Junior Minister of Education Nicolette Henry yesterday defended the amounts allotted for education, sports and cultural development in the proposed 2016 national budget, while saying government would work to foster holistic youth development.
“This budget must be commended for providing the resources necessary to ensure the training and development of our youth,” Henry told the National Assembly during her contribution to the budget debate.
“All of us on the government side envisions building a youth population that is united, educated, trained, happy, healthy and competent to play an integral role to make critical decisions for our country,” she added.
Focusing on new projects planned for the country’s youth, Henry noted that there was a demand for adequate skills training facilities. She lamented that last year out of 950 applicants, the Kuru Kuru Training Centre was constrained to accept only 350. “Why should we deny 64% of young people applying for a programme the opportunity to enhance themselves?” Henry asked. “They are our future and we ought to prepare them now equip them, in the best way we possibly can, so that they contribute to the development of Guyana,” she added.
The Kuru Kuru Training Centre will see $30M allocated to develop its facilities.
Henry said if the country has so many youths that are anxious to learn a skill, then the government ought to be dutiful and provide them with the resources to foster those skills. Towards this end, she announced that $60M was set aside for the rehabilitation of the Coldingen Workshop, on the East Coast of Demerara. The money is to be used to transform the facility into a training centre which offers technical and vocational training to youth.
Henry also noted the allocation of resources to develop the Madewini Youth Camp and to rebuild and equip the Den Amstel Youth Camp to the tune of $30M. Her delivery brought her loud cheers from fellow government parliamentarians. “Ow, tell them Nicolette!” a passionate Minister of Social Cohesion Amna Ally, raised her hands and shouted.
However, Henry was quick to point out that government would not only offer educational opportunities but complement them with opportunities in sports, culture and the arts. “We believe that the development of our youth has to be done in a comprehensive way. Education, sports, culture and the arts,” she asserted.
She said that government will also rehabilitate, upgrade and maintain recreational and community grounds all across the country so that persons from all areas can have access to one.
And while PPP/C Member of Parliament Neil Kumar bashed government’s provisions for sports in this year’s budget, Henry took him to task as she outlined areas that would see sports used as a catalyst for youth development.
“The APNU+AFC government inherited several state-of-the-art facilities… we must continue developing sport facilities for our young people… but little attention is put in place now to maintain these facilities,” Kumar said.
Henry, on the other hand, criticised the National Track and Field facility at Leonora, saying that it was Kumar’s government that placed it a long distance from the city, where most athletes train. “Because of this gross anomaly, this government has to put in place a system to transport our athletes at a cost that could have been avoided, had the initiative been thought out,” she opined.
Kumar was also upbraided by Speaker of the House Barton Scotland after he referred to government as “de facto” and even went on justify his speech by referring to the fact that PPP/C has taken court action to challenge the results of the 2015 general elections.
Henry assured that government will continue to refocus, reshape and reorganise the sports department in the country but would ensure that value for money would be had in the process. “Let me address the honourable Neil Kumar’s concerns. For the last two decades the sports department has lost its way,” she said. Kumar served previously as Director of Sport.
She said that a national database will be set up to monitor athletes’ training and development.
Declaring that “the slush fund days are over,” Henry said too that money would not be given in a cavalier manner without a clear understanding of how it will be used for development.
Meanwhile, focusing on Guyana’s 50th Independence anniversary celebrations, Henry opined that $300M budgeted is a small amount given the significance of the event.
However, she said that it will be carefully spent and will produce big results. “It requires us to be extremely frugal and financially prudent given the magnificence and grandeur of this occasion and also not forgetting our country’s track record of spending millions of tax payers dollars on national and other events, such as Cricket World Cup and Carifesta,” she said, while noting that reports on the accounts of both events, which were run off under former PPP/C government, have yet to be seen by the House.
Of the $300M allocated, Henry mentioned that a part will go to a local publication company for the compilation of a 50th Anniversary coffee table book to be launched on May 23rd. “The publication will depict Guyana, its people, and resources in all their glory. It will reflect on the 50th anniversary of our rich socio-economic and political journey,” she explained.
