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Manickchand corrects Kaieteur News Moleson Creek Primary School publication
…insists Ministry is being truthful
Region Six Education Officer, Shafiran Bhajan demonstrates the layout of Moleson Creek community
Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, yesterday provided proof that her Ministry is being truthful that the Moleson Creek community no longer has the number of students required to keep the Moleson Creek Primary School open.
The Minister expressed her disquiet about the recent publication of a photograph on Kaieteur News front page showcasing 14 children purportedly from Moleson Creek.
In the presence of Region Six Education Officer, Shafiran Bhajan, Welfare Officer, Alfa Mohamed, and Chief Education Officer Olato Sam, at her Brickdam Office, Manickchand slammed the picture as untruthful and irresponsible journalism.
Bhajan, providing names and addresses of the children in the picture, said that only four students in the picture are from Moleson Creek and would have qualified to attend the Moleson Creek Primary School.
However, two of those children have been attending a private school outside of the community since 2008. Therefore, only two students within the area would have been eligible to attend the Moleson Creek Primary School.
Bhajan said that it would not have been worthy to keep the school open for two students. As such, from the recommendation of the Welfare Officer, the students were transferred to Crabwood Primary.
With the exclusion of the four nursery students, who do not qualify to attend primary school, the others reside in Jackson Creek, which is roughly three kilometers from Moleson Creek Primary School. These children are attending the Crabwood Primary School.
Commenting on the publishing of the picture, Manickchand emphasized that it was unethical.
“Kaieteur News published this story yesterday (Tuesday) with the faces of little children which incidentally goes against every rule you learn in the first stage of journalism…You do not exploit a nation’s children to sell newspapers and to say someone send this to you and you published it is no excuse…
“We now have the faces of 14 children splashed across the newspaper, some of whom are too small to even know why they are in the newspapers.
“We are telling the truth. If this is the way this particular newspaper is going to address matters relating to education then we will put a temporary halt to engagement with this newspaper,” she said.
According to Sam, the Ministry has not de-gazetted the school but temporarily closed it. He said that the Ministry has a minimum enrolment number for a school to be established and maintained.
Within the past two years the student population of the school has been dropping, hence the decision to temporarily close doors, Sam said.
There are reports that a resident opted to use the children to force the government to repair a roadway that passes through the community. This individual has no children of school age. The other individual who helped provide the illusion that there were more children in the community has two nursery school children.
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