leaving on a jetplane

A few weeks ago another crop of bright-eyed recent high school graduates of various levels boarded a plane and went to the Netherlands to continue their studies. A few dozen other students will choose another country as their place of study, for example the United States, Curaçao, or Costa Rica.

This has been happening for several decades now, spanning generations. Aruba simply doesn’t have all the higher educational facilities to take care of everyone's educational needs. In fact, we barely have any. If you do not want to study law, education (teacher), or tourism, you’ll need to look elsewhere to study.

These students (at least the ones leaving for the Netherlands) leave our island with a lot of speeches reminding them of the fact that they are Aruba’s future, that they will be the ones making the decisions in a few years.

I do wonder, however, how many of ‘Aruba’s future’ graduate? And of those who graduate, how many come back? And what do they come back to? The job market isn’t quite as receptive for university degrees as it used to be. I know of at least two people who finished their Bachelor’s degree who are now temping. So 4 years of hard work down the drain and you come back to what, exactly? To six dollars per hour? Not exactly inspiring to become ‘Aruba’s future’, is it?

It is my belief that the government should consider to go back to the old model of scholarships, where the state would pay for the study expenses, provided that the student comes back and works x amount of years. Not for all studies, of course. I think there are plenty of lawyers here, for examples. But we do need cardiologists and judges and journalists and computer engineers, etc, etc. and so forth.

I think the government paying for the studies would create a sense of duty, causing the best and the brightest of Aruba to vie for such a scholarship and at the same time ensuring that the best and the brightest return to Aruba to take their rightful place as Aruba’s future.

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Comments

[a random Virgin Islands woman]

Hmmm, sounds like the story of my life... I went off to college in the States, earned a Bachelor of Science degree, came back to 'serve the community that nurtured my development' and am now working in an industry that has nothing do with my field. Why? Not only is the local sciences job market extremely limited, but after almost a year, the government Health Dept/hospital has yet to respond to my application/resume simply because I don't have "a hook-up" or "someone on the inside".

Small island politics is the perfect explanation for brain-drain, as far as I'm concerned.

[SherrySherry]

This is a problem throughout the Caribbean and many developing countries. It is a difficult situation and one that must be addressed seriously. It is just so hard to go back home and not earn a return on your investment in education. I tried going back and got so disgruntled with the lack of professionalism and rampant corruption that I left.....for good, this time!

[Helga]

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