(Trinidad Express) Examinations may have to be rescheduled for students at The University of the West Indies (The UWI), St Augustine, this semester as dozens of staff members represented by the West Indies Group of University Teachers (WIGUT) are holding on to exam papers until they receive a remit.
This was disclosed by pro vice-chancellor and campus principal Prof Rose-Marie Belle Antoine yesterday after WIGUT members demanded she speak with them during their protest.
Following the union’s last protest in March, members were informed by UWI management that the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) promised to respond to their request within six weeks.
That six-week period ends on Sunday, and the CPO is yet to respond.
As such, WIGUT continued protest action yesterday for lecturers and staff who have not had an increase in salary since 2014.
The union said there will be no submission of examination papers unless a remit is obtained.
Exams are set to begin next week.
Lecturers and senior staff once again used placards, loudspeakers and drums, and chanted as they marched across the campus yesterday shouting: “No remit, no exam. We want we remit right now!”
Assembling outside Antoine’s office, they demanded that the principal come out and speak with them.
In response, she said: “You have one of your demands, you have your principal. But the other demand, I have not received any response from the CPO. Today is Thursday, I have still not heard anything new, unfortunately, about the remit. So, we are holding our breath anxiously awaiting to see what will happen, I suppose by tomorrow.”
Not pleased by this response, WIGUT president Indira Rampersad warned that if there is no remit by the end of the month, more protest action is to follow.
She also reminded that the only people allowed to set exam papers are the first and second examiners and, as such, management’s contingency plans to use past papers will not work.
Antoine once again asked WIGUT to submit examination papers, but Rampersad said it was a travesty to ask lecturers to continue to operate on 2014 salaries.
Speaking with the Express outside her office later yesterday, Antoine said: “We are looking at having the exams rescheduled within the legitimate time frame. If that has to change, it will be unfortunate…. But that is not the situation of now, so we’re hoping for a good outcome in terms of this remit.
“I would also ask students to pay attention in case one of your exams might be rescheduled for a later date within the same exam period…. If we have to reschedule a few exams, we will do it in an organised way.”
Antoine said: “The union is doing what we expect unions to do, demanding of their rights, and they are doing everything in their power and they are pressuring me. And I am pressuring them a little bit. Let’s see if we can compromise, but I really cannot tell you what else could be done except moral suasion.”
Asked if she felt management was doing enough to get the CPO to give a remit, she replied: “I don’t think there’s anything much more that UWI can do. We have submitted all of the documentation.
“My registrar has been back and forth. They ask for this extra, we give it to them and so on…. I cannot say to you what is happening. I understand that we’re in a very interesting period of history with all the Covid and all the interruptions in the country, in the world, so I cannot say what is happening.”
Examinations are scheduled to end by May 15, and Antoine said approximately 15 per cent of examination papers have not been submitted.
She added, however, that if there is no response by today, and rescheduling of exams has to take place, it will not be a loss to students.
