Karim: We never intended to close St Augustine Law Faculty

He spoke at a news conference yesterday at the Opposition Leader’s Office in Port-of- Spain, with Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh.

Karim justified the need for the Debe campus by saying 40 secondary schools lie in south Trinidad, from Couva to Cedros to Rio Claro to Guayaguarare, even as the St Augustine campus, with 19,000 students, has reached its full capacity.

The Debe campus was intended to have branches of the UWI, Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS), Roytec and Arthur Lok Jack School, he said.

“The Penal/Debe Campus was not to replace any faculty at the St Augustine Campus but to supplement and complement.” Asked if the political momentum still exists to complete the Debe campus, Karim said the PP government had provided $500 million to build it but a lack of activity some 20 months later suggests the momentum is not there.

Saying there is no reason to discontinue this construction, he said the facility is just 81 percent complete.

“I want to join my colleagues in calling for this campus to be completed.” .

He said the Council for Legal Education, which regulates the training for new entrants to the legal profession, had requested the former PP government to expand the HWLS.

Karim said the Debe campus would facilitate law students who would otherwise have to travel to England to study, including those with non-UWI LLB degress not selected for HWLS to do vocational training.