Where is the Ministry’s policy of Monitor Evaluate Record and Develop?

Aug 21, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
With great interest I read an article in the Kaieteur News of Sunday 8th August, 2010, captioned, “Urgent need to address copyright infringement.”
Firstly, the article indicates that the Ministry of Education has bought photocopied text books and has distributed same to school. However, Minister Baksh ‘insists that he is not aware that such a practice persists.’
Let me inform the Honourable Minister that this has happened. That is, the Ministry of Education has bought photocopied text books and has distributed same to schools.
Some of these text books bought and distributed include: Mathematics: A Complete Course: Volume One and Volume Two by Raymond Toolsie, Call of the Wild by Jack London and World of Poetry by Hazel Simmons McDonald. These books were distributed to schools in the third term of 2009 —2010 academic year.
It is strange that such a high level decision was taken and the Minister does not know. One wonders what has happened to the Ministry’s policy of Monitor Evaluate Record and Develop (MERD). Maybe MERD forgot to tell the Honourable Minister!
Mr. Editor, it was inevitable that the Ministry of Education would buy photocopied books. The difference between the photocopied books and the original is too attractive.
Imagine one copy of Toolsie’s Mathematics: A Complete Course Volume is $5000; you can get two photocopied copies for the same price. I am not justifying this criminal act but one must sympathize with the Ministry of Education.
The numbers are too striking to be ignored especially when you consider the amount of books the Ministry provides to school.
This Ministry of Education has provided and continues to provide a substantial number of textbooks to all schools.
In one year’s budget $250 million was allotted to the purchase of textbooks. Herein lies the problem. Very few text books survive a year of existence in schools.
It would be interesting if the Ministry can tell us how many textbooks given in 2008 still exist in any particular school. Students destroy the books to an unusable condition.
Almost all schools in this country have damaged books in their stores that they have written off after one or two years of use. Students do not return the books. This happens although students and their parents sign a book loan agreement. As usual, the Ministry of Education believes that a record, a piece of paper, is adequate to monitor a
school. The Ministry’s sanction for a damaged or lost book is for the parent to replace the book. Hardly any parent does this.
In fact, many fifth form students do not return any books. Some schools responded by withholding report cards and exam slips.
The Ministry through the Departments of Education indicated that this could not be done. There is a store in Georgetown that resells textbooks.
Many of the textbooks have the Ministry’s Book Distribution Unit stamp in them. The Ministry finds itself buying books over and over.
The solution to this problem is that the Ministry of Education needs to stop giving free books. The current generation of students never shows care for anything that they are given free. This can be extended to the exercise books that are given by the Ministry. How often we see these books thrown away minutes after they are collected.
The Ministry of Education can subsidize the purchase of textbooks. Allow parents to pay a part!
Give them a voucher so they can go to the bookstore and get a significant discount.
This will ensure that the taxpayers’ money is better spent. Secondly, the PTA can initiate fundraisers to buy books for the school.
Each student can pay a small non-returnable fee to use the books for the academic year. This non-returnable fee is then used to buy new text books.
This will ensure that students care the books since their parents are directly paying for it.
This will also ensure that each school gets its relevant textbook. Often the Ministry of Education sends textbooks to schools that they do not use in the implementation of its curriculum.
Mr. Editor, the issue of textbook is even more simplistic. Students rarely bring textbooks to school whether they are given it or not.
Why bother giving them any? Subsidize extra lessons! Most students believe that this is better than using a textbook to do some work on their own.
M. S. Hussain
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Poll shows mixed views on Desi Bouterse as President

Dear Editor,
With regards to your news story of Suriname’s Desi Bouterse being sworn in as President and other stories about how he was selected as President, some among the Suriname’s Diaspora back him and others being strongly opposed to him.
Surinamese based in Holland have mixed views on Bouterse being chosen as President. People are still divided on the fate of the Suriname’s strongman with opinion strongly against him.
The majority would prefer that he not become President but are willing to accept him if it is needed to form a government and will bring stability. Surinamese said they have been plagued with bad governance over a long period of time.
I was in Holland last week and I informally polled Surinamese at various events on their views of Bouterse being chosen as their new President.
They are not enthusiastic on this possibility or what appears like a done deal. I went to the Suriname museum and visited the monument erected (in the centre of Amsterdam) for those democratic leaders who were executed by Bouterse. The opinion, from my estimate, among Dutch Surinamese (of various ethnic groups) is about 70% opposed to 30% in favour of Bouterse serving as President.
Surinamese have not forgotten the alleged criminal activities of Bouterse and the noble people (of civil society, religious and labour society) he is accused of murdering.
They even talk about the indictments handed down by Holland and the US on alleged drug trafficking and Bouterse being placed on the “Wanted” list. But many, including the families of some of those he killed, are willing to forgive and move on so there can be healing in Suriname and among the Suriname Diaspora.
However, they want some kind of compensation for their relatives and it would help Bouterse if he were to tender an apology for the crimes of the past when he was the ruler. That would help him to become more acceptable among his people.
Those who support Bouterse say if the electorate chose him, then he should be accepted and be given a chance to govern to prove his mettle. Surinamese in Holland say it was mostly the younger voters (60% younger than 30 years) who cast ballots for Bouterse’s coalition and that these youngsters don’t know much about what Bouterse did and don’t care a lot about what happened in the 1980s.
More and more Surinamese people in Holland are willing to close the past dictatorial Bouterse chapter of their lives and feel Bouterse will be a better ruler this time around. They feel America and Holland should not seek to prosecute the charges established against the former tyrant.
However, they note, if Bouterse does not show any remorse and that he is not a transformed man, then the charges should be revived and the full force of the law be brought to bear on him. The few Guyanese in Holland, although they repudiated his killing of people, are grateful to Bouterse for allowing the smuggling of foods to Guyana from his country allowing Guyanese to eat bread, roti, dhal, alou, etc. When I was in Guyana in July, several Guyanese noted that Bouterse allowed the safe passage of the late Dr. Walter Rodney to attend the independence celebration of Zimbabwe. They also felt Guyanese owed a debt of gratitude to Bouterse for refusing to enforce Forbes Burnham’s ban of basic foods. They noted that Bouterse closed his eyes on the contraband food smuggling at the border. The handful of Surinamese I spoke with in New York feel strongly Bouterse should not be President but will accept him since the parliament has chosen him.
Vishnu Bisram
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Enhance the Linden Hospital Complex entrance

Dear Editor,
It was indeed a good thing to see the Japanese funded New Linden Hospital Complex materialise.
While the medical equipment and quality of service being received from this so-called state of the art hospital leave much to be desired. It is a downright shame that the President himself had declared this hospital open and did not see the need to instruct his slow/low thinking lieutenants to ensure that the entrance of the hospital be done to match the level of development that the new building brings to the community.
I believe the people of Linden deserve better, thus, monies from the national coffer should be made available to enhance the entrance to this new development, thanks to the people of Japan.
Observant Citizen

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