Mediocrity at St Augustine

THE EDITOR: When my onetime political colleague Dr Bhoe Tewarie assumed the leadership role at UWI, I intended to raise with him the serious and scandalous deficiency at UWI, which has so far escaped the highest intellectual talents of UWIs academia. I refer to the late correction of examination papers. UWIs introduction of evening classes prompts me to raise the subject now. Should we not first aim for excellence in our tertiary education, rather than dilute it by expanding? When TT got free secondary education, the country’s illiteracy skyrocketed. Many departments at UWI fail to deliver exam results on a timely basis and many students wait for months, and some even for years, for lackadaisical professors and lecturers to correct their papers.

These professors meanwhile pursue private interests to enhance their income, while students on the job market cannot submit their hard-earned credentials. Students enroll at UWI for a prescribed course of study with a stated timetable and are entitled to their exam results on completion. Having paid their fees, and the professors paid their salaries, UWI must deliver their certificate of achievement by a stated time. UWI otherwise is guilty of fraud. My friend Mr Robert Henry who recently retired as an Assistant Registrar at UWI related to me that, notwithstanding his UWI connection, his son had to wait four years before he could get his final exam results and his degree in petroleum engineering. When sometime later he mentioned his son’s predicament to the Engineering Dean, he got the surprising reply, “but why didn’t you see me?”

Senior UWI administrators apparently accept that the Centre of Mediocrity is in St Augustine, but the Centre of Excellence is in Tunapuna. When I once raised the issue with my friend Prof Ramsey Saunders, Head of Physics, he acknowledged the problem with acute embarrassment, but so ingrained is the incompetence at UWI that frustrated senior professors admit their impotence to do anything about it. About seven years ago my own daughter Pauline submitted her final MSc thesis report in May ’97, and immediately took up residence in Toronto. After 12 months of job hunting with the embarrassing apology for UWIs procrastination, a tutor (and one-time Senator) became annoyed at her frequent reminders and told her “not to call me again. I will call you.” Against her expressed wishes, I decided to highlight her sorry plight in the press, and shortly after received a phone call from Professor Rowbottom in Jamaica, with a profound apology.

In reply to his question, I told him “no one from St Augustine contacted me about my complaint.” Barring the non-academic strike which then intervened, Pauline got her degree three or four weeks after, and took up her teaching job — but it had taken 14 months. I suspect that Prof Saunders had forwarded the newspaper story to Rowbottom, but what cannot be overlooked is that no one on the St Augustine Campus, neither the Principal nor the errant lecturer, had seen any need to take any action. The impact of late results on the employment prospects of UWI graduates rank second in importance after UWIs renowned Carnival fete. UWI displays some of the worst features of the public service. There are no particular standards, and even mature students, working men and women do not feel at liberty to rub the lecturers the wrong way for fear of victimisation.

What a sad reflection on the maturity of our university community, where instead of producing leaders with independent minds for leadership roles, UWI is flooding the job market with more mice than men. Your job Bhoe must be to lift standards. Teaching staff must get serious. UWI graduates must not only seek a piece of paper as a passport to a better job. They must learn from the UWI environment to be punctual, to be steadfast and focused in all their pursuit, to be honest in their work ethic, to show commitment and deliver on promises. They should be inspired by those who teach, and those who cannot deliver exam papers on time should be dismissed. Graduates should not be short changed because professor so-and-so is moonlighting in order to buy a bigger car, or to build apartments near UWI to provide for his retirement income.

MICHAEL J WILLIAMS
Maracas