— June 1 set as tentative reopening date

THE University of Guyana (UG) has issued a statement clarifying that campuses will reopen on June 01, 2020 and not May 30 as it has previously announced.
UG, in the statement, explained that May 30 is a hard-set date for the return of staff and students to physical face-to-face mode of instruction.

And on that score, it noted that June 1, 2020 is the new tentative date for UG staff and students to return to the physical campuses (Turkeyen and Tain) and IDCE should conditions permit.

Additionally, the university noted that the Transitional Management Committee (TMC) had originally proposed that (UG staff and students) could return to the physical campuses on May 6, 2020, but that date has since been extended to June 1, 2020, tentatively. The return to both campuses (Turkeyen and Tain) is a pending observation and contingent upon local and global conditions with COVID-19, the university noted.
One concerned third year student, Rokyisha Bowman, expressed her concerns in a brief remark to the Guyana Chronicle.

“With regards to the University of Guyana opening, I think it’s a bad idea, knowing the current situation Guyana is in. Although I miss being on campus and learning in actual classrooms, it is better for us to stay at home.”
The young woman also stated that with that with the number of rising cases in Guyana, if the university should open its campus, it will inevitability risk an even higher outbreak of the virus due to its sizable student population.

“Here in Guyana we have 82 confirmed cases, we still don’t know what the actual number of people with the virus is. The University of Guyana has a lot of students too so transmission, I believe, is inevitable if it is to open so soon,” she noted.
Another student who requested to remain anonymous shared similar views.

“To be honest, I’m not for the campus opening on June 1. The current health situation is too unstable and the outcome too unpredictable to let anyone out into an area that will be overly crowded such as the campus,” the student said.
Another student, Claude Semple, stated that the announcement date of an opening for campuses should be placed on hold until the pandemic ends.

He added that if the university should open the doors of its campuses, very few students will attend classes since many are concerned about their health rather than their studies during the health crisis.

STILL FUNCTIONING
The university had stated that, like many other tertiary institutions the world over, it faces the challenge to keep working and keeping the nations brightest educated while providing solutions to Guyana’s problems.

Since the pandemic, the university has moved to online classes.
The university, however, acknowledged that about 25 per cent of its students will not be able to immediately respond well to an online environment, and noted that these matters will take a few weeks to be addressed.

However, the national university maintains that despite being totally unprepared for the pandemic, and though the challenges are real and stubborn in some cases, they are not insurmountable.

Some emergency policy measures implemented by UG include:

1. Zero-rated data use for any staff or student using a site with a UoG URL. This means thanks to negotiations with local telecoms giant, GTT, UG staff and students do not pay now for going online using UG dedicated systems to learn.
2. A deployed response email fixug@uog.edu.gy interface for processing unusual requests which could not be accommodated by the present software applications for students and lecturers to report issues not captured in the questionnaire which needed to be addressed.
3. Introduced several flexible pathways for students struggling in these circumstances to manage academic and other challenges.
4. Deferred payments of outstanding fees in response to requests from students twice as an early mitigation measure.
5. In response to prevailing conditions, Faculties began work to reform assessments, final exams, practicum, field trips, labs and internships. This refined UG emergency assessment policy is expected to be in place by May 15.
6. Based on modelling and assessments, return to physical campus is now tentatively rescheduled to May 30, 2020.
7. As such UG’s Academic Calendar is revised so that the end of semester is extended to June-July. A rolling registration will continue to account for CXC decisions about its CSEC and CAPE exams for 2020. It is expected that two possible commencement of new semester dates could be contemplated, October 2020 and February 2021 and that a possible choice of online, F2F or blended could be offered to students in the future.
8. Graduation may still be possible for final year students in most disciplines in December 2020 and /or January 2021. All matters for these final year students are to be prioritised to enable their graduation.
9. Advanced actions have been taken to source resources for the 20-25 per cent of UG staff and students who are capacity and resource challenged to continue their education online.
10. Action Assessment Project “UG Cares” will provide modest material and psychosocial support to UG staff, students and alumni with philanthropic, student and volunteer resources. Key partners for this project are: ExxonMobil and its partners, GTT and UG’s Student Support Fund.
11. On the COVID-19 specifically, UG continues to work with our national and internal scientists and geneticists on long-term solutions on the testing, prevention, management and curative aspects of managing of the disease.
12. On the physical side, though practising safe mode and physical distancing, the campuses have not been abandoned. Small teams of essential staff have continuously ensured security, cleanliness, fumigation and maintenance of labs and centres running sensitive and continuous processes.
13. UG also created and shared seven one minute “How to Protect Yourself Against Covid-19 videos” for the general public. These were widely disseminated internally, in the Diaspora and internationally.