(Trinidad Express) Two former principals of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Prof Clement Sankat and Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie do not agree with the West Indies Group of University Teachers’ (WIGUT) approach to withhold student grades to pressure Government to increase the educators’ salaries.
It is the second year running this strategy had been utilised by WIGUT.
Tewarie is blaming the Government for giving citizens and trade unions the wrong impression surrounding the state of the economy.
In a response to WhatsApp questions from the Sunday Express, Tewarie said students should not be held to ransom “and withholding grades should not be a weapon in the fight for improved salaries”.
He suggested lecturers should instead use the experience as a teaching moment for the students and “explain what the issues are so that becomes part of their learning and understanding about the society and the economy that they are living in”.
“What is education for, anyway?” Tewarie, who was principal of The UWI’s St Augustine campus for six years from 2001, asked rhetorically.
Sankat, in a phone interview yesterday, said the path WIGUT was undertaking was nothing new and was something every UWI principal had to endure. “I have experienced that both as a student at UWI and I have experienced it as a staff member, as a staff member and as a principal,” he recalled. Sankat held the position of principal of The UWI, St Augustine, between 2008 and 2016.
He noted he would not appreciate students not getting their grades on time so that they couldn’t progress from one semester to the next.
He said at one time it had affected students awaiting graduation.
On Friday, the last teaching day for the semester at The UWI, WIGUT lecturers and administrative members staged a shutdown of the campus by staying away.
The day was called “Blackout Friday” and those considered essential were asked to wear black in order to stand with the protesting workers.
Late Friday, WIGUT president Dr Indira Rampersad called the protest action a success, saying that apart from the union’s membership heeding the call, Finance Minister Colm Imbert gave a response in Parliament. Rampersad said it was the first time since November last year that Imbert had addressed their situation.
If the Government were to accept the salary proposals from WIGUT, the backpay retroactive to March 2024 would be $701 million, Imbert told the House of Representatives.
“I do not think it is prudent to impose a burden of backpay of $701 million on the taxpayers of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said, as he responded to a question in the House of Representatives from Couva South MP Rudy Indarsingh on the urgent measures being pursued by the Government to avoid a complete shutdown of The UWI, St Augustine, given the rejection of the Government’s 2% offer for the period 2015-2017 by WIGUT.
Imbert said he wanted to correct the statement in the question that there would be a total collapse of the St Augustine campus. “I don’t think so. I think that is just an alarmist wording from the member for Couva South,” he said.
Economy has shrunken
Tewarie was asked his opinion about WIGUT’s salary proposal given the state of the economy.
“The Government is directly responsible for confusion about the economic climate in the country. For ten years in every budget, the Minister of Finance said that our economy was going great. Anyone expressing another point of view was chastised or marginalised. Yet the size of the T&T economy has shrunk by close to 20% over the period,” Tewarie said.
He argued that earlier this year was the first time Imbert had explained that the economy was facing difficulties when he filed an affidavit in the High Court in which he explained the difficult state of the economy and the problem of revenue.
Tewarie called it a rare admission of continuing financial stress that surprised commentators and editorial writers.
“The Report of the Salaries Review Commission (SRC) recommending increases for the State employees is yet another reason for confusion. How can some be favoured with substantial increases and the majority demand for better wages in a clear case of higher cost of living, reduction of purchasing power, and diminishing conditions for middle and working class be justified? Such irrationality, taken as realities of a national system at work, makes it unreasonable to classify demands for wage increases by workers as unreasonable or irrational. The question of fairness, balance and reasonableness arise. And all those demanding increases see is unfairness, arbitrariness and irrationality.
“So, things have gotten out of hand given the state of natural gas production, energy prices, and fall in revenue. But whose fault is that really? Workers deserve increases in order to live in this climate, but our country does not have the means to afford it,” Tewarie stated.
He continued: “But the Government admits no wrong, accepts no responsibility, and told the citizens for the last decade that our country was on the right track. The truth is that we were on an inevitable collision course and now we are here.”
Speaking to the Sunday Express, Sankat said it was important for everyone to understand the economic realities and said that over time the Government needed to raise the salary for university staff in a few salary cycles.
He however stated that as a former member of WIGUT’s executive, he could say negotiations needed to be more efficient.
“It’s arduous and its very difficult because the union could propose to the campus principal because the staff works for the university. It does not work for the Government. They work for the university. So, rightly the proposals for whatever wage increases and benefits they will like to get, it goes to the campus principal who together with her managers then makes a recommendation to the Government through the Minister of Education which then goes to the CPO, which I think then goes to the Minister of Finance. So, it’s a very circuitous system,” Sankat said.
‘Need different fund model’
Tewarie also believes The UWI needs a different funding model.
“The Government of T&T and the governments of the region need to state clearly where these economies are headed, and therefore how UWI needs to transform and into what. Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean need to know where they are headed, but UWI needs to point to clear directions, too. What are small open economies supposed to do in this age of AI and globally integrated value chains?
“Wherever we are in the world, we have to be prepared for the impact the world will have on us and the impact that we can have in the world and the space that we must make for ourselves. Government, business, universities must collaborate much more meaningfully for coherence. We need to keep good people at UWI—teachers, researchers, students—but we must pay them well and demand performance and standards too.
“UWI must focus research to be locally and regionally relevant and build international alliances to be globally valued. Salaries and desirable working conditions are part of the mix, but as I said the curriculum strategy and the funding model has to be revisited. I don’t think that the State can continue to fund at the current level.”
Sankat said when he was principal he had asked for tuition fees to be raised on several occasions. He said it was needed to ensure The UWI was more self-sustainable.
Supportive but worried
When the Sunday Express visited The UWI and spoke with students on the campus, most said they were aware of the protest action by WIGUT, but were not familiar with the details.
Several said they supported the teachers but when told that part of the lecturers’ protest involved postponing putting grades on the banner system some students said this was unfair.
Two final year students who gave their names as “Edwards” and “Daniel” said they supported the lecturers.
They said they were at the end of their UWI experience and did not need their grades to move on to the next semester.
But a second year mathematics student who gave his name only as “Isaac” said while he agreed that teachers should be compensated fairly for the work they performed he disagreed with their execution.
“That is keeping me back. There is a total disregard for the student,” he said.
A student named Ali who said she was pursing studies in computer science and management said if lecturers in other Caribbean territories were getting pay increases, then it was justifiable for local lecturers to ask for more.
She added: “I think education is one of the most important things for Trinidad and Tobago right now. We are falling behind. So, in that aspect more money should be dedicated to getting the best teachers at the campus. That increase I am sure will help both teachers and students.”
Ali opined that she believed taxpayers’ money was being spent in some of the wrong places.
Another student who told the Sunday Express that she was a secondary school teacher explained that she saw the issue from both sides.
However, she said while she empathised with the students, she understood why the lecturers would choose that option.
