CONCERNED about the impact that the ongoing lecturers’ strike will have on their performance in upcoming exams, about 120 students from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts yesterday took to the streets.

During a protest staged outside the Ministry of Education’s Heroes Circle offices, they reaffirmed their support for the institution’s teachers who have been on strike since Monday, and flayed the government for its failure to quickly resolve the issue.

“We believe that right now the Ministry of Education is not showing the progress that we need to see,” said Omar Mazylne, who served as the group’s spokesperson.

The education ministry, he maintained, is indifferent to the concerns of both students and lecturers.

“We believe that they are lackadaisical in their attitude towards our teachers and we need to see a definite change in attitude and the way in which they speak to us,” he added.

Lecturers took industrial action to press for the implementation of pay increases which both government and the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) agreed upon earlier this year.

The students, who are set to start exams in less than two weeks, interpret the failure to swiftly resolve the issue as a direct attack on their choice of vocation.

“They are looking down on the Arts and I’m saying the Arts are just as important as lawyers (and) doctors,” Mazylne said.

The disgruntled students also used yesterday’s protest to call attention to deficiencies at the institution.

“We do not have a principal nor do we have a bursar. We have a lot of acting (heads of body). We have a lot of actors in our administration,” said Ebony Patterson, a final year student of the visual arts programme. “Had this been at UWI (University of the West Indies) or UTECH (University of Technology), this situation would’ve been cleared up a long time ago. The Arts are being taken for granted (but) it was the Arts that had a lot to do with (taking) this country to where it is now.”