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Last Updated: Oct 7, 2018 - 11:36:18 AM |
 (Statement) Rights Bahamas has recently been contacted regarding a concern with students at the University of The Bahamas not being accepted, due to their inability to provide documents from immigration that confirm their status in the country. A number of highly qualified and intelligent students have been turned away on a number of occasions, and have been told that without proof of status they would not qualify to continue their tertiary education with the University. We are saddened by cases of students that must put their lives at a stand still and struggle with the archaic policies and procedures of obtaining these documents, a process that can take months, sometimes years to complete. The average turnaround time for documents of this nature from governmental agencies is upwards of five or more years.
The students that are affected by these egregious policies have graduated at the top of their respective secondary institutions, and have received countless recommendations, awards, and scholarly support. It is a shame that the rarity of their talent and intellectual prowess is belittled by a crippled system. Future University lecturers, societal leaders, innovationists, engineers, technologists, and doctors are being held back in a fashion that can only be considered “petty”.
Our society is driven by the freedoms of its people. We are united by our open, caring spirits. We find solace in our ability to open doors in every direction, and we are proud of our international acclaim. All of these would be for nothing if we are to lose the trust, and respect of the generation to come. Our future Prime Ministers are in the number of students unable to continue, because of our non-inclusive and discriminatory practices. Students that will have to wait years to return to school, as they await documents that should take no more than a month to process.
We call on the University of The Bahamas to rise above the status quo, to break the walls that block the minds of the youth that wish to further their standing in the world, release the choke hold that is placed on our young people, and change the policies that have crippled our societies greatest possibilities. We urge the Government to correct the old, irrelevant processes that make being a Bahamian hard. Decrease the time that it takes to receive these documents, and allow the students affected, the ability to get in school, get their education, and leave the University of The Bahamas with the tools to advance this country further. It is only right that they receive this. We beg our students to come back from International schools all the time. We must show them why it is beneficial to do so. If not, we will lose the greatest of us for absolutely no reason at all.
Education Committee Chairman,
Dawrin M. Thompson.
© Copyright 2018 by thebahamasweekly.com
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