Dear Editor,
This letter was triggered by the experiences of a family friend who migrated last year from Guyana. This young man had experienced hell to get his transcript from Guyana’s highest educational institution. Prompted by this experience, I embarked on a mission to dig deeper into this problem and discovered from speaking to a number of Guyana graduates from various educational institutions who migrated to North America that the transcript issue is a serious one. One individual mentioned that she had to return to Guyana to obtain her transcript because she was about to lose her conditional acceptance to a quality university in the USA. The consensus is that it is sometimes essential to “know” someone in the respective transcript/registrar office to assist and expedite the process because the normal channel is clogged with delay, ineptitude and a lack of awareness of the importance of efficiency. Another pressing concern raised was that of the quality of the transcripts received. Some transcripts reportedly had glaring grammatical errors, poor formatting, were issued on substandard paper and had what appeared to be less than professional authentication and security features leading to a plethora of questions by overseas institutions and employers about the genuineness of the transcripts. Cost discrepancy and bizarre rules are additional issues as it is reportedly a lot more expensive to obtain a University of Guyana transcript for employment purposes than for academic purposes. Then there are complications of misplaced and incorrect records and other inadequacies that plague the system and process.
The unquestionable truth is that the record-keeping systems of educational institutions in Guyana are atrocious. For a nation that is witness to a dramatic loss of the bulk of its professionals and graduates every year the problem of getting records is a critical and staggering one. Graduates who leave for better opportunities expect quality documentation and authentication of their academic work to provide to employers, educational institutions, accreditation authorities and other bodies in order to compete successfully in their new world. Delays, quality issues, cost concerns and other issues are too problematic for those graduates who leave to seek better jobs and opportunities in order to contribute in large numbers to Guyana’s development by sending remittances and other aid back to Guyana. Furthermore, with the North American baby boomer generation set to retire and to slow down their involvement in the workforce over the next two decades, the Guyana brain drain should accelerate thereby compounding the problem. Some may say why should Guyana facilitate and ease the transition of its departing graduates. The answer is why is Guyana facilitating the influx of remittances from those same graduates and their family.
A standardized system of record-keeping and transcript management should be instituted. It is about time the educational institutions in Guyana aggressively restructure this area and provide better service and transcripts to those requesting them. The last time I needed a transcript from my university here in North America, I had a choice of requesting it online, by fax and over the telephone. The turnaround time was one week. I did not have to speak to anyone and there were no hiccups. Its about time Guyana gets with the programme.
Yours faithfully,
M Maxwell
