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Miscommunication about UG programme must be addressed – Minister Manickchand
The concerns of third-year students undertaking the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) programme at the University of Guyana (UG), regarding changes to the programme, were yesterday linked to “a lot of miscommunication.”
At least this was the information fed to Minister of Education Priya Manickchand by the University’ administration.
Speaking with the media yesterday, the Minister said that she first learnt about the concerns raised by the students via an article published in this newspaper which prompted her to enquire about the state of affairs.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand
“As far as I am told, and I asked specifically about this, the students are meeting with the University’s administration on Monday to ventilate some of their issues to have them resolved, if they can be resolved…So right now we have to clear up some of those communication issues,” the Minister said.
The students, armed with placards, on Monday last staged a protest in retaliation to changes to the programme, ranging from a hike in their tuition fee to repetition of courses. The programme had commenced in September of last year, but according to the students, they only learnt of the changes in October.
However, Minister Manickchand is convinced that a meeting with the administration should have been the first move.
“I think that is probably something that should have been done first; instead of holding placards…which is someone’s right. But holding placards should never be the first resort…it should always be the last resort that persons go to after other civilised means of addressing the issue have failed,” the Minister said.
However, she was enlightened to the fact that the students had, by way of a letter, shared their concerns with Vice Chancellor, Jacob Opadeyi, since October last year and were assured that he was investigating the matter. They disclosed that even at the start of the New Year, they were not furnished with any feedback.
The Minister’s only response to this disclosure was “it would be unfortunate, if this is true.”
She however noted that “…these things, I don’t think they need to reach a place where we make it a sensational issue…Allow the students and the UG administration to meet on Monday, see if they still have problems with what’s happening, and then take it from there.”
While the Ministry of Education has some say in what happens at the University, the Minister said that her Ministry does not run the institution, since it has a Council in place. She explained that the Council is made up of a wide range of people that the law says it must have, including government and opposition members, among others.
Moreover, she disclosed that the Education Ministry has limited say as to how the university is managed, although it is responsible for the implementation of the Guyana Improving Teacher Education Project (GITEP) through the Cyril Potter College of Education.
GITEP was responsible for the revising of the Associate Degree in Education (ADE) and the Bachelor of Education programmes intended to ensure that teachers are qualified in a shorter space of time.
“I think every parent in this country wants the teacher in front of their child’s class to be the best teacher that that teacher can be; we have a duty as a State to make sure that we provide the facilities and the accommodation, and the necessary curriculum that would allow that teacher to be best trained, so that is why we moved from just providing teachers who have certificates to teachers who have degrees.”
The GITEP-revised programmes were brought into effect post-2011 catering for all trainee teachers who pass through CPCE to be graduate teachers rather than just certificate teachers as obtained in the past, Minister Manickchand noted.
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