By Frances Abraham
University of Guyana (UG) staffers and students on Wednesday staged protests for urgent action to be taken to address the conditions at the Turkeyen Campus, including the replacement of the current University Council.
Members of the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA), the University of Guyana Workers Union (UGWU) and the University of Guyana Students Society (UGSS), which are leading ‘Operation Rescue UG,’ protested in front of the Public Buildings during Wednesday’s sitting of the National Assembly. A protest was also to be staged in front of the Pro-Chancellor’s Office earlier in the day.
The new protests were initiated after the unions accused the UG administration of failing to live up to agreed terms of resumption for the end of previous industrial action. They also say that demands for improved conditions at the campus are not receiving the level of urgency required from the administration and the political parties.
Although the political parties requested a dossier of the issues affecting the university along with proposals and recommendations for changes, the unions say they have failed to date to use the information provided in any meaningful way.
“We picketed here because we wanted the opposition to see us out there and to realise that the problems are the same, there has been no change,” UGSSA President Dr Patsy told Stabroek News.
Francis, who said the council is a major problem, noted that with the extension of its life expiring at the end of the month, it is only fit that it be addressed now. “We want it to be changed. We don’t want any ambiguity… and it has to be changed in Parliament. We need the university to be fixed before the new academic year,” she added.
The unions and the student body representatives blame the current council for presiding over the university’s deterioration. As a result, in March they launched a petition for the council’s replacement and sought support from both government and opposition members of the National Assembly.
The petition asks that Minister of Education Priya Manickchand consult with the civil society groups to appoint council members; that no current non-academic council member be appointed to serve on the new body; and that new non-academic council members be distinguished, experienced and principled individuals. It has not been laid in the National Assembly as yet.
Francis noted that the petition had not yet been read and as a result they have decided to picket at the Public Buildings to highlight the situation.
The university, she said, remains in dire strains. “Yes, a few toilets were probably replaced here and there and a few roofs here and there but we are still in deficit, we still can’t pay [Pay As You Earn],” she lamented.
Francis also noted the council’s failure to abide by the terms of resumption for the end of industrial action earlier in the semester. “The Pro-Chancellor (Dr. Prem Misir) keeps claiming that he does not know about the state of the university or the status of meetings. We want to know how is that, because he is the Pro-Chancellor! He is saying that the administration is not keeping him informed, so we decided to keep him informed through public protests,” she added.
Meanwhile, UGSSA Vice-President Dr. Melissa Ifill, who was part of the protest, said that she was equally concerned about the students as she was about the staff and she declared that industrial action will continue until their demands are met.
“We resumed work under the condition that our concerns would be addressed and to date, nothing has been addressed in a proper manner. We had excellent consultations with the Minister of Education, the Leader of the Opposition, with other parliamentary parties, the Pro-Chancellor and the administration, so we were hopeful that, on that basis, efforts would have been made to speed up the process and alleviate some of the problems,” she said.
Ifill reiterated that the Turkeyen Campus is in need of urgent action, while noting that the World Bank $US10M loan for science and technology would definitely assist in rescuing it. “We do not [know] what is the hold up of the World Bank loan… it would certainly help. It would not solve all of our problems but it would certainly help. We cannot understand the slow manner in which the administration and the government forces are moving,” she said.
Also present on the picket line was President of UGSS Duane Edwards, who stated that the university has been neglected. “We are protesting and picketing for higher quality education at the University of Guyana, which is the sole university of the nation. The university has been neglected… the facilities are in dire state, everything seems to be deteriorating and at a very fast rate,” he noted.
Edwards added that “the students are the future of Guyana. The students will be the future leaders, the future democrats, the future workers and if they are not given the kind of quality education they deserve, the future of the country, then, is at stake.”
