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I.T.S. fails students – Students contact the UPE for help. 

Students at the Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS) feel let down and ignored by the management and have contacted the UPE to help find an urgent solution to a situation which should never have arisen. 

To this end, we have decided that the students’ voices should be heard loud and clear to dismiss any doubts that the ITS situation is egregious and harmful to the students (and staff).  

One group of students has written to the ITS Registrar Mr Kevin Bonello (ex-MUT President) requesting that 

“the pilot project should be removed by next semester because we’re all suffering from this, foundation students have been thrown in the diploma kitchen without any basic training or experience”. 

Another group of students was very clear that 

we want to stay anonymous since we fear that we might get expelled for speaking our minds“. 

Such an atmosphere does not reflect well on the school management when students’ voices need to be heard. Our democratic credentials are called in to question when young people are afraid to express openly their own opinions about their future. Such a culture of fear has no place in our educational system or the country at large.

This group then went on to highlight their major learning concern: 

“The diploma students are expected to not only prepare their food for the day but to also supervise the foundation students. Meanwhile, the diploma students are not learning anything new in the canteen since we are not building on the skills we learned last year.”

We ask if this is the right way to educate our young citizens and future workforce. Perhaps Mr Bonello can enlighten us on the value of such a system. Or not.

The students are fully aware of the impact this systemic failure is having:

“We diploma students feel that we are not able to advance our abilities because of this project, since the teacher’s focus is being split between the diploma students and the foundation students. Teachers have expressed to us that we could be doing a lot more and adding to menus if it weren’t for this situation. We would like to make it very clear that we are in no way, shape, or form trying to degrade foundation students and the work they do, we are simply criticizing the pilot project.”

And here is the crux of the matter. The ITS management has so far refused to listen to the students’ voices and acknowledge the folly of its pilot project.

Here at the UPE, we have been inundated with correspondence from ITS students, all deeply concerned that the management has failed them in both the short and long term. 

Once again we call on the ITS management to find an equitable solution to a negative situation. 

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