Political parties contesting the November 28 general elections yesterday highlighted plans for improved race relations, the enforcement of legal protections and fixing the education system as part of their vision for improving the general welfare for the country’s children.
The four parties contesting the national polls were invited to each make a 15-minute presentation on plans for the nation’s children at a forum held at the Umana Yana by the Rights of the Child Commission and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), held under the theme ‘Guyana’s Commitment: Making children visible.’
Addressing the forum were presidential candidate for the Alliance For Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan; representative of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Cheryl Sampson; People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) prime ministerial candidate Samuel Hinds; and Roy-Van Tull of The United Force (TUF).
Ramjattan, who spoke first, delivered a partial replica of his party’s action plan for children and women, whom he stated needed equal representation. The AFC’s focus, he said, is working fervently to narrow and possibly eliminate the racial divide that retards the growth of Guyana. He added that although the task seemed enormous, by “gripping it from the roots” through formal school education and partnering with adults in the home he felt the goal could be achieved. He stressed the fact that children live what they see and hear and argued that if given proper examples they would create a society free of prejudice.
“Adults have to be careful as to how they make utterances at home about other ethnic communities. They should strive to ensure children appreciate the ethnic diversity of this country…. The AFC will begin this work in the home and extend the programmes to schools,” he explained.
Ramjattan also highlighted other proposals his party has for “Guyana’s future,” including expansion in apprenticeship programmes for technical vocational students, facilitation by government of interns in various job sectors, free lunch and transportation assistance for students, especially in the hinterland areas, subsidising of tertiary education in the sciences and mathematics fields and a major focus on sports.
He also stated that win or lose at the polls, the AFC’s stance will remain the same. He said he intends to petition for the end of corporal punishment in schools and for adherence of laws against trafficking in children and child abuse and harsher sentences for persons who breach those laws, among others.
Ramjattan ended by stating that his party did not see children as vessels to be filled but as lamps to be lit and the AFC will do all within its power to ensure they are given all they need to make themselves productive citizens.
Hinds stated that the PPP would also work towards national unity of the Guyanese people beginning with its children. He also highlighted the government’s progress in the area of child development, citing recent reports on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that say Guyana has achieved universal primary education. He said that the PPP/C government will take a step further as it strives to achieve universal secondary education.
In addition, Hinds said that while formal education formed the core for cognitive development of children, his party’s focus will also be to incorporate sports to form well-rounded individuals. He further stated that his government’s budgetary provisions had always placed the development of children in the fore, since it recognised this as investments in the country’s future that would yield a reward to be reaped by all. In this regard, he also highlighted the current meal programmes as well as textbook and uniform allowances and transportations subsidies, among others.
Sampson stated that development and children’s issues were always major focuses of the APNU, which she said would revise and enforce laws so that children are totally protected and understand that they have rights, while citing the Status of Children, Adoption of Children and Protection of Children laws as well as the Sexual Offences Act and the Custody, Contact, Guardianship and Maintenance Act.
“A Partnership for National Unity government will make sure that these laws do not passively remain on the law-books of Guyana but that they will be fully and actively implemented,” Sampson said.
APNU, she noted, is also committed to increasing teachers’ salaries because it believes that as “the nations moulders” are better rewarded, they will then be better able to not only take care of themselves but will extend monies to purchase necessary teaching learning aids to benefit children. Massive infrastructural developments for schools, textbooks, food supplements for children, transportation provisions and child protection services were also presented as part of the APNU’s children development plan.
The United Force’s (TUF) representative read from his party’s plan, which includes providing budgetary allocations to develop education, sports, and technical and vocational education.
