Horrible situation at COSTATT

THE EDITOR: I write this open letter to Costatt’s Administration in Port-of-Spain to solicit an open response from them as to whether, indeed they care about providing quality tertiary education for Tobagonians who attend Costatt’s Tobago Learning Centre. I know that you know of Costatt’s continuing perennial failure, and refusal to supply Tobago students with ‘Student Identification Cards.’ The result of this action or lack of it is that Costatt denies us students our right to borrow books from the library, since students are required to have the relevant identification card in order to access this service. Indeed, two months have elapsed since the beginning of this semester resulting in two months of us not being able to borrow books. Thus two months of Costatt’s denial.

There is yet another issue for which an explanation from Costatt is sought. Costatt supplies the book Fundamentals of Writing used by students who do Communication 107. Sadly though, after about six weeks of its failure to make this book available to us, the school provided the book and forced us to pay the full original price. In addition to the non-functional photo-copying machine in the office, there is the issue of the library closing during lunch time, resulting in students being forced to vacate, as the Librarian exercises her right for time to have lunch. I hate to think that such contempt to your Tobago students at The Tobago Learning Centre is deliberate. Rather, I suspect it falls into the norm of treating Tobago as an after-thought. Whatever, the truth is, this situation is horrible.

JOHN BROWN
Store Bay