Letter to the Editor Provide quality education

I found the article “Regulate entry of post secondary schools” opposing the House proposal seeking to promote the establishment of postsecondary institutions without the involvement of a government regulation agency to be an illegitimate attempt to thwart progress in providing quality education for the people on our island.

What are the procedures, NMC? Where are the application forms? The NMC Board of Regents is the agency licensed to give permission to grant the establishment of any postsecondary educational program.

The acting president of NMC stated, “The wisdom of allowing anybody, person or organization, to establish a postsecondary educational institution in the Commonwealth without regulation by any agency of the government is questionable and dangerous.” But after all these years of having this responsibility, there, are no application forms, no documents to read and regulations in place for organizations to follow who would seek such permission. We can only come to this conclusion because we requested such forms and documents from the Board of Regents and received nothing in return. Since this already licensed agency is not doing its job, we don’t need such an agency at all.

Without competition, we won’t have quality education on our island. Competition sharpens the educational system as the institutions of learning are made to reach higher and higher standards. It is for the public – the parents and the students — to choose which institution can best meet their needs in education on any level.

I am opposed to setting up a special agency for regulation because it will stop competition – the competition that is vitally needed on our island in order to provide quality education for training teachers, engineers, nurses, and other tradesmen on our island to fill the jobs that presently have to be filled by nonresident workers.

One of the main reasons why the CNMI lacks manpower is because there has not been opportunity for qualified postsecondary institutions to set up a stage for an alternative for the public’s good, to add competition to the setting, and to act in providing the quality education that is so desperately needed on our island.

We can provide a good quality education for our students. We are here to serve the community. We will be seeking to offer accreditation for our college, but first things first. How can we offer accreditation when we can’t even get recognition? What is the purpose of accreditation? Just like the philosophy of the Ivy League schools in the West, like Harvard and Yale, so it is our philosophy, that we will not pursue a limited standard for education. We will reach higher to provide the best quality education for the people in the CNMI.

Dr. Christian Wei

President

Eucon Int’l. School Saipan