Students ditched to promote partisan and sinister political plot

Jan 29, 2015 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
So, the people had to bring pressure on the government for them to understand that the education of our children is a serious and important issue. So, after much display of arrogance and blatant ignorance, they suspiciously decided to move the May 11, 2015 CXC examinations to dates in June in order to avoid the clash with elections.
Clearly, these people had no intention to place the interest of the nation’s children as a top priority. The fact that the regime decided to change the examination date and not the election date, illustrates that the PPP believes that its own political agenda must be paramount to the interest of the Guyanese children. This is a revelation that none of us should be happy or comfortable with or should just roll over and accept.
The people must be concerned as to why the government decided to change the dates of these important examinations as opposed to shifting the date of the elections.
What is in this May 11 election date? Why would the government shift a regional examination they know is written during the time they announced the election, instead of moving the date of elections that are locally managed and controlled? Wouldn’t it have cost less to move the date of the elections than to move the date of the examinations?
Mind you, the President is on record as stating that he has numerous elections dates lined up, hence it is clear that there were other alternatives. However, the May 11 date appears to be so important to the PPP/C that it decided to burden the taxpayers with the additional and unanticipated cost the shifting of the examination will attract.
In this already economically deprived society, the government in its “wisdom” decided that the people of Guyana must incur this additional cost, which the CXC indicated that the Guyana government will have to bear. Will the people be told how much of their hard earned taxpaying dollars was already paid to CXC to administer these examinations on the May 11 date? Will the government come clean with the people on this?
They must let the people know how much they will have to pay CXC to administer these examinations on the new June dates. The people must also know what possible ramifications the change in the examination date will cause. How will the government guarantee that since the examination to be written by Guyanese students will be different, than those to be written by their counterparts in the region, that those examinations will be fair, and free of controversy?
The Guyanese parents and students must also be assured that there will be no allegations of cheating on our students’ part, because of them writing the examinations after their counterparts in the Caribbean. This new arrangement presents a new set of challenges which could have been avoided by simply changing the election date instead, but of course the PPP/C sees itself as paramount to the people and children of Guyana.
It is mind-boggling that with all the waste, and pilfering of taxpayers’ dollars, that the government refuses to spend taxpayers’ dollars wisely. However, the shifting of the examination date instead of the election date tells me that the regime can be least interested in prudent spending.
I bet there must be a more sinister reason for holding on to the May 11 election date. The people must therefore be vigilant and highly watchful for the hidden agendas and political ploys to be unleashed the week/s prior to May 11, 2015.
For the PPP/C it is political survival at the expense of our children and country. Examining the comments on the date clash, it is clear that the government knew that Guyanese children were to write their regional examination on this date when they decided that the said date will be national and regional elections. This clash was therefore deliberate and done without the care and concern for our children, as the only consideration seems to have been that of the PPP’s sinister agenda.
It was stated that the President’s naming of the elections date was influenced by the readiness of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). If this was the only factor taken into consideration by the PPP, then clearly the interest and future of the students took a back seat to Freedom House’s political agenda. It is therefore disingenuous for the government to tell the nation that the best interests of the students were considered when the date was set. Are they serious? Do they recognize the contradiction in their statement?
The PPP must know that there are people who read and examine what they say, and are capable of exposing their sinister plots and blatant attempts to hoodwink the people? The PPP has outplayed itself and the people will soon have a chance to end this political charade. Guyanese will go to the polls and vote to ensure that the vindictive, disrespectful, bullish and uncaring PPP regime is not returned to government. The nation deserves to breathe, the people deserve to live, and our children and young people deserve to have the opportunity to achieve.
I will continue to watch for the political developments prior to May 11, 2015, and I ask all Guyanese to watch with me. We must look out for the PPP propaganda and political ploys that are likely to happen. As these happenings are unleashed on the nation, we must be ready to boldly call out the PPP for jilting our children to promote its partisan and devious political plot.
Lurlene Nestor

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