Community college should apologize to the nation for telling lies – Eustace

Leader of the Opposition and President of the New Democratic Party (NDP) Arnhim Eustace is demanding that officials of St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College (SVGCC) apologize to the nation for what he says are lies about the accreditation status of the 22 associate degree programmes offered by the institution.

“I think the persons at the College owe the nation an apology for the amount of lies that were told on this matter. They owe an apology. People have spent hard earned money in difficult economic and financial circumstances. {{more}}They give their children a better start in life in terms of university education only to find out that you are doing it on a false premise. I take very strong objection to that revelation,” Eustace said on the New Times radio programme on Tuesday, adding that he will say more about the matter in the coming days.

In Parliament on Monday, responding to a question submitted by Eustace on the accreditation status of the SVGCC’s associate degree programmes, Minister of Education Girlyn Miguel said that none of the programmes are accredited, but noted that accreditation is a process (see story on page 1).

“She said the community college is pre-accredited, which means they ain’t reach that stage yet. She say it is a process that takes time. So the parents who have been spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of students who have had associate degrees, there’s no particular benefit that they get in terms of accreditation. They don’t have less time. They don’t get a year off or anything like that in terms of their university,” Eustace said.

“… And we find out now yesterday for the first time and this is the point we have been making for more than a year now and you can’t get your information. All you getting is false information from the college itself. All kinds of stories, which we knew were not true…” Eustace said.

According to Eustace, the college should have explained from the beginning that accreditation is a process that takes time.

“We know that the process takes a while. We knew that from the beginning, but we felt at least some of the courses had already been cleared through that process,” Eustace said.

Describing the matter as a “terrible thing”, Eustace also indicated that students had been promised to get time deducted from the lenght of time they had to spend at a university doing their full degree.

“What are we doing? What really is the objective? Just say the truth. Say what is the case. Say what really happens… We don’t know anymore. We have been told so many lies on this matter. We just don’t know and I think they should apologize to the parents and students of the community college who are involved in the 22 associate degree programmes,” Eustace said.

When the Associate Degree programmes were introduced by the SVGCC in 2010, then director of the college Dr Joel Warrican, in an article published in SEARCHLIGHT on August 13, 2010, said that the programmes were not yet accredited, but that graduates of the programmes would be eligible to gain entry in the University of the West Indies and gain advance placement for some programmes of study. In September 2014, when Eustace first raised the issue of the accreditation of the programmes, officials of the College and the Ministry of Education again explained that despite the current non-accreditation status of the Associate Degrees, they could be used by the students to gain matriculation to university.

According to director of the SVGCC Nigel Scott, this is exactly what has been happening. In a written statement submitted to SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, Scott gave a partial breakdown of the dozens of graduates of the college’s Associate Degree programmes who have gained entry into and advanced placement at universities around the world. (See full statement on page 23)

The Opposition Leader, however said on Tuesday that parents would now have to make up their own mind as to what decision they take on this matter going forward.

“I am not asking the question anymore. I am asking what are you going to do about it. What are you going to tell the parents and students who have finished those courses and those who are now paying afresh to do another set of associate degree programmes? And I am waiting on that apology to be made to the nation, particularly to those who are directly involved,” Eustace said.