Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim says efforts are being made to complete negotiations for a new collective agreement for staff at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies. Karim said so in a brief interview with reporters at his Agra Street, St James, office yesterday. The West Indies Group of University Teachers (Wigut), representing lecturers and other staff, has embarked on protest action over UWI's proposal for one per cent hike in salaries for the period August 2009 to July 2011.
Permanent secretary in the ministry, Angela Sinaswee-Gervais, told reporters the university recently proposed an increased offer which had been sent to the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) for consideration. She said when the CPO reported back to the ministry, a decision would be made about putting the proposal on the negotiating table. Sinaswee-Gervais did not reveal the new figures being considered. Earlier, Karim launched the ministry's National Knowledge and Learning Network, which he described as a "thrust to develop a diversified, knowledge intensive economy."
It was developed by Dario Goussal, of Telecom/Telematique. T&T is among eight nations in which the Inter-American Development Bank initiative is being implemented. Karim said through the network, T&T's post-secondary and tertiary institutions would be connected to a research and education network that would place information from other institutions at their fingertips. Karim said students and teachers would be able to access documents, text books and other reference material from "a plethora of institutions."
The minister said the Government would shortly appoint the National Commission for Higher Education to facilitate it's "overall tertiary expansion strategy to increase the participation rate to 60 per cent, to rationalise the building efficiency and effectiveness and ensure quality, accountability, transparency and synergistic relations within T&T." Karim said the Commission would advise on the development of a National Qualifications Framework which would allow all education and training institutions to co-exist within a seamless and coherent system in T&T.