Latest update June 17th, 2026 12:40 AM
KEEP CLASSES OFF-CAMPUS
The University of Guyana needs to explain why, close to one month after its scheduled opening, its main campus at Turkeyen remains closed. For an institution that is supposed to produce enlightened minds for our country’s development, clearly there seems to be something wrong in the manner in which the asbestos removal plan was handled.
The asbestos has been removed from the campus. However, what has not gone away are the fears by many that, in the removal process, the environment in which the classes are taught may have been compromised.
Rightly, classes should not resume until such time as the campus is given a clean bill of health. The safety of the environment of the University of Guyana must be treated as paramount.
The question that is uppermost on everyone’s mind is “When will classes resume?” Inasmuch as there is great eagerness on the part of the students and administrators of the University of Guyana for classes to resume at Turkeyen, it would be extremely dangerous for the go-ahead to be given to begin the new academic year at that location without guarantees about the safety of the environment.
The fact that the Turkeyen Campus is now quarantined should not prevent the commencement of the new academic year. In fact, the University should have already made plans for registration and classes in the various faculties to take place.
Registration centres should have been opened at locations off-campus, and there are many schools which could have been used in the afternoons for classes until the Turkeyen Campus could be reopened.
It is shocking that the University could not have been more innovative, given the present situation, and as has been done in some instances in the past, held classes off-campus until such time as the Turkeyen Campus is declared fit for use.
The students, who were expecting to begin or continue their studies as of September last, have a right to be concerned. The taxpayers, whose taxes help to pay the salaries of lecturers, ought to be concerned that these lecturers are being paid and not able to do what they are being paid for.
As such, alternative plans need to be put in place so that both the registration of students and the actual classes can take place.
It will be extremely taxing for students to have to cram, in a short period of time, the work normally done in two full semesters. However, even with a later start, the University of Guyana can extend the length of the semester and still complete these, along with final examinations, long before next August.
While the semester programme has been highly criticised when it was first introduced, it has had the benefit of offering flexibility, something that is always useful, especially at the University of Guyana, which is prone to all manner of disruptions during the academic year.
We hope that a greater effort will be made to have the area deemed free of asbestos contaminants. We hope that the requisite tests will be done to determine whether there are any risks to classes resuming.
If such risks exist and will require further clean-up exercises, we hope that the university will develop an accurate projection as to when classes are likely to resume on campus; and if this is not likely in the distant future, we urge them to consider alternative venues for the holding of classes, so that the student population does not suffer.
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