GOVERNMENT will not be “locking the gate” on anyone at the University of the West Indies, especially after spending money on them, said Minister of Education Ronald Jones.
Jones, in clearing the air on “any misconceptions which might have developed over time” about part-time students at the Cave Hill Campus, said the emphasis was on getting part-time students to “seek to complete their course of study”.
“We have examined it and we have realized that part-time students can finish their degree in about five years [but] we have also kept the door open because it is a substantial investment, that for whatever reasons there are persons who go through different challenges and therefore there would be that opportunity, in discussion between the university and the Ministry of Education, to allow a person who has had, whatever challenge, to complete their course of study,” he said.
However, Jones, who was speaking yesterday during a Press conference in the ministry’s Constitution Road, offices, made it clear that Government would not tolerate wastefulness.
“If one of the challenges is wastefulness, if one of the challenges is being unfocused, or if one is to believe that you can go to Cave Hill and go down by the Students’ Union and miss classes while you imbibe some stuff that the Students’ Union might have down there, that is a totally different matter.
“That is not what tertiary education was set up for. It was set up for you to go to classes, you listen to your tutors, you listen to your lecturers and you submit your assignments on time,” he said.
