Dear Editor,
I have seen a number of letters in the press, in which persons state their inability to pursue a major in English at the University of Guyana’s Tain campus. In some cases, it appears that these persons would have liked to pursue English as their substantive major subject, while in other cases, it seems that the letter writers would have liked to pursue a major in Education with a specialisation in English.
The then Department of English was among the first departments to offer a major when the Tain campus was opened in November, 2000. We had an intake of nine students of whom seven completed the programme. In the second year of Tain’s existence, however, we had only two applicants, both of whom registered. It was feasible to carry these two students along with the original nine, but even then, we had to make adjustments to the programme schedules for this to be so. In the year that followed, five students registered at Tain and were taken through to graduation under similar arrangements. However, after those had graduated, the numbers of applications to study English at Tain in subsequent years were similarly very poor, and in many years, there were no applications at all. Moreover, it had become difficult to carry those small numbers of students at Tain, and in fact, they had to complete some of their courses at Turkeyen.
The foregoing gives some idea of the difficulty that the department experienced in offering the English programme at Tain. Unlike some larger departments, we cannot sustain the cost and manpower needs of running two programmes when the number of students registering are so small and inconsistent from year to year. That is because, contrary to what some of the letter writers have claimed, we found it very difficult to find the manpower resources in Berbice to conduct courses in the full English programme. In order to graduate those whom we did, lecturers had to commute from Turkeyen to conduct courses at Tain, and the students in their final years had to travel to Turkeyen to complete some courses. This was neither cost-effective nor the most convenient arrangement for the students, and when the number of applicants dwindled to two, and sometimes none at all, it was not feasible to continue the programme.
However, there is some hope for prospective students since the Certificate in Education (English specialisation) will be offered at Tain in the new academic year. In addition, because the current Director is a specialist in English, and another lecturer has returned from leave, the prospects look much better for persons in Berbice who wish to study English as a major.
The department is always willing to commit the resources to mount its programmes at Tain, and we recognize the implications of not offering some of our programmes there. However, we work within some constraints, which have included the unavailability of suitable staff at Tain, and the size of the clientele that we have in Berbice.
Yours faithfully,
Alim Hosein
Head Department of Language and
Cultural Studies
