Planned government spending is continuing to neglect hinterland youth, who are leaving secondary schools with no technical and vocational skills, forcing them to turn to the dangerous occupation of mining from very tender ages, APNU Member of Parliament Dawn Hastings says.
“The majority of children who leave the Waramadong Secondary School return home year after year having been successful at one subject or two and having no second chance to equip themselves with technical or vocational skills and find themselves in the gold and diamond fields at a very tender age,” Hastings said when the budget debate continued on Wednesday evening.
A resident of Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni), Hastings lamented that while the proposed 2014 budget has allocations for hinterland development, it is not enough. Further, the sums previously allocated in past budgets, she argued, have not yielded any significant developmental changes, especially for hinterland youth.
“Has it really improved the quality of the lives of our brothers and sister living in our interior locations? Tell me, Honourable Members on the other side of this house…what direct impact has it on the hinterland residents?” she asked about the allocations from past budgets.
Hastings, who is a teacher, called for youth in the hinterland to be given access to technical and industrial centres, where they can be empowered with the appropriate skills to assist the development of their respective villages.
She explained that currently if a child from the region wanted to have a profession in a technical area, their parents would have to find exorbitant sums to facilitate it. Most times, since the villagers are poor, their children’s dreams are deferred, she said.
“It is our duty to ensure that the government of the day takes care of the needs of our people in the hinterland …but we continue to experience as the years come and go the young in the hinterland being denied equal access to education,” she said.
Hasting pointed out that while government boasts of its multimillion dollar school feeding programme, it boils down to about $175 a day for meals for each child. “Are the monies allocated for this venture adequate…? What kind of balanced meal can you provide with $175 Guyana dollars, in these times, to nourish the brain of a child who we expect to become literate and numerate in the end?” she questioned.
She also compared the $175 for meals per day to the $1,000 a day being paid to cooks and as well as an additional $20,000 a month from the same feeding programme monies. This, she said, was a testimony to the “continuous neglect” of the country’s hinterland children and she warned that it could lead to them “running away” in search of a better country.
“Is it not time for a child in Philippi or Arau or Paruima and Kako to be doing his research on the internet? When exactly would this government become serious about developing our rich hinterland?” she questioned.
Touching on the lack of development of sports in the hinterland, Hastings informed that for three years there has been no regional camp in Region Seven although it was an activity residents there looked forward to annually. In addition, the region has been without a youth and sports officer for quite some time.
She also reminded Prime Minister Samuel Hinds that the residents of Kamarang have been without power since July of last year and without water supply for many years. She said that he might not have noticed since when he was visiting he stayed at a guest house that was fully powered while residents suffered in the dark. On being called out on this, the Prime Minister wiped his face and smiled, seemingly embarrassed.
Hastings said that she hoped that of the $2.5B allocated for the electricity sector this year, some will go towards development in the hinterland regions. “I am hoping that residents do not have to wait until the hydro project is materialised before they are given power supply… I hope not,” she asserted.
