IDCE being forced to close operations -Deputy Director

Jun 10, 2014 News

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–    Department against move to rob population of  options to improve themselves
–    Says unit is not about profit making  

By Rabindra Rooplall
After serving and providing both academic and professional training for a significant percentage of the Guyanese adult community, plans are afoot to close the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE).
This was confirmed by IDCE Deputy Director (Ag), Francis Glasgow, who noted that the agency is fighting against any closure which is being pushed by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana (UG), Professor Jacob Opadeyi.
The Vice Chancellor plans to close the IDCE Department because it does not make a profit, then introduce an online degree programme which will be controlled from within his office.
However, when IDCE was established in January 1976, the aim was to provide both academic and professional training for a significant percentage of the Guyanese adult community.
Formerly, it was the Department of Extramural Studies, a unit of the then Faculty of Education. In December 1983, the Academic Board approved the upgrading and expansion of the Department into the Institute of Adult and Continuing Education (IACE), University of Guyana.
Glasgow explained that in taking the University to the broad mass of people, IDCE was focused not on profit making, but to organize educational service for adults and out of school youths not engaged in University courses so as to equip and assist them to make a continuing and increasing contribution to the economic, social and cultural development of Guyanese society.
According to the Deputy Director, the guiding philosophy of the department was “people improving themselves through their own resources”.
As such, he explained that IDCE’s purpose is to increase the awareness of the interaction between formal and non-formal education, and to provide facilities for the continuum of educational integration and interaction.
This, he said, is done through a convenient delivery mode which includes printed materials supplemented by audio materials and some face-to-face tutorials.
However, Glasgow noted that years ago the department lost its online programmes. “We offered about four programmes. Two batches completed it, but then there were difficulties with the platform and hosting, which include bandwidth which the technical people would note is very expensive. This was done under former Director, Dr. Ramesh Sharma during 2009-2011. He also belonged to an international agency of which platform we used to run some of our online courses.”
Glasgow continued: “This present Vice Chancellor, since he came from the very inception, planned to shut down IDCE. From the inception he was saying that IDCE does not make a profit and not taking care of all its expenses. We reminded him verbally and showed documents which firmly stated that IDCE is not about profit making, that Government through its subventions would take care of IDCE expenses of the permanent staff and buildings, but the actual programmes and courses we offer should pay for themselves. So this agency is not about profit.”
Emphasizing that before the present Vice Chancellor took office, President Donald Ramotar had injected $50M into the agency, Glasgow said this was taken and controlled by Professor Jacob Opadeyi to set up a unit called Open and Distant Learning, which is operating out of his office. This would be responsible for Degree programmes.
It was further explained that Professor Opadeyi advertised a vacancy for a director of the online agency. Professor Jacob Opadeyi is not interested in pre university programs.
“The statutes of the university give a lot of power to the academic board which comprises of Deans, Heads of Departments, and other academic staff members. Any operations at the University must come through the academic board, but Professor Opadeyi has no care or concern for the academic board. That proposal for the online programme should have passed through the board and been debated but that was not done,” Glasgow explained.
“The Council of the University, which is made up of government officials, has only been listening to Professor Opadeyi and only acts on what he presents. There are many more indiscretions.”
As the extra mural arm of UG, IDCE was envisioned as an avenue through which equal access to education would provide citizens with opportunities for personal and professional growth and development consistent with national development trajectory. It must be noted that IDCE serves a vital role in the delivery of education to a diverse population and, consequently, UG should ensure that the Institute grows and develops into an organization of high academic and professional standards.

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