IT is obvious that the officers of the Department of Education feel threatened by the intellectual ability of the graduates and prospective graduates of the University of Guyana. As an affected student of the University of Guyana, I want the public to understand our position. It is always a royal push around when we visit the Department of Education in Region 6 to obtain release to attend classes at UGBC. If we arrive at 09:00 h, a top education official usually keeps us waiting there for hours. Then, to our dismay, one of the junior officers would inform us that the top official would attend to us in the afternoon session at 13:00 h. It would be some two hours of waiting again before we could actually meet with the official. Some of us considered it ‘luck’ to have our releases as she finds faults with a simple correction made with white out. The official also levels insulting remarks to belittle us in the presence of all at her Department.
There is poor record keeping at the Department of Education. The officers frequently misplace documents teachers submit. Applications for Whitley Council Leaves and Acting Appointments disappear mysteriously in that office. Many of us submitted our releases to our respective schools yet they were not provided to the Regional Executive Officer.
While we go through this struggle, I humbly ask the President of Guyana to evaluate the quality of these officers at the Department of Education. There is need for much ‘in house’ cleaning. Why should we have education officials who disgrace the very essence of the words “University of Guyana graduates?”