A trek by Kato students for logs on April 17th, 2013 to keep their school’s kitchen going was less than half a mile, according to a report by the Regional Education Officer (ReDO) for Region Eight, amid concerns about exploitation of the children.
A report had been ordered from the ReDO by Minister of Education Priya Manickchand in the aftermath of a report in the June 5th edition of Kaieteur News, headlined ‘Hinterland Primary School students trek miles with logs for hot meals.’
Thus far, there has been no report that the fetching of logs occurred on any other occasion.
Yesterday, Manickchand told members of the media that she had received a report from the ReDO of Potaro/Siparuni, Marcia Paddy-Andrews.
The report, which was circulated, stated that on Wednesday, 17th April, 2013, members of the kitchen staff noted that they were out of firewood and asked the teacher in charge, Andrea Pereira to organise the children to aid in the gathering of firewood from a nearby clump of bushes.
“The teacher agreed to same and gathered the children who came early to school to assist. As can be seen in the picture, the teacher supervised the children during this activity,” the report said.
According to the ReDO, the substantive teacher-in-charge of the Kato Primary School was reportedly absent from the school on the grounds of being ill but that to date the Education Department was yet to receive a medical certificate to verify same.
Paddy-Andrews added that during the fetching of the logs, the statutory meeting of the Regional Democratic Council of Region 8 was being held in Kato, and that Nieem Gafoor, who is a regional councillor fo the AFC, asked the unsuspecting students to pose for the pictures that later appeared in the June 5th edition of Kaieteur News. It was Gafoor, who travelled to Georgetown earlier this week and provided the photographs of the children fetching logs to the newspaper.
The ReDO’s report also stated that the arrow in the picture in Keieteur News does not indicate the direction the children traversed with the firewood and that the wood was actually located in a clump of bushes in the opposite direction less than half a mile away.
The report noted that Minister of Local Government Ganga Persaud visited the region on May 16th and convened a meeting between the regional administration, programme managers and regional councilors, where the issue of the schoolchildren carrying the logs was ventilated.
At the meeting, Persaud explained the procedure of acquisition, management and expenditure of funds with regards to the National School Feeding Programme, the ReDO said. It is unclear if Gafoor was present at this meeting.
Manickchand yesterday reiterated several times at a press conference that at no time should children be used to fetch logs and that the Ministry has condemned any programme-related activity that could be deemed as exploitation of children. She said that the Ministry was not concerned that it happened before school hours, because it should not have happened in the first place.
Paddy-Andrews, in her report, stated that the Kato School Feeding Programme is one of the most efficiently managed programmes in the region and that there are designated areas for the preparation of meals and dining. She said that currently 23 children who travel as far as seven miles to and from school are served with breakfast when they arrive at school each morning.
Observers say that the fact that kitchen staff allowed the firewood to run out before seeking a replenishment raises questions about the quality of management of the facility.
The role of Gafoor in the process has also been questioned. A councillor for the Alliance For Change, questions have been raised as to why he and the council did not publicise the plight of the children in April rather than waiting until June 5th. As a councillor, observers say that while Gafoor was well within his right to provide information to the media, he appeared not to have made an attempt to approach the Education and Local Government ministries on the matter when he visited Georgetown. At a press conference on the Wednesday when the Kaieteur News report was published, Manickchand had charged that the newspaper had paid for the use of the photographs—a claim that has since been denied by AFC MP Valerie Garrido-Lowe.
