CASE urged to undertake new challenge

The College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) in Portland has been urged to undertake a new challenge, which could position it as the epicentre for training in the Caribbean while expanding as a global university powerhouse.

The call was made on Thursday by chairman of the National Commercial Bank (NCB) Financial Group, Michael Lee-Chin, during a visit to the Portland-based institution, where CASE Vice-president Marlon Palmer, during an earlier address, shared that the college ‘has not received any major upgrade for the last 40 to 45 years’. “Since the college was built, there hasn’t been any investment in the institution, “ Palmer said.

But, while the NCB chairman appeared surprised at the revelation, he commended the institution for its role in seeking to enhance the educational opportunities of students, as well as its invaluable contribution to nation building.

“Portland has the lowest crime rate in Jamaica, so I am thinking that this CASE has the potential to build Port Antonio into a university community whereby you have thousands of people sending their children to CASE, from all over the world, to be educated in agriculture, science, and education, “Lee-Chin argued.

“Anyone coming here from Germany, from America, Australia will say, ‘ Wow I feel comfortable leaving my kids here’.

EXPONENTIAL DEMAND

Lee-Chin encouraged about the emerging opportunities in the energy sector, saying: “Every country in the world has signed up for the Carbon Net Zero by 2050. We have to stop using fossil fuels. The big problem is they’re dirty, so they are causing global warming and they are causing cancer. So they need to replace fossil fuels with another source of energy that is clean. There is only one such source in the world and it’s nuclear.

“Whenever there is a shift in the dominant source of energy, there is a shift in economic power. So, there is a shift happening in economic power right now as we speak. So the question is, how is CASE going to capitalise on that? So now, what you will see is more nuclear in the future. There is going to be an exponential demand for nuclear-trained personnel. So what the university should be doing is gearing up for that. If you are first out of the gate, CASE is going to be in the business of training nuclear personnel. So we now have an opportunity for a grand vision and (to) make use of your natural assets on the 627 acres of the most beautiful property in the world,” he concluded.

Palmer meanwhile identified several areas that the school intends to address.

“We have made arrangement for a number of things to happen in order to move to university status. We want to upgrade our labs to ensure that we can deliver the programmes and at the quality that is required. We are in a process to upgrade our library, as well to ensure that all the materials that are needed for the delivery of the programmes are available. We also intend to upgrade our classrooms to more smart rooms, and rooms that are representative of a modern classroom in a modern university,” he added.