Senior UG officials to meet third year education students to discuss concerns

Mar 06, 2014 News

Although designed to enable teachers to complete in a shorter period, the Bachelor’s of Education (B.Ed) Programme at the University of Guyana (UG), third year students are faced with a situation where their completion of the programme could be longer.
However, Dean of the School of Education and Humanities, Alim Hosein, when asked to comment on the matter yesterday said that he was not aware that there were concerns with the programme. According to Hosein, he was not in a position to shed light on the state of affairs since he had not had a discussion, in this regard, with the students.
He disclosed though, that there are plans for such a discussion to be held next Monday where he, along with Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Jacob Opadeyi, will be meeting with the students.

Some students in protesting mode on Monday last

Moreover, Hosein said that “I would like to wait for that meeting before I respond on the matter…the focus should be on solving the issue so we will sit, talk and address the issue.”
But the matter this publication understands was since last year brought to the attention of, not only the Head of Department, but also the Vice Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi.
A letter inked and forwarded to the Vice Chancellor by the affected students highlighted their dissatisfaction about changes to the programme ranging from a hike in the fee to compulsory summer courses. “It is with dissatisfaction that we bring to your attention a matter that is of grave concern to us,” said the students in the letter seen by this publication.
“As third year continuing students purposing a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, we are displeased with the sudden change in courses for the said programme. No consultation was made with the students before any such change was made. It was just forced onto us without any due consideration,” the letter added.
The students, who had completed the two-year Certificate in Education programme, which is a requirement to undertake the B.Ed programme, had only last September commenced the degree programme with no warning of the changes which came into effect subsequently. They started the latter programme with the understanding that they would be able to complete it as a normal two-year programme.
But according to the students, they were informed by the Head of Department that they must attend the University for two semesters and one summer for each of the remaining two years so as to accommodate the Associate Degree in Education (ADE) students from the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE). The students are however convinced that “this is indeed an unfair action taken, especially against the continuing students, since we have completed three years of CPCE and have to complete four years of University to obtain a degree, whereby for the ADE programme they would have completed two years of CPCE and will also complete two years of University to obtain same.”
According to Project Coordinator of the Guyana Improving Teacher Education Project (GITEP), Tota Mangar, who had a hand in revising the programme, he had no idea that there were internal issues at the University with regards to the programme. GITEP was brought into being by the Ministry of Education to help improve the learning achievement of Guyana’s school children by improving the effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of teacher education. Mangar yesterday asserted that the concerns raised by the students are not in any way related to the programmes even as he noted that GITEP was tasked with revising both the ADE and B.Ed programmes to a more upgraded level.
But according to the students, since they have already completed the Certificate Programme, they should instead be allowed to continue with the regular programme as was designed from the inception. They disclosed that it was brought to their attention that the revised programme is now for three years and as such any teacher who did not do the ADE programme, and is registering for this programme, will complete their degree at the end of the third year. However, those teachers, they said, would not have the summer compulsory during the first year, as for the remaining two years. “It is yet to be seen whether the UG administration will enforce the compulsory summer or is it just applicable for the third year continuing students?” the students in their missive questioned.
They pointed out too that since the summer courses are compulsory for them they will also incur additional expenses characterised by an increase of fee from $127,000 to $172,750. They also anticipate that the programme will demand more time away from their families and social life.
“Even though these changes were forced upon us, the administration at the University has failed to properly plan to facilitate the changes. This has been reflected in the timetable since planned courses such as Introduction to Literacy Studies (ERE4102) and Introduction to Special Needs Education (ESE4101) has no lecturer to date. As a matter of fact, it has been inconvenient for the continuing students of the said programme to turn up for classes for six weeks without even having any lecturer. This is a waste of money and time,” the students highlighted.
Added to this, this publication was informed that the course, Teaching of Mathematics at the Early Childhood and Primary Level, which is optional for the final year students, is now compulsory for the third year students. They disclosed that they turn up for classes only to be told by the lecturer that she is not aware of the change.
The situation, the students said, has caused them to become “frustrated and disgusted.”
But in order to continue their classes, they claimed that they decided to join classes with the final year students which turned out to be a “cramped” situation since classes were held in a very small room. “Daily we have to search for and fetch chairs to our classes and force ourselves into very small rooms just to be part of a class,” they complained.
“This is the limit. As third year continuing students, we wish to remind you that we are paying for our tuition and as such wish to be treated with utmost respect and dignity. Furthermore, we wish to have the original courses for the planned programme and not the revised courses that were forced upon us without any consideration,” the students’ letter to the Vice Chancellor stated.
Although the letter was sent to Professor Opadeyi in October of last year and a promise was made to investigate and respond to their concerns, the students were not until a few days ago able to engage him. This was done with the support of President of the University’s Students Society, Richard Rambarran, who confirmed to this publication yesterday that a meeting has been arranged for next week Monday, at which time senior university officials will review the concerns of the students.
The students on Monday last staged protest action outside the Education Faculty to highlight their concerns, a few hours after meeting the Vice Chancellor in the company of Rambarran.