The University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS) has said that it welcomes the decision to postpone the reopening for the 2012/2013 academic year, citing numerous problems affecting the institution.
The UGSS said it is quite aware that the university is beset by a host of crippling problems and therefore it was taken aback by the administration’s attempt to lay blame for the postponement of the re-opening of UG at the feet of ‘Operation Rescue UG’, a press release from UGSS President Duane Edwards said last evening.
“The fact of the matter is that it is somewhat a minor miracle that, with the numerous problems affecting it, the university still manages to operate, albeit at a significantly reduced capacity,” Edwards said.
According to the UGSS president, what the UG administration should be telling the public is that there is a gross shortage of teaching staff as a result of the failure of the Appointments Committee to meet, hire and re-hire teaching staff; and further that the Appointments Committee cannot meet because it is a sub-committee of the currently defunct University Council.”
He also noted that “it is startling that absolutely nothing was said to the public about the whopping 500 million dollar deficit with which the university is beginning this academic year and the fact that the slothfulness exhibited by lecturers to mark exam scripts in a timely manner interferes with the registration process which in turn interferes with timely income (by means of tuition fees) for the university.”
Moreover, the UGSS expressed surprise that “absolutely nothing was said about the massive repainting work now ongoing at UG which would have rendered the beginning of classes impossible because of the health risk involved in classes being carried on in such circumstances.”
The UGSS said that being aware of the existing situation at UG, it welcomes the decision to postpone the reopening.
“It is our view that the postponement gives the university a two weeks period to adequately prepare itself for a somewhat seamless and uneventful opening. It also, hopefully, will lessen the period of disorientation usually faced by the students in their attempt to ascertain their grades for the last academic year (a large percentage of which has not yet been published) and to know if they will have to repeat any courses, carry lesser loads this semester, or make any other decisions which depend on them knowing their grades,” Edwards stated.
He posited that, hopefully, it would also render unnecessary, students having to waste their time and money to go to classes only to read on the notice boards or hear by some other means that ‘there will be no classes until further notice’ because classes usually start two weeks or more after the official opening.
The UGSS said it hopes that with the two weeks extension, all classes will start promptly and “we don’t have a situation whereby lecturers fail to start their classes on time in spite of the postponement.”
The UGSS would rather the university re-open two weeks later, provided that many of the shortcomings pinpointed be rectified, rather than on the formerly scheduled date with students having to be inconvenienced by the lack of the administration’s preparedness, the release added.
