Where are our UWI students? Has anyone heard from them lately? Our nation is on a path of rapid development and is facing some new and seemingly difficult challenges.

As I would have stated in previous articles, a government alone cannot be responsible for coming up with solutions for these problems all at once. As young leaders we too have a responsibility to look for solutions to some of the problems facing us.

It is an environment in which our young thinkers and problem-solvers should be most stimulated. We should be hearing of passionate public debates and statements from our UWI students on issues concerning crime, economics, politics, the environment and other social issues, but this is not happening.

Every year we produce more and more graduates with first-class degrees, yet the rest of the nation does not benefit because our scholars seem not to be challenged to produce intelligent solutions for our national problems.

When compared to university students in countries like China and France, our students come up wanting. Just last week, the French Government had to rescind a law concerning the employment and termination of young people, due to pressure from university students.

Remember Tiananmen Square in China where university students lead protests against Chairman Chou and his government’s communist policies?

In T&T we boycotted a club because of “golliwogg night.” Even then an opportunity presented itself for our scholars to lead the charge for social change but they did nothing.

One can easily get the feeling there is no sense of national pride amongst our young scholars. There is a perception among some UWI students that there is nothing to benefit from staying and working here in T&T. Although this could be debated, what is more alarming is the negative attitude of our scholars towards national issues.

Any sort of discussion on such issues with any average UWI student can be quite frustrating since you are likely hear a regurgitation of the uninformed rhetoric of a call-in radio programme, and those are the ones with an option. Others just do not seem to care because they have plans to leave as soon as their courses are finished.

Let’s turn our focus to the probable source of these deficiencies of our university products. I have to agree with Martin George in his Sunday Guardian column that the lecturers need to bear the most responsibility for the state of our young scholars.

Mr George was correct in pointing out that our lecturers have become lazy, fossilised and a part of the woodwork of the campus. They are the ones who are directly responsible for challenging students to think problems through and not just regurgitate information.

Another issue is the course designs. Most UWI students have classes from eight in the morning to eight at night, five-six days a week. Added to that, depending on the lecturer, they have exams every week. The pressure to cram work and finish assignments could perhaps be the reason why students lack the ability to think, or the time to read the newspapers for that matter.

In all fairness, these problems don’t only exist at the tertiary level but at the secondary and primary school levels as well. The improvement in our education system and school curriculum over the past few years are noted, but they still do not allow for students to learn how to think independently.

Within our system you can be either right or wrong, it does not allow for the generating of new ideas or even challenging existing ones. The PNM Youth League is of the firm belief that more attention has to paid to making our education system more comparable with world standards.

How can we expect our human resource to remain competitive in a world where 10-year-olds in Japan are learning to build motors and A-Level students in Singapore are doing seven and eight subjects as opposed to our standard four?

When our education system is redesigned to allow for critical thinking at the primary and secondary levels, maybe then our UWI graduates will feel more challenged by the many issues facing our developing country.

If our future global survival is to be insured, UWI needs to start producing, on a large scale, engineering graduates who are capable not only of building and operating plants and equipment but redesigning or even inventing new machines and processes.

We need to start producing economists and political analysts who do more than just apply theories and models but can also form new theories and models of their own.

Our university students need to be more visible and vocal on national issues. They need to get more involved in the operation of the world around them now, so that when they enter the real world they do not appear to be so disconnected from reality.

The young people involved in the youth league benefit greatly from the challenges of being actively involved in our communities and dealing with issues not only pertaining to youth but anything of national importance. A challenging environment such as this may be just what some our young scholars require to bring forth their true potential.

Contact NYL with comments at nylcolumnguardian@yahoo.com or editorial committee, National Youth League, Balisier House, #1 Tranquillity St, Port-of-Spain.

Wesley George is the education officer of the PNM Youth League