By Prior Beharry
AN OVERSIGHT.
That is how Minister of Youth Development and National Service Foster Cummings explained why he had to withdraw from a Master’s programme in Government at The University of the West Indies in 2007.
Cummings made the comment in a statement on Friday after United National Congress (UNC) Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial raised at a political meeting on Monday whether a member of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s government had to withdraw from a tertiary institution for plagiarism.
She referred to a Jyoti Communications blog report and asked if Dr Rowley had investigated the matter.
In his release, Cummings said that reference was being made to 2007 when he was a post graduate student at The UWI pursuing a Master’s degree in Government.
He said, “… an issue arose over the matter of an oversight of not referencing quotations in the footnotes although the book was cited in the bibliography.
“A dispute arose and the University dealt with the matter.
“A committee was convened to deliberate on the issue, and a decision was taken that I withdraw from the programme and re-enter after one year.”
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Cummings said, “I have never asked any institution to bend its rules to accommodate me. I sat my exams, both at the Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels in the full view of my peers and others.
“An important life lesson is that though one will make mistakes or encounter obstacles along the way, lessons should be learnt from them, which will lead to even greater successes in the future.
“In 2006, I completed my bachelor’s degree in Government and International Relations at UWI, St Augustine. It was a proud moment for me being the first member of my family to have benefitted from university level education.
“My experience at the university during that period was rewarding and life changing. I was elected as a Member of Parliament in August 2020 and in an effort to prepare myself for the role ahead, I subsequently enrolled in the Master of Business Administration Program in Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the School of Accounting and Management, which I successfully completed.
“I was awarded a Master’s degree with distinction and will graduate later this year.
“The cycle of resilience- mistake made, lesson learnt, future success accomplished- is the principle I hold out to every young person as an invaluable life asset, critical for personal development and advancement.
“Don’t let your mistakes win; learn your lessons and move on up with humility and persistence!”
