The Rights of the Child Commission (RCC) has indicated that the parents of the six-year-old who was disqualified from the Calypso segment of the Children’s Mashramani Competition have no desire to pursue the matter further.
Chief Executive Officer of the RCC Andre Gonsalves said he paid a visit to little Ezeka Minty and her parents, Ezra and Adele Minty, at their Berbice residence, but they stated that they did not want to participate in any investigations related to the incident. Gonsalves said the RCC respects the family’s decision and reveal-ed plans to honour Ezeka in a different category that deals with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, separate from the Mashramani competition.
“We have categories we can recognise someone for so the commission will meet on the 29th of April. During that meeting, under any other business, we will discuss recognising Minty under the category the commission decides. And again, it will not be anything to do with children’s Mashramani,” he told this newspaper on Thursday last.
Questioned about another child, Zoriah Martindale, whose parent Candace Martindale raised similar concerns about her child being disqualified from one of the competitions, Gonsalves said the RCC had not received a formal complaint from Marindale. Therefore, he said the commission had not made contact with her. This newspaper then asked Gonsalves if the Mintys had made a formal complaint to prompt an investigation from the RCC, to which he responded in the negative. He later admitted that he had not raised the Martindale case with the RCC board and would do so during their next meeting.
“As we discussed Miss Minty’s case, I will now raise, given that I didn’t mention the second case that you spoke of to the board, to my commission, and let the commission advise the investigative department on what to do,” he said.
“Don’t quote me in saying I’m investigating. I’m doing so as a fact-finding. Once we see the evidence exists, then we proceed with an investigation.”
After he was told that he had used the term investigation from the first time he was interviewed by this newspaper, he conceded, “It would be on me in that instance”.
Meanwhile, when the Unit of Allied Arts (UAA) was contacted to verify whether or not there was a visit from Gonsalves, Miss Profitt (with whom Gonsalves said he had met) was not in office. UAA Head Nicholas Fraser referred this newspaper to Chief Educa-tion Officer Saddam Hussain.
According to Fraser, the matter was at Hussain’s level and he would be able to provide information on what transpired between Gonsalves and Profitt. during the visit. However, when contacted, Hussain was unable to say definitively whether or not Gonsalves visited the UAA, adding that he could have simply reached out for information without the need for a physical visit.
On March 28, the Ministry of Educa-tion released a statement claiming that its Allied Arts Unit did not receive any request for information regarding the exclusion of children from this year’s Mashramani Competition. This statement was released in response to a March 22 article in this newspaper, which stated that Gonsalves had paid a visit to the Unit and requested information about the competition. When contacted about the ministry’s claim, Gonsalves debunked it, affirming that he did indeed visit, identified himself, and had even left his business card to be contacted.
After being allowed to contest several rounds of the competition, Ezeka Minty was disqualified in what has been seen as censorship and a clear violation of the child’s rights under the Rights of the Child Convention. A few days later, another student, Zoriah Martindale, was also disqualified from the competition, in the poetry category. Martindale’s poem, titled “Dear Minister” focused on teachers’ working conditions and was penned by her teacher before the strike commenced.
The disqualification of the two children has also been seen as reflecting the government’s intolerance of anything remotely critical even from a child.
