‘Students should not be held ransom’, says UWI Guild president
KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Guild of Students at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona have issued a call for lecturers at the St Augustine campus in Trinidad and Tobago to release student’s grades immediately.
The lecturers are awaiting word from the university as to when they will receive retroactive payments due to them and as such, have withheld the grades of the students.
President of the Mona Guild of Students Lerone Laing told OBSERVER ONLINE that they are joining their partners in St Augustine, in voicing their “disapproval in the form in which the industrial action is taking place by staff under The West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT)”.
“Students should not be held ransom as a result of an impasse between the university administration and the lecturers,” reasoned Laing. “It should be the intent of all involved in the teaching/learning process to protect students’ interest and we are more than disappointed that this is the route taken to have concerns addressed.”
Trinidad Express reported last Thursday that the St Augustine Students’ Guild issued a statement saying it raised the issue of withholding grades with the campuses’ principal, Professor Clement Sankat, who informed them that the decision was taken at the academic board meeting that grades would be released later than usual to facilitate a thorough review under the new Grade Point Average system.
Trinidad Express said the release stated that the grades would be released “either on or after January 15, 2015”.
The students’ guild, according to Trinidad Express, however, said “recent developments” revealed that there was an impasse between the university and its lecturers over retroactive payments. The guild of students said the lecturers were withholding their students’ marks and condemned the industrial action.
The UWI Mona Students’ Guild on Thursday also condemned the actions of the lectureres at the St Augustine campus and vowed to continue monitoring the situation.
“I have made a special call for the action in the form it currently exists to cease and that all lecturers who might have been delaying the release of grades for this reason to release them immediately in the name of good ethics and morality as is taught at the University of the West Indies,” said Laing.
Anika Richards
