Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo contends that while President David Granger, has been touting educational development, his actions are contradictory.
At his weekly press conference today, Jagdeo said that the government’s cancellation of the Peoples’ Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)’s $10,000 uniform grant flies in the face of the President’s commitment to developing the local education sector.
“He [President Granger] speaks about education. He’s the education president. And the facts are different from his public statements,” said Jagdeo.
Jagdeo continued, “So, he started off by removing the cash grants from the school kids, which by now, would have put $8B into the pockets of the parents or these children. $8B dollars; five years multiplied by $1.6B, because they passed five budgets and they eliminated that [cash transfer] …That’s what they took away from school kids.”
The coalition government, while it moved away from this form of assistance, launched its “5Bs” programme after its ascension to office in May 2015, which saw private citizens and corporations – amongst others – donating boats, bicycles, buses, breakfast, and books to schoolchildren across Guyana. That programme later became known as the Public Education Transport Service (PETS), and to date, more than 4000 bicycles have been distributed across the country, with some 29 buses and 14 boats also up and running; taking children to and from school across the country free of charge.
Despite this, Jagdeo remains unimpressed. He contends that clarity is needed on the programme, regarding ownership.
“He replaced it with this PETS thing. He speaks about it: at his rally in Linden, etcetera. That’s his big initiative with a few buses donated, and even in the donation process, we don’t know if they were donated to the PNC[R], or whether they’re donated to the government…If they’re donated to the government they should not be handled the way they are…But we don’t know if they’re in the assets register of the government, or in PNCR’s ownership because they were donated at party events.” Jagdeo said.
Jagdeo also spoke of the high cost associated with the maintenance of the donated buses, that was flagged by the Auditor-General in his 2017 report.
Further, the PPP/C leader argued that the programme can allow for corruption, when “people who want to get into their (government’s) good books, just have to buy an old bus and do it over and donate it,”
Jagdeo said that his party plans to ensure that there is universal access to education as well as improved quality of education at every level.
