Dear Editor,
On March 1st, 2017, President Granger announced that the Value Added Tax (V.A.T) on private education will remain. It was quite an unwise decision.
He stated that the Cabinet examined the problem. The Cabinet needs to examine the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) results for the past decade. It is obvious that the private schools are bringing out the top performers. Why? There is no hope in sending your child to a public primary school. You’re taking a serious risk in doing that. I have met ten-year-olds from a primary school (name supplied) who are illiterate. The sheer appearance of the public primary schools is a major turn-off.
Private schools fill up the top ten slots of the country at the Grade Six Exams.
I have a young sibling at a private primary school. Our father passed away five months ago, and the recently imposed VAT will only add to the stress and depression at home. Some parents scrape together money to send their offspring to private primary schools hoping that they would receive a sound education. The VAT will only just force the children to drop out of school which will only lead to unemployment later on. If the Cabinet members are looking for revenue they should find other ways, not this. This VAT will only cause them to lose more votes at the next elections. Hopefully this dreadful VAT is eradicated as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully,
Nikhil Sankar
