Dear Editor,
It is good that President Granger and Minister Roopnaraine interacted with the schoolchildren at the rally and made several promises to them. The President is right, every child should be in school. All children should have equitable access and the state must provide for every child to go to school. In addition to providing transportation, the state should also ensure that every child is safe from violence in school.
It is sad, on the eve of the much touted 50th independence anniversary, that the President and the Minister did not commit to removing the beating of children in Guyana’s schools. It is sad that there are teachers and parents who will insist that the state must beat children and that Guyana, despite its promises to children, has rejected all recommendations from the most recent Universal Periodic Review in 2015 to repeal the laws which allow teachers to abuse children and which make a mockery of all of our efforts to move to a society in which there is respect for all.
President Granger has moved to pardon young offenders. There is debate about the pardons. The President, might also want to lead the movement to repeal the offence of wandering, a discriminatory ‘victimless’ offence which is symptomatic of the inability of some families and the communities to nurture their children. The children are punished for this. It is wrong to steal cell phones ‒ Sheema Mangar paid with her life. However wandering is not stealing, and the New Opportunity Corps is not a school despite its best intentions.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
