University of Guyana Administration is a terrible failure

Nov 09, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
Earlier this year, the University of Guyana was subjected to considerable criticism for its failure to improve the facilities, services and working conditions of the university community.
Like many Guyanese, I was angered by the apathetic response of the university administration and the previous government to address the mounting concerns expressed by the students and staff of the university. Sadly, despite the widely publicized protest for the transformation of the university, very little has been accomplished in this regard.
I am currently a final-year student enrolled at the Berbice Campus. Some of my colleagues and I have found ourselves in the most distressing situation that could result in us not being able to graduate next year. Would you believe that the first semester is about to come to an end, and there are several courses that have not started?
Currently, sixteen of us who are required to complete a research study have not yet met with our recommended supervisor because he has not been given a contract.
Some of our other colleagues, who were fortunate to have been assigned to a full-time lecturer at the Berbice Campus, have almost completed their research proposals and would soon commence the second part of their respective studies. I feel tremendously frustrated that I and my other colleagues have been placed at an immense disadvantage at the hands of the university administration that has remained ineffective in dealing with this issue.
What is most baffling is the fact that lecturers are available and willing to conduct the courses that have not been delivered, but it is the university administration that has not granted approval for contracts to be given to these lecturers. Irrespective of the reason for this decision, why did the university take our money to deliver a course within a specified semester, and then decide not to do so?
Does the university administration have no ethical conviction to provide the services for which substantial finance has already been invested? Considering the severe flak directed at the university in the past couple of months, one would have expected that the university administration would do everything in its power to avoid further damage to the university’s already unfavourable image; instead, however, the administration is callously inciting the ire of a large number of the student body. Is the administration waiting to be sued before it is prompted to act in the best interest of the students?
In my desperate plea for some form of intervention, I humbly call on the Minister of Education, Dr. Roopnarine, who back in May, expressed that if UG is not transformed in five years, he would consider himself a failure. Dr. Roopnaraine, please do not wait until the next election to tout your plans for reforming UG; transformation can happen incrementally. Please act now.
Melissa A. Singh

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