Dear Editor,
The number of school dropouts has been increasing at an alarming rate throughout Guyana, and when this is mentioned, this government comes up with some concocted story claiming otherwise. In Zeelugt, a lot of children are absent from school occasionally and then gradually they stop going completely with the blessing of their parents who are mostly poor. These children are aged from 7 years upwards, and most of them are boys who solicit odd jobs around the area for money because of their parents’ financial position.
Some of them have formed small groups and they can be seen walking all around smoking cigarettes and in some cases troubling people and getting into mischief.
Editor, what is alarming is that they are being encouraged to drink alcohol and use illicit drugs by rogue elements within the area, and in order for them to fund their new habit, they eventually turn to crime. In some cases after a crime is committed, their names are called and they get beaten by the victims, although the victims cannot identify them.
At the Leonora Police Station, Zeelugt village is the most popular name, and one of my police officer friends said that he has never seen reports about any village at the station like Zeelugt. Of late, some of the allegations have been made against teenagers for break and enter, gambling, fighting, etc. In some cases the juveniles have been arrested, taken to court and granted bail. One case I know of recently involves a twelve-year-old boy spending nearly one month at East La Penitence lock-ups because $20,000 could not be raised for his bail.
Today is Mother’s Day and I am quite sure that there are many mothers who are very sad. Immediately after the second budget cut, the propaganda machine started to fill the airwaves saying Guyanese will face hardship and lots of people will be out of jobs. Apparently it is ok for them to give their families and friends jobs or award contracts to whoever they want, but it’s not ok when the opposition is forcing them to tighten up on the funds that could make life for us better instead of them wasting it.
Many parents cannot afford to send their children to school; a first grader may have to pay approximately $1,000 to print out one school assignment from an internet cafe, and almost every week one has to be done. How many parents can afford this, especially when some of them have more than one child? Some of the parents don’t have a steady job, because this government which is talking about power politics, prefers to give our jobs to foreigners.
I move around and communicate with people from a lot of places in Guyana and am not afraid to say that there are no proper plans or projects to help the youths in Guyana from this government. The police are well aware of this development in Zeelugt, and no one can tell me they are not concerned; they must inform those in the relevant ministries because the police should not arrest and charge someone alone. Some parents beat their children mercilessly, but that only seems to make them worse. The schools have records, they should be informing the ministry when a child stops going to the school. Why are they not visiting the homes to see how they could help or get help. Most parents are under the impression that the authorities will take their children away, and although they are bad, no one wants their children to be taken away from them.
But that seems to be this government’s solution instead of setting up counselling centres in the villages, which would help greatly. The majority of people cannot afford to travel, and they don’t know whether there’s any counselling centre where children can get help.
Today, many mothers will try to scrape up over $2,000 to cook a decent meal that could only feed four people (more people, more money). One pound of chicken is around $400, and after that she has to start all over again to find food for another meal. She will be grateful to have them around, but happiness will not be there, because the government continues to makes life harder for us. Three weeks now after the sugar crop sugar harvesters from Uitvlugt Estate (lots of them are home) are waiting for their back pay and Friday gone they were told that GuySuCo didn’t have money to pay them. Today, therefore, many of them cannot present their mother with a gift or treat them, because they were depending on the money. This is what we are forced to live with in Guyana today. Happy Mother’s Day!
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates
