Dear Editor,

The government recently announced its intention to build a Hostel/Dormitory for Hinterland Scholarship students in Georgetown. Money for this project has already been allocated in the 2008 budget. The hostel will be for students attending secondary and vocational schools in Georgetown and for those already living in a dormitory situation at President’s College on the East Coast of Demerara.

Mr Editor, I do not agree that such a facility should be built. Please allow me to present my argument why I believe that such a facility would be contrary to the objective of the Hinterland Scholarship programme.

When the scholarship programme started over thirty-five years ago, its primary objective was to allow students from the hinterland community to pursue a Secondary Education in Georgetown while being integrated into the wider Guyanese society. Students who won scholarships were placed among families in Georgetown. The heads of those families served as guardians for the students, and so the students began their integration into the Georgetown society. There was a special reason for allowing children to live with guardians and that reason was to allow our hinterland scholarship students to live in a home environment and not an institution.

Students tend to study better in a home situation than in a dormitory. President’s College is a different situation because all of the children in the dormitory attend President’s College and the school and the dorms are on the same campus. The intended dormitory to be built in Georgetown will accommodate students from different secondary schools in Georgetown.

Ever since the implementation of the hinterland scholarship programme, guardians have played a very important role. The guardians had taken on the role of the parent for the students. I wish to say that many if not all of the guardians were very dedicated to the cause of the scholarship programme and I clearly remember that each year there was a guardian of the year award. Many ex-hinterland scholarship students can testify how much they have benefitted from living in a home environment in the city while attending school. There was a joy in going to a home rather than to an institution.

It is also the intention of the government to remove the students from the hinterland who are attending President’s College to the new dormitory to be built in Georgetown. Mr Editor, I do not know who came up with this idea, but what I know is that it is a very bad idea. President’s College is situated at Golden Grove on the East Coast of Demerara which means that the students will have to be transported to and from the College. That is not the only problem, there are times when classes are held early in the morning and sometime early in the evening for P.C. students. Many teachers live on the campus at P.C. and so they are available most of the times to answer enquiries from students. There is no need to remove the hinterland students from P.C., it makes no sense.

I wish to urge the Amerindian Affairs Ministry to rethink their decision to construct a students dormitory in Georgetown. The students would be better off living with guardians in a homely environment.

Yours faithfully,

Clive Fredericks