Valedictorian of the University of Guyana, Berbice Campus on Saturday afternoon urged his fellow graduates to become “critical thinkers” even as he lamented the lack of lecturers at the university, which often forces students to carry too many courses in one semester.
Imran Ally was delivering his speech at the campus’s sixth graduation exercise which was moved to the auditorium owing to persistent rain. According Ally, over the four years he spent at the university there were “good and bad fortunes”. He cited those times when lecturers were not assigned to courses students would have registered for and other times when they were forced “carry more than they had bargained for” when they had to do more than the allotted number of courses in one semester.
He told the large gathering that students had to at times, embrace each other and keep focused on their goals to finally graduate. He implored his colleagues to utilize the knowledge and skills they gained to improve themselves, and the people around them. He urged them to contribute meaningfully to the community and have a positive impact on the people they encounter.
According to Ally, university has significantly improved the students’ intellectual capabilities, and as a result they would strive to serve their country well in a time when “we are confronted with new challenges everyday.”
He said Guyanese tended to be lured in a state of subservience to other people’s ideas and to adopt the “bandwagon principle”. This may not lead everyone to success and therefore he called on his fellow graduates to accept the responsibility of leading so that the country could have something to boast about.
Controversy
Ally was named valedictorian only recently after this honour had been conferred on another student, Ronley Kendall, and then subsequently withdrawn. Director of the Tain Campus Dr P Thakur had informed Kendall that he was the valedictorian. However, it was later found that there had been an error on the part of the Examinations Division since Ally’s grade, which had been reviewed and changed more than a year ago, had not been correctly forwarded to the Academic Board. The director extended his deepest apologies to Kendall for the error he had made. Kendall, who did not attend Saturday’s gradation exercise, was awarded the Demerara Bank & Ramsaroop Award for the Second Best Graduating Student. Only a few weeks ago some 31 commuting lecturers from Turkeyen Campus had withdrawn their services from the Tain Campus.
Some 145 students graduated from the campus and the feature address was delivered by PPP/C parliamentarian and attorney-at-law Moses Nagamootoo.
