Some secondary-school students have described Prime Minister Bruce Golding's plans to give preferential terms to certain courses of study as unfair and say they would not be willing to change their career goals to get special treatment from the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB).
Golding announced last week that his Government would be steering the SLB in a direction in which it would be inclined towards areas of study deemed to be critical to national development.
"I have my preference so I wouldn't switch at this time. Furthermore, it would be hard to switch to an area like pharmacology,, because I already started doing business subjects," Rashanne Graveney, a fifth-form student at Kingston College, told The Gleaner yesterday.
Sixth-form student Alando Gordon expressed similar sentiments.
"I think the prime minister is being unfair. I hear his point about the development of the country but we can contribute to development by doing what we want to do," Gordon, who wants to become a chemical engineer, said.
Meanwhile, Kemesha Kelly, former president of the National Secondary Schools' Council, said Golding's pronouncement was unreasonable.
"I find that pretty interesting because it lends itself to say some professions are better than others. But every field is critical to national development," said Kelly.
Left by the wayside
She added: "You are going to find that a lot of people are going to be left by the wayside."
But sixth-form student Locksly Wallace said the move was a good one.
"Certain areas are experiencing shortages and I think it is a good gesture to bail the country out of the poor economic condition that it is in," said Wallace, who intends to become a medical doctor.
Revi Bennett, who has plans to go into pharmacology, welcomed Golding's announcement.
"I agree with him because certain fields in Jamaica lack sufficient talent so, if he has a certain incentive programme, I believe more people would want go into that area and, since I want to go into pharmacology, I have no problem with that," said Bennett, who is also a sixth-form student.
petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com