Dear Editor,
Five members of staff of the Linden Technical Institute have been told that their services are not needed as long as student to staff ratios remain at the current levels.
The disciplines in which the un-hired were engaged were Automotive Electrical Repairs, Carpentry, Masonry, Industrial Relations, Commercial Law and Accounting. One of these was qualified enough to be a credible applicant for the post of Principal of the institution. The un-hiring of these five members of staff some of whom have given in excess of six years service to the institution on a part-time basis with the expectation that their services would have been regularized, raises a number of question as to the preparedness of the institution to meet the goals of an adequate delivery of education to the region’s young.
For the people of Region 10 the Institute is not just another educational institution, as its heritage is rich, contributing to the local regional and world economy in providing the skills which have kept industries turning. Further, it contributes to social stability by engaging the imaginations of the young people who attend it. The administration is responsible for the establishment of an environment in the institution which is marked by the principles of justness, fair play, truth and decency. The un-hiring of these five are indicative of the absence of these principles from the culture of the institution. The consequences are implied.
It is not that the indiscretions of the five are any worse than that of any other staff member who have been kept on. The statements justifying their un-hiring by either the heads of department, the Board Chairman or the Principal of the institution bear little credibility.
Could the term “inadequate student to staff ratio” be interpreted as administrative incompetence, witch-hunting and vindictiveness?
The release of a masonry lecturer and automotive electrical engineer must raise questions of administrative competence and foresight. Linden is a community which is experiencing a boom in housing construction of particularly concrete houses. It has also seen the increase in citizens turning to the provision of transportation services as a means of mitigating the decrease of the bauxite industry’s capacity to provide employment for the citizens. The cry of overstaffing is made even more ridiculous when it is considered that the Takutu Bridge was recently commissioned. Does the administration of the Institution know of the potential demand for all sorts of motor repair services which will result from the traffic generated though Linden? Are they preparing for these developments? And why doesn’t the institute run an electronic servicing/repair course?
The quality of administration of the institution, quality of students and staff, relevance of programmes, and the human relations climate in the institution are other important elements, which could be assessed for the attractiveness and ability to sustain a student population. Could more staff members soon find themselves being sent home for inadequate student to staff ratios? Are all members of the teaching staff remaining on the job employed in programmes with the requisite teacher student ratio? What is the acceptable teacher student ratio? Did the board engage in an investigation to ensure that this requirement has been met? Could it provide this information to the community of Linden?
Is there a possibility that the administrators of education are missing a trick here? Could it be that the fall of the institution has nothing to do with the five members of staff who have not been rehired and with more fundamental issues of job security, the qualifications of the lecturing staff at the institution, the quality of administration and the administrators, and the human relations climate at the institution?
The top five administrators of the institution are all acting in the positions of Heads of Departments, Deputy Principalship and Principalship respectively, some for close to a decade. The administrators of education would do well to consider the negative effects of such a situation on the staff performance. The Minister of Education is well qualified to advise on this issue.
A negative tradition has crept into the academic culture of the community that is, that the “Trade School” is the place for the academically challenged. The spin-off is that the more academically qualified may have refused to attend the institution to which their less illustrious peers have been relegated. A further consequence over the years has been in order to attract numbers the entrance requirements have been lowered and at times even ignored. Could it be that the shock suffered by those who thought that vocational and technical education did not require industry and dedication and who would have left the institution further deflated, would provide negative PR for the institution? In Linden Technical Institute’s case the undefined patchwork approach to technical and vocational education nationwide in Guyana is of no help.
Further compounding the problems resulting from the expectations of students is the ability and qualifications of those responsible for the delivery of education at the institute. Has the Ministry’s regulations and the principles of just plain commonsense been adhered to in the appointment of staff to various classes. Is it not utterly ridiculous, nay nauseous to replace a qualified social scientist to teach Industrial Relations with an electrician who has a Bachelors Degree in Education?
Two events in recent times however have resulted in the rapid diminution of the student population at the institution: a strike over working conditions and the irresponsible disturbance of asbestos in the school.
The five have one thing in common; they are all qualified, have performed well under the circumstances and were very critical of the Principal’s handling of the asbestos issue at the school, which directly exposed students and staff to the disturbed material in the institution’s buildings. What followed was a drastic reduction in hours for some lecturers, uninformed and arbitrary reductions in lecturers’ pay, reports to the police by the principal that lecturers had threatened him and an agreement with the Human Resources Committee Chairman to wipe the slate clean. Little did we know that that may have meant this outcome.
Yours faithfully,
Jonathan Adams
