Cost-cutting affecting quality of education at Tain campus

Cost-cutting affecting quality of education at Tain campus – Union Rep.

May 24, 2014 News

A societal crisis may very well be on the horizon if the quality of some courses delivered at the University of Guyana’s Tain Campus is not urgently addressed. This observation was made by President of the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA), Dr Pat Francis, who was at the time speaking at a Turkeyen campus venued press conference yesterday.

UGSSA President,
Dr Pat Francis

She disclosed that there are a number of lecturers currently at the Tain campus who are teaching outside of their areas of competence and are in some cases even tasked with teaching as many as seven courses. “It is a disgrace! Is it one university we have or are we giving the people in Berbice a lower quality education?” questioned Dr Francis.
This development, she revealed, is in fact one that has been employed by the University’s administration to help cut cost. The main pillar of the Government-supported institution is Professor Jacob Opadeyi, who just over a year ago assumed the position of Vice Chancellor.
The situation at the Berbice campus, according to Dr Francis, is one that has been gradually deteriorating in recent times.
She disclosed that qualified lecturers who previously travelled from Georgetown to Berbice to facilitate a number of courses in the past are no longer allowed to do so.
“They have been stopped from doing so,” said Dr Francis, as she expressed disappointment at the disturbing situation at the campus.
“Now they can come up with all sorts of semantics and words as to what has transpired but I know that in fact that is the case and as a result of that the people of Berbice and students of Berbice have suffered…” said the UGSSA President.
She added too that since “the students of Berbice are expected to graduate in a timely manner the lecturers and the coordinators (of programmes) have to find a mechanism to do so.”
But Dr Francis noted that the mechanism adopted has proven not to be of quality. “What are we doing? These people are going to go out into the society…into this our society…This is our country…what is going to happen in another few years? Worse than what is happening now?”
And the prevailing situation, Dr Francis asserted, is not one that is being supported by the university’s unions.
“We can’t countenance it…” said the UGSSA President as she pointed out that “on this campus the number of people with first degrees has increased significantly and no mechanisms have been put in place to counter that.”
“We are not saying get rid of these people, but put in place mechanisms for mentorship and so on; none of that has been done but we keep chugging along and now this University, this place of higher education supported by the state, is threatened,” said Dr Francis.
According to the UGSSA President, who shared the spotlight yesterday with UGSSA Vice President, Dr Mellissa Ifill, and President of the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU), Mr Bruce Haynes, the unions are by no means suggesting that the University can operate effectively in a cash-strapped mode but “surely we have to take care of our people.”
“We the academic staff and the support staff will throw ourselves and our talent fully behind the administration and the Council if they are amenable to using our talents…up to this point they have not indicated that they want us to be involved really,” lamented Dr Ifill.
Yesterday she also listed a number of factors that must be fervently addressed such as the need for additional space for classrooms, audio-visual and other equipment as well as requisite books to make education at both campuses of the university meaningful.