Well, well, well! At long last, the Guyanese people got a statement out of the incestuous oligarchy that runs UG. It took an announcement from that most eminent West Indian academic Sir Hillary Beckles – Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, and, not so incidentally, the Chairman of the Caricom Reparations Commission – to perform this miracle. And all he said was that UWI have been approached by Pres Ali to have them train 20,000 Guyanese, via distance learning, on identified courses needed for his plan to create 50,000 jobs in the next 5 years.
Sir Hillary enthused: “This represents an opportunity not only to help build a fellow CARICOM nation’s capital infrastructure for economic, social and cultural development, but also to bring the University’s internationally recognised brand of excellence into the country.”
And that’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? “UWI’s internationally recognised brand of excellence”! The President just earned a PhD from UWI via their distance learning mechanism, and who best to judge their credentials and their ability to deliver very complex curricula?
And from his years as a Government Minister with a plethora of portfolios – Housing, Water, Tourism, Industry etc – President Ali would’ve been intimately familiar with the quality of UG’s offerings. How many of us with that unfortunate experience wouldn’t have ruefully shaken our heads at UG graduates who can’t even get subject and verb to agree in a sentence even though they’ve got all sorts of degrees?
The powers-that-be at UG now have their drawers all in a knot!! They issued a shrill statement saying, “The national University has not ceded its mandate and responsibilities, and UG is now offering more than 1000 courses online as part of ‘The University of Guyana Blueprint 2040’ strategy framework”! “not ceded it mandate”, eh? The question is: Did they consult with the Government when they issued that grand “Blueprint”?? It is clear that the Govt did look at it, and obviously found it wanting!
What President Ali is doing is to introduce competition into the delivery of the most crucial product needed for our development going forward: an educated workforce. And based on its record, UG just can’t measure up. Has the present UG Administration, which retained the grandiose designation of “Cabinet” for itself, cut back on its top-heavy salaries and fringe benefits to attract more qualified lecturers and professors? Who has it hired recently, but an old soulmate??
Compare the number of PhDs and Masters teaching at UWI vs UG…it’s chalk and cheese!! Some offerings from UG may have the same name as UWI’s …but it ain’t the same!
The Govt should now turn to India, which has perfected on-line education!!
…pharma supply
The news that the Government just dumped ONE BILLION DOLLARS’ worth of pharmaceuticals made your Eyewitness sick to his stomach (forgive the pun). This is just the topping on the most despicable record of the PNC in the pharma supply chain during its five years. It started, of course, with the scandalous rental of a PNC financier’s bottom house in Sussex Street to store drugs! This was quickly followed by a sole-sourced $600+million pharma purchase from Ansa McAL that violated so many other procurement laws.
And so it went on, and on, and on! So it’s not surprising that all these drugs must be dumped. The PNC and its Health Minister were clearly not concerned with supplying drugs needed by the people, such as to treat the rampant diabetes and hypertension in the poor of our land. These folks were routinely instructed by pharmacies at Public Health centres and hospitals to “go buy the drugs yourself”.
Imagine what $1billion could’ve done!!
…hapless PNC minnows
Jaipaul Sharma – the man who had a dream just before the elections that Granger was his “Daadee”, and as such left the JFAP and joined the PNC – just discovered that “knack gat knack back”!
His friend, .000007, is next!!
