
Bennett also
said students of the college would be exposed to training offered by highly
qualified and experienced lecturers, led by two of the island's outstanding
educators, Kay Anderson, retired vice-principal of academic affairs and student
matters at The Mico University College, and Dr Burnett St Clair Burton, former
vice-president of The Mico University College.
United Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA) advocate, Stephen Golding, will also join the
school's faculty in his role as Marcus Garvey chair, through which he will be
teaching the philosophies of the national hero.