COMMUNITY COLLEGES in rural Jamaica are still being forced to fight what their principals describe as an urban bias in favour of their counterparts in the Corporate Area and St Catherine.

According to the educators, colleges in the Kingston Metropolitan Region tend to get more support from the Government and the private sector than those colleges in rural Jamaica.

"There is an urban bias in this country and it is something we have to confront," said principal of the Brown's Town Community College, James Walsh. He is one of several heads of community colleges who recently participated in an Editors' Forum at The Gleaner's central Kingston head office.

Lack of response

"When I was trying to set up the nursing school (at the community college) I wrote a number of letters to corporations because, to me, this is a really necessary thing. What I found is that if I (were) keeping a dance or a nude wedding they would have been more responsive," he related.

Walsh said the school only received support from past students or institutions with which it conducted business. He argued, though, that community colleges were faced with this situation often because they do not market themselves well.

Weak marketing

"We have been weak in marketing and, therefore, the recognition is not there," he reasoned. "So, when somebody thinks of who I should hire to train my workers in a six-week or five-week course, they don't think of the community colleges when, quite often, we have a better capacity than some organisations (which are) hurriedly cobbled together, but who have a better marketing approach," he added.

Principal of the Portmore Community College in St Catherine, Karen Hewitt-Kennedy, agreed that community colleges, especially those in rural Jamaica, needed to unite to promote themselves.

"We have shrinking budgets and we do recognise that the ministry's emphasis is on early childhood and primary education, rather than tertiary, so we had better band together or we will perish," she said.