Dear Editor,
Our son who in on a Hinterland Scholarship is a student at the Three Miles Secondary School in Region 7. Under this programme he is supposed to receive an annual allowance of $10,000 for uniform and a personal allowance of $4,000 a month. His guardian is supposed to receive a miserly fee of $16,000 a month. My gripe is this: These monies which are due at the end of the school term and the end of the month respectively are not paid until months later.
Whenever we contact the Georgetown office we are assured that the money has been sent, sometimes months ago to the Regional Office at Bartica; on enquiring at the Bartica office we are always told that the allowance would be paid next week.
For example, my son received his uniform allowance for this year on October 16; he also received a personal allowance for July on the same date. His guardian also received her fee for July on the same date. This was only done because the guardian told the paymasters at Bartica that we had been told by headquarters that the money was there long ago.
This programme started by the PNC government in the 1960s was efficiently run until recent years. I know because starting in 1975 my children have received seven of those scholarships over a period of nearly forty years. If there is a Minister of Amerindian Affairs I would like to ask him/her, why these students and guardians in Region 7 are not receiving their due in a timely manner. I am sure that the Minister is receiving her paycheck, probably even before month end.
Why must Amerindians always hold the dirty end of the stick?
Yours faithfully,
E C Lobert
Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to the Regional Executive Officer of Region 7, Mr Peter Ramoutar, for any comment he might wish to make.
