Dear Editor,
The Government would like us to only pray and unite in the aftermath of Guyana’s worst fire tragedy snuffing out the lives of 19 of our Amerindian youths. The Government does not want us to do any “root cause” analysis of who is to be blamed, and how could something like this happen under their watch. It is spinning a story that one youth set a fire, although we have not yet heard any confessions or statements from corroborating witnesses who can attest to the Government’s story. At this point, we do not know if the student charged did it, but what we know clearly is that this is a poster case that points to Governmental incompetence across several Ministries. This was “systems failure,” governmental failure at its usual best. In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the state of New Orleans in the USA and killed many people who could not be rescued, TIME Magazine’s cover blared, “Systems Failure: An Investigation into what went wrong in New Orleans.” The TIME subtext was “An American Tragedy / Where the System Broke Down- 4 Places Where The System Broke Down.” They did not simply blame the hurricane that triggered the
disaster, they looked at the state responses and how the systems in place failed. Our Government does not want us to do that because it will identify many failures on many fronts that will indict the leadership at the Ministry of Education which has primary responsibility for the Mahdia School and Dorm. It will also indict other Ministries which have related responsibilities for the Dorm.
But as the village people will say, this Government “hard mouth.” They will not apologize to the nation for an abundance of governmental failures that are plain for all to see. Cover up and deflecting seems to be their first response. It was easier for Smallie to escape from a maximum-security prison than for our students to escape from a School Dorm. Isn’t that something? And the Government does not want to admit its failures! Instead, it choreographs a narrative that says, “see how we are a caring Government giving support to grieving families and surviving students!”
It was “systems failure” pure and simple. Lack of smoke alarms, lack of fire extinguishers, inadequate fire engines in the region with inadequate equipment, lack of water sources, failure to follow up on Fire Inspectors’’ reports, installation of unsafe grille work creating a prison-like enclosure, grilled doors, one Dorm Mother assigned to 60 students, lack of fire drills, lack of safety and security emergency plans, a Dorm mother located outside of the space where the students reside – these are not best practices. These malpractices show the “dunceness” of our systems and people responsible. Some ministers are obsessed with taking pictures with folks all the time and posting on social media and websites to show niceness and caring, but on the ground we see glaring incompetence and colossal failure. Where is the Government’s Equity Plan for Education to show how the other 9 regions will match Region 4 as a minimum? Our Education System needs major restructuring and reform and the Education Ministry should be led by technocrats who are experienced professional educators who know what they are doing.
I applaud those protesting for the resignations of Ministers. The buck stops with them. We lost 19 students because of their poor governance, sins of commission, and sins of omission. Our children deserve better. Wake up Guyana!
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailall
