Dear Editor,
Yesterday, a voice recording was circulated by a student of the University of Guyana, which was shocking to my ears. The recording captures a classroom discussion by Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram who was heard using a series of expletives to put over his arguments. There were abhorrent comments made about a former President and sitting government officials.
The discussion was void of any sort of academic robustness and this I find very troubling for the students. If that is the quality of academic discourse by a lecturer, then what should one expect when the students produce their academic work, research papers and thesis? While I have no issues with the merits or demerits of Chris Ram’s core arguments in the classroom, he could have presented the same argument or criticisms he wishes to make, but in academic style. That is, he’d have to robustly justify his assertions.
For example, he said that a comment was made about a former president by a certain media personnel, which is a violation under the cyber crime law…In a classroom setting, merely stating it is a violation is not suffice; at minimum, the lecturer needed to demonstrate his legal argumentations citing the relevant law to the students to support that argument. And not just that, he also, as a lecturer, needed to demonstrate to students the different arguments, and the counter arguments that one could develop around the same topic. Instead, the students were treated to a ridiculous “rum-shop-style gyaff”.
But this is very sad and troubling for our university students who are taught by this individual. It is cowardly of him taking advantage of the fact that the students would not challenge him out of fear of being victimized when he is grading them. I dare say that if he feels so strongly about those points he made, he should go public with it, and call those individuals whose names he referenced in such an ugly manner. Then, he’d be challenged in a real way, and he would not be able to defend his arguments, as I have demonstrated on multiple occasions when I challenge him on several issues in the oil and gas space.
(The referenced voice note was shared with the editor).
Yours respectfully,
Joel Bhagwandin