Former PAM administration blasts for denying nationals opportunity to study in Cuba

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 19TH 2009 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has blasted the former People’s Action Movement (PAM) Government of former Prime Minister the Right Hon. Dr. Kennedy Simmonds for denying nations the opportunity to study in Cuba.
 
“The previous government consistently denied Kittitian and Nevisian students access to training in Cuba.  To this day I cannot figure out why, but this was their prerogative.  This policy, however, my government felt it had a moral obligation to change.  Think of the level of frustration experienced by young students eager for a chance to grow but being consistently denied readily available scholarships by an unresponsive government,” said Dr. Douglas on his weekly radio call-in programme “Ask the Prime Minister” on Tuesday.
 
“Think about the entirely new world of possibilities that were opened up for these young people when they were told that despite their families’ financial constraints, despite their inability to find “a way out” thus far, they would now be able to step into university classrooms to compete with the brightest and the best to develop their God-given talents,” said Prime Minister Douglas, whose St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Administration immediately accepted the offer of scholarships from the Government of Cuba, when it took office in July 1995.
 
“Imagine, further, these young men and women walking away from Cuba’s universities as medical doctors, architects, agronomists, accountants, economists, dentists, civil and architectural engineers. Imagine the dramatic impact of this completely free university training on the lives of these Kittitians and Nevisians. Imagine the dramatic impact of these now-highly-skilled professionals on the pace of social and economic development in St. Kitts and Nevis, reflect on the value to the rest of us of there now being more local dentists, more local doctors, more local engineers, more local agronomists right here, to meet the needs of our people,” said Dr. Douglas, who noted that  the Federation’s current Minister of Public Utilities, Works, Transport and Posts, Dr. the Hon. Earl Asim Martin had to access a Cuban scholarship to study medicine through the assistance of the late Tim Hector of Antigua. Dr. Martin was denied employment by the Simmonds Government after he completed his medical training in Cuba.
 
Since taking office in July 1995, fifty-two St. Kitts and Nevis nationals have successfully completed degrees in 39 professional careers. Of that number 23 have graduated as medical doctors, 8 of whom have returned to Cuba to specialize in various fields.
 
Two doctors graduated this year and five more Kittitians, between the ages of 17 and 22 left here in September to study medicine in Cuba, bringing to 63 the number of nationals currently pursuing tertiary-level education at several universities in the larger Caribbean republic. Twenty-two nationals are pursuing degrees in nursing in Cuba.