Students attending the University of the West Indies Open Campus are calling on the authorities to condemn the teaching facility at St John's Road, St Augustine and transfer classes permanently to the head office at Gordon Street.
They have warned that failure to do so immediately will lead to an exodus of both teachers and students.
During a peaceful protest at the Gordon Street office last Thursday, students complained about the state of disrepair and the dilapidated conditions which they were subjected to daily–sometimes forced to hold their classes on a stairwell due to the lack of air-conditioning and fans.
Student Jeanette Callender said: "Our parents have spent a lot of money to send us to school here and yet when we come in daily with classes running from 8 am to 5 pm, there are so many problems we have to face just to continue with our education and it is affecting all of us."
Revealing that quite a number of lecturers and students had already left the campus, Callender said the exodus would continue if nothing was done by the country manager to address the situation.
Among problems listed by the four-member student committee was the lack of properly-outfitted classrooms as many of the current rooms have termite-infested floors, windows and blackboards; leaking roof; lack of ventilation as only two classrooms have air-conditioners; lack of fans; only two washrooms to service between 150 and 200 students; broken chairs/desks; no Wi-Fi; a lack of water and amenities such as toilet paper and soap; and a proper cafeteria.
Granted permission to protest by principal Annette Griffith-Ackrill, Callender was joined by her classmates Denise Matthews, Carmen Racedo and Faizah Crichlow who all agreed that the student and teaching body could no longer continue to operate in those deplorable conditions.
The four claimed nothing had been done to rectify the matter for more than two years, despite numerous letters and requests to the relevant officials.
Standing inside the Gordon Street campus, Crichlow and Matthews told the large group of students gathered that numerous requests for classes to be transferred to the main campus had been rejected without reason. Matthews, Crichlow and Callender said lecturers at the main campus had confirmed there were available classrooms which could be used by the full-time students but they too, were unaware of why the students requests had been rejected.
Attempts to speak with lecturers proved futile as many declined to speak and directed questions to the country manager Karen Rosemin.
Students later met with Rosemin who reportedly told them she was aware of some of the conditions highlighted such as the leaking roof, the lack of air-conditioning and the rotting interior.
The students claimed Rosemin had promised repairs would be effected when school closed during next vacation period.
Callender asked: "If these issues were known to you, why was it not done seeing that a child already fell through the flooring last year?"
Disappointed with Rosemin's explanation, Callender said they were told all classrooms had been booked and there was no available space. It is estimated that parents spent upwards of $10,000 to send students to school per year.
One student who did not wish to be identified added: "The conditions are so discouraging. Some classrooms are missing the glass panes so when rains, you have to move to a new class. The roof leaks onto the electrical wires and it is a fire hazard as some classes are completely closed with no windows.
"The environmental and geography classrooms have no lights. The main door to the female bathroom does not lock and there are holes in the floor, so if one goes below the school, you can see right into the bathroom.
The bathroom windows have no curtains or tint so when you are outside, you can see directly in as it is in eye's view and we have a lot of men on the campus that do upkeep."
Another said: "If you want to use the projector, we have to get creative and use garbage bags and tape to put on the windows. Uniforms are never readily available to the whole intake of students and we get in trouble for not wearing the correct uniform."
Assuring that the temporary relocation of students while repairs were being carried out, remained a priority, UWI officials said the Open Campus was expecting to be able to offer first class quality with the construction of a Centre in Chaguanas.
UWI said the Open Campus Management Team was also exploring alternative accommodation for the students as all classrooms at Gordon Street were said to be in full use by both full-time and evening students.
UWI RESPONDS
Acknowledging ongoing maintenance issues at the pre-university (Sixth-Form) centre at St John's Road, officials of UWI Open Campus offered an explanation: "While day-to-day repairs by in-house maintenance personnel continue at the Centre, the site is one of many Open Campus buildings inherited from the earlier entities such as the School of Continuing Studies and admittedly encompasses dated infrastructure, resulting in particular maintenance challenges."
A release from the UWI Marketing and Communications Department confirmed a routine maintenance inspection was conducted before the beginning of the 2016/2017 semester to identify and rectify issues.
Conditions were said to have been documented and reported to the Open Campus' Finance Division for approval to proceed with repairs. Officials said: "Mindful of its needs to manage cash flows to ensure continuity in operations, refurbishments have been scheduled to occur over the academic year, in phases."