Dear Editor,
With the Staffordshire scandal, GOAL is now under the spotlight of the public, and they must respond and provide information as necessary to assure the nation of its high-quality work. It must upgrade its website to provide more information on its operations. An editorial “Academic Trafficking” (SN, March 14) has raised the question of what happens to students’ academic work such as theses and dissertations and has called for GOAL to ensure copyright protection of such work since we are dealing with several foreign universities who may have different rules for such things. I don’t know what sparked the editorial whether students’ work are being appropriated by others, or whether the editor simply wants to alert GOAL of good practices.
To be fair, GOAL is a brilliant initiative that was meant to provide equal access to higher education to all Guyanese. It is a “great equalizer” programme buttressed by universal higher education with the Govern-ment’s introduction of a “free” University of Guyana education. It is Government’s way of addressing youth needs and boosting its human resource development to meet the needs of a growing economy. Kudos to the Government for such an accomplishment. How many Cari-com countries do that? Even the US does not give free university education!
GOAL is in its infancy and must use public comment to make necessary on-going improvements. In any great organization, leaders must always welcome feedback as a friend, even though such responses may be seen as critical. Customer feedback must always be welcome and intentionally solicited as smart businesses do, asking you if you are willing to give feedback on the business contact you made. Organiza-tions cannot be thin-skinned when the feedback provides criticisms. Critiques make us better; it does not mean people hate you. That’s what helps us to improve. I always give feedback whenever a business asks me to, because I care.
In the USA, in 1998, my university had my dissertation copyrighted and it can be accessible through a plethora of repositories of Libraries and academic databases such as Dissertations Abstracts International and ProQuest. As part of good accountability for publicly funded initiatives, GOAL must ensure it has operational procedures for the protection of students’ work as raised by the editorial. We would all love to read the theses and dissertations done by our students, especially those who completed their doctorates in 3 years. There are some folks in Guyana who carry the title “Dr.” but you may not find a dissertation for some folks. The GOAL Director is a man of quality and I am sure he will take heed to the SN’s editorial. We have to ensure GOAL is operated so well that customer service is excellent, GOAL staff are easily and readily accessible, and that communications are efficient. All Guyana is glad that GOAL is available to anyone and that it is creating an opportunity culture for all citizens.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
Civil Society Advocate
