Dear Editor,
Congratulations to all those students who were outstanding at their CSEC examinations this year.
It is now almost two months since the new school term began .We as grassroots mothers in Red Thread and Red Thread networks are writing on behalf of other grassroots mothers, grandmothers, fathers and other caregivers we know because we are all tired of having to strain to find the money for our children to make their way in school and we are desperate for change. We are frustrated by the hidden costs of the ‘free‘ education that is offered in the public school system. We are fed up of having to forgo basic food items in order to send our children to school.
The Government of Guyana signed on to The Convention on the Rights of the Child which says, “Every child has a right to education.” How can our children enjoy this right when we as their caregivers have to choose between rent, utility bills, food, school and for some of us, extra lessons? The biggest portions of the school expenses are the costs of textbooks, assignments inclusive of materials and the internet, extra lessons and transportation. While we welcome the $1,500 uniform voucher from the Government, the problem for us as parents and guardians is that the amount is still too small, even for that one item (uniforms).
We want to give you a clear insight into the reality of the high costs we are paying to send our children to school. Below is an example of the expenses of one of us – a single mother with a child preparing for the national Grade Six Assessments in the next school year, 2013. The family lives near to the school so there are no transportation costs. The school also provides the extra lessons free. However, because the lunch break is only half hour the child has to take lunch to school every day, Monday to Friday.
With nine months in the school year, this comes to over $11,000 for each month the child goes to school. Set this against the wages of a shop assistant earning $28,000 per month , or a security guard earning $20,160 to $28,800 per month, or a woman cooking, cleaning, and washing up in a cook shop, earning S25, 000 to $30,000 per month.
The regular school costs are terrible enough but in addition there are costs we hear about overnight, for example contributions to fundraising activities, assignments and printing of hand-outs.
Some of us also have costs that the mother whose expenses we’ve given don’t have. Here are two examples:
1. Transportation: $200 per day x 5 days per week x 4 weeks per month x 9 months =$ 36,000.
2. Extra lessons for a child preparing for CXC: for English, $3000 a month x 9 months = $27,000, and for Maths, $6000 a month x 9 months = $54,000. If the child goes to lessons for all 12 months, the cost would be $ 36,000 and $72,000 respectively.
Some of us would like to stop sending our children for extra lessons partly because of the cost but also because the children don’t have time to play and relax, but we don’t feel we can do so because it would put them at even more disadvantage.
We have a few suggestions to make that that would reduce our expenses without putting our children at a disadvantage. We are sure other parents also have suggestions.
1. Internet assignments: There should be community centres where children could have free access to the internet with low printing costs after school hours.
2. Textbooks: Make them available in all public schools across the country in the quantities needed for the children to be able to take them home to study or do homework, paying a fine as in a normal library if they damage or lose a book.
3. Uniforms: Increase the uniform allowance and do away with school badges since the uniforms could identify which school a child attends; this would be a small but important saving. As parents it is our desire for our children to have an education and we are scrambling to find money we don’t have to ensure our children get the education, but we are finding it impossible to meet the demands. It is difficult for a parent with one school-age child much less those with three or more children. We call on the Minister of Education and the Government to review their programmes and plans for the education system taking into consideration the heavy burdens placed on the backs of grassroots mothers, fathers and other caregivers in comparison to what we earn.
Yours faithfully,
Joycelyn Bacchus
Wintress White
Norma Adrian
Susan Collymore
Joy Marcus
For Red Thread
