The Rights of the Child Commission (RCC) has rejected the Ministry of Education (MoE)’s claim that its Allied Arts Unit (AAU) did not receive any request for information regarding the exclusion of children from this year’s Mashramani Competition.
The MoE had issued a statement on their Facebook page last Thursday to address this newspaper’s article, titled `Rights commission awaiting info on exclusion of children from Mash contests’ which was published on Wednesday last. According to the Ministry’s statement, on March 22, an unidentified person who refused to provide any form of identification visited the Unit of the Allied Arts’ office.
“At the time, all senior officers were in the fields on official duties and as such, he was provided with a telephone number for the office to make contact later. To date, no contact has been made with the Unit nor has any official request been made for information regarding the Children’s Mashramani Calypso Competition,” it said.
When this newspaper contacted the RCC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Andre Gonsalves yesterday, he insisted that he had identified himself and even provided his business card when he and another individual visited the Unit’s office two Fridays ago. According to Gonsalves, he spoke with a Ms Profitt and requested the information on the rules and policies governing the Children’s Mashramani Competition but was told that the senior officers were in the fields.
Gonsalves noted that as a result of this he was unable to acquire the information which he sought but Profitt promised to get in touch with him and provide the information at a later date.
“I do have her number and she promised to return a call. I did leave my business card with her,” he insisted while adding that the RCC’s driver’s logbook has all the information about his visit to the Unit’s office in the Queen’s College compound.
To date, Gonsalves said, he has yet to receive word from Profitt and he plans on following up, now more than ever, given the ministry’s statement which he was unaware of until Stabroek News pointed it out.
“I am willing to provide the evidence that I went because we do, when we say we’re conducting an investigation we do and I don’t need any ministerial permission to conduct an investigation. We are a constitutional agency… the other day I had the board meet and discuss this matter… We did initiate investigation and we humbly await for the Allied Arts to respond…. I would personally go and let them identify that I wasn’t there. That is why we always walk with [a] witness.
Noting that the RCC has yet to get to the “hard questions” for the Allied Arts Unit, the CEO further explained the process of investigations, noting that “To begin, and I’m just using that generally, whatever discrepancy, whatever the complaint is about, you first have to understand what are the rules of it. And then we look at other activities to see whether or not the same exact judgement or judgement calls were made. Those are the basic steps that we will take. Secondly, we give the accused an opportunity to respond. And that is basically what we’re doing; giving them an opportunity to say ‘well hear, this is why we did it, this is our rule, this is our policy. then we’ll go back to the claimant [and] explain to the claimant, ‘well, this is the way it works’ and try to seek some alternative solution”.
In the statement, the ministry said they welcome any inquiries from statutory bodies and were unaware of any investigation until it was brought to their attention through the Stabroek News article.
“We remain committed to transparency and cooperation with all relevant authorities and look forward to any formal communication from the Rights of the Child Commission regarding this matter,” the statement ended.
When this newspaper contacted Minister of Education Priya Manickchand yesterday for clarification on Gonsalves’ contention, she maintained that from their end there has been no official request for information from the RCC.
Effort
“We did make an effort on this. And you can quote me on that,” Gonsalves concluded.
After being allowed to contest several rounds of the competition, 6-year-old Ezeka Minty was disqualified in what has been seen as censorship and a clear violation of the child’s rights under the United Nations Rights of the Child Convention. The disqualification of the child has also been seen as reflecting the government’s intolerance of anything remotely critical even from a child.
When this newspaper spoke with Head of the AAU, Nicholas Fraser shortly after the pupil’s disqualification, he had blamed the region for letting the item, titled “Tell me how I must survive on 6.5?”, pass through their hands to the final round. One of the guidelines found in the rules booklet states, that “The lyrics of the calypso MUST be submitted to the Unit of Allied Arts along with the Entry Forms”. This indicates that the lyrics were first vetted by the relevant officials before the contestant was allowed to perform onstage.
At time when the competition was taking place, teachers were on their planned industrial action over the 6.5% increase they would have received from the government. Sources close to the ministry had disclosed to Stabroek News that on different occasions at the Children’s Costume Competition, there have been instances where political entries were overlooked. However, these sources surmised that this time around the calypso entry was not permitted given the unrest, at the time, with teachers across Guyana over their salaries.
A few days later, another student, Zoriah Martindale, was also disqualified from the competition, in the poetry category. Zoriah’s poem, titled “Dear Minister” focused on teachers working conditions and was penned by her teacher before the strike commenced.
