By Yvonne Webb

In the midst of a controversy surrounding the award of a government grant of $95 million to the University of Southern Caribbean, two teachers have filed a constitutional motion against the Ministry of Education on the basis that it declared their USC degrees inferior to those awarded by the University of the West Indies.

The motion, filed by attorneys Anand Ramlogan and Cindy Bhagwandeen in the San Fernando High Court, on behalf of teachers Vijesh Mahadeo and Vashti Mahabir, is set to come up for hearing before Justice Maureen Ragnauth-Lee on July 30.

Mahadeo and Mahabir are seeking a declaration that the ministry unlawfully discriminated against them and that it had no power to second-guess the declared ruling by the Accreditation Council of T&T in favour of USC as a recognised tertiary education institution.

The teachers are contending that by way of letter dated March 22, 2007 they were informed by the Ministry of Education that their B.Sc in Computer Information Systems was “deemed to be inadequate for the purpose of teaching at both the GCE A’Level and Cape Level.”

The teachers said prior to the legal intervention there were private meetings between officials of the USC and the government to resolve the issue.

In addition, they claim, they were now being asked to do a repeat course at the UWI in areas already covered by the USC degree programme.