Dear ANR,

Antigua State College is a Waste of Time

I am very glad to see that there has been a sharp decrease in CAPE subjects pursued this year.I hope the trend continues as more students pursue bachelors degrees at the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus.

As a person who went through Antigua State College many years ago, I found the place to be dreary, depressing and unnecessarily restrictive.

To do Law, one had to have done History for CXC when in reality, one just needs competitive grades to matriculate into the UWI Law Programme.

If you chose to do a Social Sciences- oriented subject, you couldn’t do anything outside that discipline.

ASC has been making life unnecessarily hard for people for years and have outlived its usefulness.

Meanwhile, there are people who have CXC subjects who have successfully matriculated into US- based universities with higher ranking straight out of secondary school. So what’s the point of ASC if it’s not to waste people’s time?

I personally know of people who gained CAPE subjects or went to the business school at ASC, some at a mature age, who made their way back into the work world, only to find that they are at the bottom of the totem pole.

ASC tends to give people an edge in scraping the bottom of the barrel instead of seeing a meaningful change in career advancement and standard of living.

I say to parents if your child can matriculate part- time into UWI and do a little part- time job straight out of high school, you’re giving them a better opportunity of getting a jump start in life than going to ASC.

Trust me. It’s a waste of time and it’s time we accept that as we strive towards modernizing our educational system.

Just Saying