Acknowledging that the situation at the University of Guyana was “grave” President David Granger told executive members of the students’ body, UGSS, that most of their problems will be addressed before the start of the new academic year.
According to a release from the Ministry of the Presidency, after meeting with the students on Thursday the President promised, “By the time the next academic year starts most of these problems will be dealt with. Of course, not completely, but we would like to have some of these problems rectified. So we will try to rectify these before next semester and when the Minister of Finance is back in the country I would like to engage him and it will be in the presence of the Vice Chancellor and the Chancellor, if he is still here, and the Minister of Education. This is a grave situation and I would never try to sweep this under the carpet.”
The release stated that during the almost two-hour long meeting, the President allowed the students, led by outgoing President of the University of Guyana Student’s Society (UGSS) Joshua Griffith and incoming President Ron Glasgow, to share their concerns and make their presentations.
“Among the issues raised was the lack of lecturers, lack of furniture in the classrooms, the presence of animals on campus, lack of recreational facilities, absence of practical assessments and functioning and equipped laboratories for first and second year students, what are considered unhelpful policies of the university and the perception of lack of respect and regard for the welfare of students by the university’s administration,’ the release said.
Speaking with Stabroek News on Saturday Griffith explained that they were asked to prioritise their concerns and highlight the three most pressing.
“We noted that the lack of respect and regard for students on the part of the administration was the most troubling as students are very angry with the disrespect they face. We are also concerned about the poor facilities especially with the increase in facilities’ fees as well as the lack of transparency and accountability at the institution. No one ever accepts responsibility,” he said.
He explained that the UGSS has extended an open invitation to the President to visit the campus to become familiar with the situation on the ground.
“We were able to present him with live time situations because we had a campaign on campus where students were encouraged to present their concerns for us to share with the President or Minister. Our #shareitwiththepresident and #shareitwiththeminister campaign generated several stories which we were able to present to the President. He was disturbed at these realities and has promised to engage several stakeholders…” Griffith explained.
In the release the ministry note that President Granger, who has always been a firm advocate for education, found the meeting to be “sobering”.
“What you have described here, which I do not doubt… is very grim. The standards of sanitation and even the infrastructure are unacceptably low,” he told the students.
He reiterated that having emphasised the importance of science he would certainly like to see more scientists coming out of the university, more engineers to build our highways and bridges and roads in the hinterland, more biologists, more chemists and more botanists.
“This country cannot develop without an efficient university… so that is my vision. My vision for the university is inseparable from my vision of the country… I will certainly work on this…, he was quoted as saying.
With regard to reports of challenges in the relationship between the university’s administration and the students, the Head of State opined that the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of the university should address those issues.
While Griffith is quoted in the release as saying that the President was very accommodating and expressing enthusiasm about the President’s plan for the way forward, he was a bit reserved while speaking with Stabroek News.
“The President outlined the plan forward with regard to engaging ministers and engaging the administration. However everyone he will be speaking with from the Ministers to the chancellor, vice chancellor and registrar will be new individuals and I’m not sure they fully understand the situation on the ground,” he said.
In the release he is quoted as saying that UGSS was appreciative of the engagement with the President even while he acknowledged that there is work to be done by the students.
“We did set some timelines and so we know what we have to do now… we also have some homework. So we need to get the work done on our end so that we can work together to develop our University [to] best serve the interests of the Guyanese, the students and all other stakeholders and that is what we intend to do,” he said.
