UWI made already-rough life more difficult

THE EDITOR, Madam:

IMADE the difficult decision to pen this letter on behalf of many students who may be going through the same thing. I recently found a receipt showing a payment of approximately $558,000 made to The University of the West Indies (UWI) in 2017, a year before I graduated, and got disheartened thinking that by the time I graduated in 2018 I basically owed the same figure because of the one per cent penalty fee for late payment that the UWI charged.

Frankly, I think this decision was a cruel one, especially in light of the plight of many poor students from the rural areas across the country, already finding it difficult to survive in the Corporate Area because of the high costs of rent, bills, books, food, etc.

I don’t think that a lot of people realise that country students find it doubly hard to survive in Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine, because many don’t have the luxury of living rent-free, and so even when many of us start working, we have many different things to worry about.

Outside of the COVID-19 pandemic, I find that the powers that be in this country and the UWI, including our political leaders, have lost their conscience in many ways by sitting by and allowing Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine to become this moneymaking machine or cash cow that rests on the backs on already-poor folks, most of them from the rural Jamaica who merely want to survive.

I get disheartened, too, thinking back at how I had to pinch my little pay to pay my tuition and survive, and how even approaching two members of parliament for help, and one even suggesting that I might get used sexually for even asking a government minister for help.

Even though our fees as Jamaicans are already subsidised, I think that more can and should be done to ensure that as many children as possible are able to get a tertiary education. I know bills need to be paid, lecturers and many others need to be paid, among other obligations. But I believe the onus should be on the Government and the university administration to ensure that they do more to ensure that the fees are minimal by seeking out more financial opportunities on the UWI’s behalf from First-World countries and minimising the wastage of funds.

I will pay when I can afford to, but this cannot continue. While I don’t believe in depending on handouts, our leaders need to figure what our priorities are, given that black people already have it doubly hard to survive in this world.

Some reparations would solve many of our problems, but I don’t believe our political leaders are even mature enough to handle such a thing and to ensure that all Jamaicans benefit equally.

It is shameful that our political leaders continue to enrich themselves and forget why they entered politics in the first place; and the administrators of the UWI for not effectively managing its resources, and so putting a strain on poor people’s backs.