President George Maxwell Richards, in his final address at the ceremonial opening of Parliament, yesterday called on Government to ensure the University of Trinidad and Tobago was given the same attention afforded to the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies. Richards told legislators at Tower D, International Waterfront Complex, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, that there was still a need to get the nation's education system right. The Opposition PNM has repeatedly claimed the People's Partnership Government was giving priority to the UWI and seeking to close down UTT. President Richards said there was a lot more to be done to make T&T's education system more efficient and workable at all levels. "The education budget must reflect an understanding of this," he said, adding that if T&T was to get education right there would be many consequent benefits to the nation as a whole.
"There was a certain vision birthed when the University of Trinidad and Tobago was established, particularly in respect of science and technology which is critical and UTT must do no less than the University of the West Indies," President Richards said. He added that none in T&T would like the UTT to lose its relevance to the communities it was set up to serve. He said there was "a pre-eminent place for the universities in the scheme of national development. "This can only be preserved if we are ever mindful of the purpose of university education," he said.
"The university is not a place that can accommodate anything but the best professional behaviour. Academic excellence can be achieved only in a climate of understanding clearly what the university is for and the seminal role that it must play in the sustainable development of our nation," the President told legislators: He added: "There inconsequently, no room for partisan behaviour and personal preference in the appointments at the highest levels of leadership at our university at the level of academic staff." He insisted that ability was what mattered and governments and others concerned must ensure academic autonomy was preserved. President Richards also commented on the high crime rate in T&T. He said he felt compelled "to join with those who rue the obvious lawlessness that confronts us." He added: "This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue but in working towards solutions, we must on all sides, be reminded that zeal must not inform our behaviour, lest mixed signals be conveyed, if in any way due process appears to be eschewed. "Reproach must not be allowed to impede good intention."
