Dear Editor,
In the year 2014, the New Amsterdam Technical Institute implemented the Competency Based Education (CBE) programme for some of the courses offered by the institute. One of the courses under the Competency Based Education programme was welding.
At the beginning of the course the students were made to understand that the course should take about two years, provided that a student has been competent in each particular area/topic according to the time frame set out in the syllabus. If the student is not competent he/she can choose to repeat that area/topic or move on.
At the end of the second year, the students had all hoped that the course was finished, but were told they had some more things to complete in the next school term (that would have been September-December 2016). However, everything came to an end in May-June 2017.
They were then told they had completed the course, and as usual, they were now awaiting results, graduation and certificate.
The institute held their annual graduation ceremony in December, 2017, and these students were told by the administrative staff of the institute they were qualified to graduate even though they had no result or such to show how well they had done. I never heard of someone graduating and he/she did not know whether he/she had been successful at the examination. Nevertheless, until this day the students are still awaiting results.
It seems as though they have wasted three years. I don’t know how we expect better from our young people if we are not helping them. We have politicians, organizations and individuals coming onboard encouraging the youths to educate themselves so that they can have a job and become better individuals of tomorrow and stay away from criminal activities. But how can they get a job without a proof of qualification? How do we expect them to stay away from criminal activities when they are idle all day or they can’t get a job? Who do we expect to employ them?
I do hope those responsible issue these students with their certificates or at least a result slip for the time being, so that the youths can move on with their lives.
Yours faithfully,
John Harty
On behalf of students awaiting
their certificates
