São Tomé’s prime minister said today the government will analyse a request to dismiss the rector of the archipelago’s only public university, after “finding there is a very deep conflict between the rectory and the teachers’ committee.”
“Alongside the teachers’ demands, I was able to find that there is a very deep conflict between the rectory and the teachers’ committee. There is a great lack of communication, a lot of resentment between the rectory and the teachers’ committee. This is something we have to work on — we need to address this as urgently as possible,” said Américo Ramos, speaking to journalists after chairing — alongside education minister Isabel Abreu — a meeting between the University of São Tomé and Príncipe (USTP) teaching and non-teaching staff committee and the institution’s rectory.
The USTP staff committee has submitted a strike notice to the government, planning a total and indefinite work stoppage from April 6, with demands including the revision and approval of career and remuneration legislation, as well as the dismissal of the rector.
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“The dean and her entourage have been an enormous obstacle, day after day, month after month, to every project we have presented and that we want to carry out for the wellbeing and progress and development of the university,” said the committee’s spokesman, jurist and professor Homildo Fortes.
The committee alleges the USTP has been experiencing a “moment of genuine institutional crisis” for over a year — which had already prompted a previous dismissal request based on serious accusations, with “criminal proceedings also under way” awaiting a decision.
According to Fortes, the situation reached “a point of saturation” due to the rector’s failure to cooperate in negotiating the most recent strike notice presented in January, which the minister had asked her to handle — but which she “simply ignored, did not work on the documents, forcing the minister to create a multidisciplinary commission” to advance negotiations.
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“We signed the memorandum of understanding, the minister signed it and sent it to the rector — and the rector filed it away and never sent it to the committee,” he added.
The teaching staff said there is consensus on seven other points of the demands, but the staff will not accept an agreement without the dismissal of rector Eurídice Helga Aguiar, who declined to respond to the accusations. Aguiar, who holds a doctorate in Education Sciences from the University of Évora, became the first woman elected rector of the University of São Tomé in June 2023.
