Newsday

THIS newspaper is firmly against any programme designed to offer preferential treatment to any ethnic group in our society in whatever area of endeavour. Our view is that establishing a meritocracy is the best course for our people, that personal and group success should be achieved by dint of effort, application, training, education, ability, skill and talent, and that the opportunities, as far as the acquisition and use of these attributes are concerned, should be opened to all and equitably applied.

Whether or not we achieve the status of a developed nation by 2020, this is the route we believe our country should be taking. Any deviation from the principles and goal of a meritocracy, in our opinion, would be asking for trouble. This is why we were quick to condemn the stated policy objective for the proposed College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts which would “establish targetted recruitment programmes for male Trinidadians aged 17-24, especially Afro-Trinidadian males.” In opposing such an ethnically biased policy, however, we made a point en passant which we would now like to develop into the main concern of this editorial. This is what we stated on Sunday October 26: “In our view, all that is required as far as tertiary education is concerned is to ensure that the procedures for entry are manifestly fair, that they operate without bias or prejudice, that the set criteria are applied equitably to all applicants.”

While on the one hand we are opposed to any form of affirmative action with respect to entry into the country’s tertiary or other educational institutions, we must insist, with equal force, that procedures for admitting students be uncompromisingly fair, that they operate principally on merit and do not favour persons belonging to one ethnic group as against another. We must admit that we ourselves have no evidence that the entrance mechanism at UWI, St Augustine, is operating in a way that it should not. The fact is we have no idea who are the people conducting this function at the UWI campus and there are no given statistics by which their performance can be examined or measured. So far, we have simply taken it for granted that all is fair and well with the UWI process of admittance but, in light of the criticisms made and the controversy that is currently agitating the country, it seems that greater transparency in the working of this department is now required, beyond the simple assurances given by certain UWI officials.

For example, who are the persons sitting on the admittance committees of the various faculties, what are the criteria used, and how do they conduct their business? Also, it may be important to know, over recent years, how many students applied for entry, what were their qualifications, and what percentage of each ethnic group were ultimately admitted. We are taking no sides, we are espousing nobody’s cause in this controversy. Our only concern is to ensure that justice and fairplay prevail in this vital exercise, that opportunities for tertiary education are open to all our young people on an equitable and non-discriminatory basis. This is the only way that our society can proceed to construct a genuine meritocracy.