AS the University of Guyana continues to map out returning to normalcy following the restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is projecting a tentative June 2021 return to its physical campuses.
This is according to the UG Annual Report 2019/2020, which was released on Tuesday. The report noted that, in the meantime, the university is in the process of creating 15 rooms to host Zoom meetings, and these are expected to be completed by the end of this month.
“The new Office of the Occupational Health and Safety (OOHAS) has created several protocols and training, and is managing the gradual re-opening of the university in accordance with assessments and GoG [Government of Guyana] ordinances,” the report said.
The report explained that, in the interim, the campuses have not been abandoned and “small teams of essential staff are continuously ensuring security, cleanliness, fumigation and maintenance of labs and centres that are running sensitive and continuous processes”.
The 2020/2021 Semester One which already started will end in February 2021, while Semester 2 will run from March – July, 2021, and graduation for the 2020 graduating class is scheduled for March 2021.

The report said that all matters for the graduating students “are to be prioritised to enable their graduation”.
“Letter of completion or transcripts, in the first instance, are to be supplied gratis till graduation,” the report noted.
In the report, the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Dr. Paloma Mohamed Martin, gave a “Special Summary Report” on “UG’s Institutional Response to the New COVID-19” which covered actions taken during the period March 11 – November 30, 2020, to deal with the affects that the COVID-19 caused in the country.
The first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Guyana on March 11, and learning institutions were ordered to close by law from March 16. That law was not lifted until November 2020.
The VC emphasised that notwithstanding learning institutions having been required to close, and challenges faced in light of this, UG never ceased for a day.

NOT INSURMOUNTABLE
“Despite being totally unprepared for this pandemic and though the challenges were real and stubborn in some cases, they were not insurmountable and we have proven that despite all of these challenges that UG has not stopped functioning for one single day,” Mohamed noted in the report.
She credits this to the actions taken by the university, including the creation of two task forces: an “Emergency Task Force for Infectious Disease” and an “Emergency Communications Task Force”, which crafted actions UG should take.

“As a result, UG was the first national entity to announce working online in ‘safe mode’ based on internal modelling. Simultaneously, a task force to support online transition of academic and service systems was activated and this enabled the ensuing actions and applications within two weeks of the safe mode being called,” she said.
The report said the Infectious Disease Task Force is working closely with the Government to support research and policy on the infectious disease, and a full institute has now emerged out of this process. Staffers were also trained to test for the virus.

“We continue to work with our national and internal scientists and geneticists on long-term solutions regarding the testing, prevention, management and curative aspects of managing the disease. Through the office of the DVC-AE, 12 staff at UG were trained to take tests and manage cases. It is expected that UG will do its own testing for suspected cases under a special agreement with the Ministry of Health,” the report relayed.
The university eventually transitioned to being online-based. UG also hired 438 part-time and over 400 full-time staff to increase use on its Moodle platform. Some 1026 or 80 per cent of all courses are moving to online.  Staff members were also provided with laptops to aid in the carrying out of the university’s work.