President of The Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) Godfrey Eneas has charged that the recent criticism from executives of the Union of Tertiary Educators Bahamas (UTEB) is being driven by a vendetta from some elements within the College of The Bahamas (COB).
Last week, UTEB released a statement raising concern about the institute and accusing the government and BAMSI officials of misleading the public into believing the two institutions are linked.
The union categorized the relationship between COB and BAMSI as a charade.
“Over the almost two years of discussions, COB’s Council and administration have allowed the government to use COB to give the ill-conceived BAMSI as a sense of legitimacy,” the statement read. “The efforts being made to do this have placed the college in a precarious position, particularly in light of the fact that there are no written agreements between the two entities.”
However, Mr. Eneas dismissed these assertions and said there has been a cooperative relationship between the two institutions from BAMSI’s inception.
“We were instructed from Day One to develop a cooperative relationship with the College of The Bahamas; those were our instructions from the prime minister,” Mr. Eneas said. “He wanted us to work with them in developing this institution.
“Some people are a bit put out by the fact that BAMSI is not to develop through them. It was developed independently of COB and the Ministry of Agriculture. The prime minister took his own route to establish the institute.”
Meanwhile, newly appointed Executive Director of BAMSI Dr. Roveenia Roberts- Hanna also maintained that there is a partnership between COB and BAMSI.
She said the concerns expressed by the union may be due to misinformation.
“BAMSI has a plan and yes we are in talks and discussions and we do have a partnership with the College of The Bahamas,” Dr. Roberts-Hanna said.
“We have been interfacing with them on curriculum development so I’m not really sure why such a statement was released. Obviously, there is a lot of misinformation out there.”
Mr. Eneas added that there are certain segments COB who are attempting to railroad efforts to get BAMSI off the ground.
“All of sudden this vendetta has emerged,” he said. “This is an attempt to derail the institute. It’s an attempt to railroad our efforts by some elements in [COB]. “
BAMSI, which is located on North Andros, is scheduled to open later this month.
