By Jomo Paul
President of the University of Guyana Student Society, Joshua Griffith detailed some of the work being done by UG’s administration in an effort to address their demands. While some promises were made to look at several pressing issues, it was noted that some of the issues raised required government’s intervention.
At a UGSS meeting on Monday, February 09, students raised concerns about the resumption of classes at the institution and in that regard it was decided that a special committee would be formed to facilitate an expeditious resumption of classes at Guyana’s primary stated-owned University.
At the meeting it was decided that the 8-member committee would be looking to serve as a mediator between the university’s administration and the workers union.
It was noted that the primary consensus coming from students is that they wanted a full resumption of operations at the university in the shortest possible time.
Officials had confirmed that at present approximately 5% of the student population are attending classes at the university on a daily basis. The classes are being taught by Lecturers who have not joined their colleagues in the strike action.
Meanwhile, Former Registrar of the UG Vincent Alexander told iNews in a recent telephone interview that while he believes the UG workers deserve an increase in salary, he is unwilling to speculate about an amount.
He told iNews that under former Vice Chancellor Dennis Craig a decision was made that when the tuition at the institution was increased, the salaries of workers would also be increased; however this policy was not adhered to with the latest increase in student tuition.
UG workers plan to strike until February 11 as they call on the administration to provide a 60% across the board increase in salaries. The unions had indicated their intention of writing the President and Labour Ministry to intervene in the issue.
