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The People's National Party (PNP) has announced its intention to reallocate resources earmarked by the Government for the proposed Culture, Entertainment and Creative Practitioners Institute at the Caribbean Maritime University.

Instead, the PNP proposes a long-term, sustainable and system-wide rationalisation of education and training in the culture and creative industries (CCI) starting from early childhood arts appreciation through to advanced tertiary and continuing education. Dr Deborah Hickling Gordon, opposition spokesperson on CCI, labelled the Government's announcement as a "knee-jerk, incomplete response" to long-standing concerns about the absence of a coherent education and training pipeline for the sector.

"Long-term, high-impact, resource-intensive decisions such as these should not be made unilaterally by 'an enabler' and presented to the sector as a fait accompli," Hickling Gordon stated. "This is precisely why a national policy and development framework is necessary, and why the National Cultural and Creative Industries Commission was established in 2013 - to design enabling solutions for creative practitioners through participatory engagement."

Referring to the Government's ongoing delays in delivering a national policy further deferred in the entertainment minister's Sectoral presentation, she said the proposal of an institute simply patches over systemic gaps without solving the root problems.

"Announcing a new institute to save face in response to our critique of the unsustainable Career Expo model is a reckless allocation of resources. Existing institutions could have supported the expo through student advising and expert guidance to save the country from resourcing a new facility where an under-resourced, fit-for-purpose institution exists in the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA)," Hickling Gordon said.

"Many fit-for-purpose institutions already exist, yet all are under-resourced. What we need at this phase of the emerging sector's development is investment, coordination, and enhancement, not redundancies," she added. "Starting a new school is an expedient but inadequate response. It is the indolent application of a band-aid where deeper surgical solutions are required."

In outlining its strategic national training proposal, the PNP called for various measures. Among them is strengthening and expanding the EMCVPA, including a partnership with the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC) and HEART/NSTA Trust to develop a digital and audiovisual media training hub at the Caenwood campus in Kingston. The party also wants to bolster CCI-related departments and programmes at various institutions including major universities and CPTC, through a process of curriculum streamlining.