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Commentary by Concerned Academic,

St. Kitts and Nevis is spiraling into a full-blown national crisis—and it’s not from crime or politics, but from the quiet, catastrophic collapse of its technical skills sector. With the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) leading the charge, this once-proud foundation of national development has been all but bulldozed.

The decision by CFBC to completely eliminate its masonry, plumbing, and timber vocational programs is nothing short of reckless. It is the academic equivalent of pulling the plug on the country’s future infrastructure, trades, and youth empowerment. What used to be a launchpad for countless young men and women into meaningful careers has now become a barren wasteland of neglected opportunity.

The ramifications are both immediate and dire. The construction sector is being suffocated by a lack of skilled labor. Plumbers, electricians, masons, carpenters—once proudly trained on island—are now imported at significant cost. What should be jobs for Kittitians and Nevisians are being outsourced, funneling money out of the local economy and disenfranchising a whole generation of would-be tradesmen and women.

This is not just a CFBC failure—it’s a systemic collapse that implicates both AVEC and the Ministry of Education. The Advanced Vocational Education Centre, once considered a beacon for hands-on training, has gone eerily silent. Recruitment is non-existent, programs are fading into oblivion, and the message to the youth is deafening: “We don’t value your trade. You’re on your own.”

Even the remaining programs like electrical training have been reduced to a token gesture—just a few part-time hours per week. It’s a cruel joke on those who seek to build a future with their hands and minds, only to be met with institutional indifference.

Let’s be brutally honest: this is sabotage—self-inflicted, silent, and devastating. While the world moves toward blending technical and academic education for holistic development, St. Kitts and Nevis is dismantling its technical backbone with surgical precision. And the government? Silent. Absent. Complicit.

Where is the national plan to rebuild and modernize vocational training? Where are the scholarships, incentives, employer partnerships, and promotional campaigns to uplift technical careers with the same respect as academic ones?

This isn’t just about programs being cut—it’s about a future being stolen. A future where our homes are built by us, our water pipes repaired by us, our electricity installed by us. A future where young people can dream not just of degrees, but of skilled mastery. That future is under siege.

St. Kitts and Nevis must wake up, rise up, and rebuild the technical soul of the nation. Anything less is a betrayal of the very people who build our country—brick by brick, pipe by pipe, wire by wire.

The collapse is here. What we do next will define us.