UG’s Education Faculty hosts second Honour Roll

Mar 09, 2014 News

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 – outstanding 10 per cent ‘make the cut’

The “cream of the crop” of the School of Education and Humanities were duly recognised when the Faculty hosted its second Student’s Honour Roll for students of the 2012/13 academic period. Those recognised during an esteemed ceremony, held on Thursday last, in the Education Lecture Theatre of the University of Guyana, amounted to just over 60 of the 600-odd student population of the Faculty.
“You can easily see that these represent the top 10 per cent of our students,” said Dean of the Faculty, Alim Hosein, who underscored that the move to recognise them was linked to their “consistently high performances and consistent excellence.”

In essence, the students who are identified for the Honour Roll are those achieving a Grade Point Average of 3.4 and higher, according to Hosein. “This is the best of the best…within this group many of the students have 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9…What we have here is the top half of the best.”
Moreover, Hosein informed the students, who would have secured a place on the Honour Roll, that when writing their letters of application they can safely state that “I was in the top 10 per cent of the entire student population of the School of Education and Humanities…”
Although the Honour Roll was first started in 2009 by former Dean, Al Creighton, it was only reintroduced recently by Hosein. The concept had however existed for quite some time before, according to Hosein, who upon assuming the office of Dean a few months ago, opted to restore, not only the Honour Roll, but also the Journal of Education and Humanities.
Hosein vocalised his conviction that the two institutions are crucial in “anything that calls itself a Faculty, in anything that calls itself a University.”
The Journal, Hosein said, is one that was started to highlight the articles and researches that were done by members of staff and therefore functions as a public forum to showcase the work done by lecturers, researchers and academics of the University.
And according to him, “the members of the School of Education and Humanities have been doing tons of research, but it gets hidden. Now I want to make sure that their work is in the public domain, so we are working actively to produce a Journal of Education and Humanities.”
And since students also do a great deal of work in Education, Social Studies, History, Tourism, English and Art, among others, which Hosein classified as “excellent”, he insisted that they too needed to be recognised. As such, he noted that the re-introduction of the Students’ Honour Roll was seen as the way to achieve this.
“Many of the students here would have had cousins and friends and so on who would say to them ‘oh I’m on the Honour Roll’ in the universities in Canada, the United States and so on, but we never had such a thing here (before 2009), not that our students were performing to a lesser degree, they were doing just as well but not being recognised,” said Hosein.
Although Creighton’s move to introduce the Honour Roll in 2009 was deemed rather ambitious, the event was however undertaken once, but was subsequently neglected.
At the time of its introduction, Hosein was filling the capacity of Head of Department, but was involved in helping to craft its criteria.
“I guess because of that I feel a little bit of ownership of the event, and I saw it as something that was worthy enough of bringing back,” he asserted.

He disclosed that the event was labelled the ‘Students’ Honour Roll’ and not a ‘Dean’s Honour Roll’ since it represents a move by the Faculty to allow its students to shine, even as he emphasised that “the students are here through their own efforts. All the students are here because of their high levels of academic performances; not because the Dean likes them.”
Moreover, the Students’ Honour Roll is based on their individual overall excellent performances over, at least, two academic years.
“It is not based on one course. Now there might be some students who do good in one course or two courses and there might be some students whose work the lecturer understands and gives them good grades, but to get on the Honour Roll students have to do well in all their courses,” Hosein said.
But identifying students for the Honour Roll, Hosein said, is no simple task. He explained that Heads of Departments are first required to submit students’ grades, after which a Faculty meeting is held to peruse them to ensure that they are accurate. Several meetings usually follow before the grades are taken to the Faculty Board for approval and only then planning for the ceremony starts.
“This is usually a rigorous process,” asserted Hosein, as he congratulated the work of the students which enabled them to be prestigiously placed on the Faculty’s Honour Roll.
According to Deputy Dean, Ms Bonita Hunter, although getting on the ‘Honour Roll’ is a big event, it evidently is an attainable task. She pointed to the importance of the achievement as she noted that students’ work in this regard can help to increase their confidence while pushing them to achieve even more by “maintaining good grades and surpassing heights set.”
The Honour Roll students were also applauded by Deputy Vice Chancellor, Phillip DaSilva, who noted that while Thursday’s ceremony was one to “celebrate your hard work and your achievements” their efforts may not have been realised without a good support system.
Moreover, he amplified the importance of parents, friends, loved ones, lecturers and others who would have provided them with invaluable mentoring, support and guidance.
Each student on the Honour Roll was permitted to invite to Thursday’s ceremony, at least one person, who would have helped them, in some way, to perform exceptionally at the University.

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