– lack of internet access for students
Fiery criticisms rained from the Alliance for Change (AFC) on Saturday against the government’s lapsed developmental plans for indigenous education. The party highlighted that despite Guyana being the fastest growing economy, students from as young as five years old are still forced to use pit latrines and lack access to proper sanitation.
And given that the government boasts that substantial income is acquired through carbon credit revenues, former Amerindian People’s Association head turned AFC Executive Laura George lamented that both children and adults continue to suffer and are not part of the planning for the biased distribution of that money.
“In the upper Maz [Mazaruni, Region Seven] you should see the pictures and injustice meted to our children. The discriminatory practices that are applied to our people in the health sector, in the education sector…,” George lamented in her first public speaking appearance at an AFC rally, held in Linden on Saturday evening.
The photos she referred to were taken during a visit to Region Seven by the AFC and posted on the party’s Facebook page.
Party Leader Nigel Hughes said that party members were shocked when they saw the pit latrines being used and even more appalled to learn that children of kindergarten age had to use them. He said that the United Nations Children Fund had made recommendations to help eliminate this practice by volunteering grants for flushable toilets and running water and questioned why the government had not taken up the offer.
In 2008, nine-year-old Tenesha De Souza, a student of Santa Rosa Primary School at Moruca had fallen into a pit latrine and died on her first day of school. The then PPP government had said that it would initiate plans to assess how many other schools were still using latrines.
‘Not benefited’
What brought further outrage, Hughes said, was the residents lamenting that given the amount of students using the facilities daily, the latrines got filled quickly and required moving “further and further away from the school”. Currently, he said, residents were bemoaning the fact that they are running out of space and would have to go even further.
On his social media page, he stated, “While the country earns $65 million per hour and in excess of $1.4 billion per day just from oil, [is this] the best we can do for our fellow citizens? Last year, 95% of the National Resource Fund (NRF) was spent by the government. Some US$1 billion. One is forced to ask exactly what was this money spent on and who has benefited from emptying the NRF. It is evident that the indigenous people have not benefited.
“The annual budgetary allocation to Phillipai is $2 million for a community of about 2,000 persons. They are not Children of a Lesser God they are equally entitled to an equitable share of the national patrimony. This is egregious,” he added.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand swiftly fired back that money was approved to build a sanitary block for the school in June. She juxtaposed Hughes’ post with that of one from Tamika Beharry who states she is a District Coordinator at the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. Beharry displays a blueprint for a sanitary block she claims has been planned for construction at the Phillipai Primary School.
“Early morning the clowning and misinformation in fancy language continues. 1. Nobody has been able to show the govt ‘cutting’ the Phillipai toilet block construction but Hughes continues to tell you that using big words in a clear attempt to fool you. 2. If you wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and say his original post was a genuine mistake, the truth has been posted complete with drawings that are idiot proof etc for more than 13 hours, a post of which he is aware. ( see pic No. 2) This money was warranted to the region since June as seen in Pic No 3. The Regional Chairman is Nigel’s political associate. If he doesn’t know what is to be built in his region that is what is criminal and negligent…,” the Education Minister posted.
In 2008, when the student died at Santa Rosa after she fell into a pit latrine, the school’s PTA had told this newspaper that it had been lobbying for years for modern toilets to no avail, and it was the AFC which had offered assistance.
Then, the AFC had said that it was prepared to join with like-minded groups and individuals in installing flush toilets at that school and hoped the Ministry of Education or other agencies would not be directed to prevent their effort. The sanitary facility was built and the students had access to it.
PPP Minister of Amerindian Affairs at the time, Pauline Sukhai, had said that her government would examine child-friendly infrastructure in schools but because the country was still developing economically at the time, it was “still grappling with removing ourselves from the level of a developing country and moving towards a higher level… which is a challenge to the government.”
She said the government, “may not be able to address the conversion of all pit latrines to flush toilets or what we call it – water closets, but definitely I think we would have to consider for the future, making safer facilities available to our children.”
Sixteen years later, sanitation is still an issue in some hinterland communities.
In addition to school sanitation and access to potable water, the AFC also lamented the lack of access to the internet for hinterland and rural communities.
He reasoned that internet access can bridge the divide between students in the hinterland and those on the coast when it comes to research and reading.
Responding
In an appeal to the indigenous community, George said that she joined a political party to make a change and it was “a call responding to injustice; a call for truth, a call for justice and a call for rights for all of us of Guyana.”
Said she came from years of advocacy, for indigenous people and teachers as she holds solidarity with them given that she is a trained teacher and has faced attempts to silence independent voices.
“When I speak here today it is calling for Guyana to recognize we have our inherent rights and the state must respect [them]… Our communities face constant injustice, marginalization and the constant threats or efforts to silence the voice of our community leaders,” she said.
George said that the longstanding support from Hughes “in our fight for rights” was the reason she joined the AFC ticket. “For more than 20 years he stood by those people when so many were scared to stand by us,” she said.
For her, the government needs to tell all of Guyana and not just indigenous communities how they decide on cash grants and their distribution. “The cash grants… who really are issued these cash grants? What criteria is used is not clear. And who is in charge of these cash grants in the communities? It is the party agents of preference and political allegiance. It is an injustice to our people. The same thing that is being done to you in the townships is being done to us in the communities,” she said.
“The communities have village councils… they are not the ones who say who receive those cash grants. It is the political agents and that is wrong because the monies belong to the people. As indigenous peoples and rights advocates, we have been saying that. That has to change. There needs to be transparency and accountability in the whole process. If it is not done in a transparent and equitable manner then someone has to be held accountable and that is not being done in the community.”
In the hinterlands, she said, where a pound of sugar is $500 and a loaf of bread $1,000, “explain to me how we expect our teachers to live on salaries barely making $100k or just over and we expect them to make a performance output of our children.”
Consulted
“Carbon credits. The Government of Guyana uses this term a lot… They say these monies we get from the trees by means of the carbon credit sales is for indigenous peoples and local communities … “Tell me [indigenous words for brothers and sisters] how many of you that live off of the forest, who have lived in the forest, who have homes around in this region, how many of you have been consulted on where these monies should go and how you would like to have it spent?” she questioned.
“I am calling on us, on all of you Guyanese to wake up and realize this thing must not happen. This approach of misinformation, disinformation, injustice and the inequity, the non-transparency must stop,” she added.
To toshaos coming to Georgetown for the Annual Toshaos Council Meeting, she urged them to not let politicians use them to be divided amongst themselves.
George dared them to be brave and speak out without fear of victimization. She said she believes that they will have “very little time to canvass among themselves” and the meeting will be a very “controlled” one. “They must be very careful and not listen to them… these are the tactics of those who want to remain in power by any means. New colonialists pitting us against each other.”
