The Dominica State College (DSC) is the premiere, post-secondary tertiary education institution in Dominica. It is referenced by DLP politicians as the ‘Harvard’ of Dominica, providing a quality education to Dominicans from every strata of society.
While the DLP politicians continually boast of thousands of dollars invested in the college over the years, they fail to mention the lack of any significant repairs and or renovations at the college following the devastation of Hurricane Maria.
The sad unspoken reality is that the DSC remains in a deplorable state and is not fit for providing the quality education that it is expected to deliver.
Apart from the abuse of its human resources, the deplorable state of the facility both its interior and exterior is distressing.
We recall that on 12 April 2018, the Prime Minister visited the college, accompanied by his new Minister of Resilience, Mr. Joseph Isaac.
According to the president of the college, Mr. Donald Peters, immediately following Hurricane Maria, the Prime Minister requested that repairs should be undertaken on the facility with a view to ensuring that classes could be resumed at the earliest opportunity thereby demonstrating a true sense of “resilience” and the quick return of normalcy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shw-FRGWrB4
The Prime Minister, who is a former student and lecturer at the college, advised the students that they should feel fortunate to be students of the college. He bragged that his government had already set aside the funds for the repairs of the college. However, his government wanted to rebuild the college better-to be more resilient.
https://youtu.be/shw-FRGWrB4.
At a time when the DLP seems to have unlimited funds at its disposal to spend on a red house in town, entertainment by foreign artists, fireworks and expensive sound systems for the launching of political candidates and millions on campaign paraphernalia, the level of neglect by the government to the state college is alarming and downright shameful.
The state of disrepair of the college is in stark contrast to how the politicians speak of the institution with the motto, “Beyond Quality and Excellence’. The campus of the Dominica State College has crossed the line from unkempt to deplorable, appalling and dangerous. It is reprehensible that the DLP government has failed to pay any attention to the decaying physical infrastructure of the campus. (See pictures of various sections of the campus as at Thursday, 14 November 2019)
Two years on after Maria, the technical and engineering section at the college remans abandoned and in ruins. All machines and equipment are left exposed to the natural elements and are rapidly going to waste.
The college is in a serious state of disrepair with broken furniture, windows, ceilings and walls, and abandoned classrooms. Without any exaggeration, the current condition of the college is a worrisome development and a lethal blow to efforts at ensuring improved welfare and productivity of student and faculty. No wonder the young people of Dominica have evinced the willingness to stand up in protest. They have good reason for their actions. We salute them for saluting!!!
While the country’s attention is fix on another general election, the hard-working, dedicated student and faculty at the DSC remain in hope that some attention will be given to the crumbling physical condition of the college with immediate effect.
