SKULKERS

Sep 10, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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She is, in her own words, “a fiercely independent woman”. She boasts that she does not have to depend on any man to maintain her and her four children.
The truth is that her man has long abandoned her and harbours no ambition of supporting the four children she bore him. She lives with her mother and has a string of male friends from whom she refuses to take a cent.
Three of the four children are of school age. The eldest is no longer at school and spends the greater part of the day sitting on the stairway watching the traffic go by.
The Ministry of Education has provided uniform vouchers for the three school age children. Whether you are rich or poor, you are entitled to these uniform vouchers. But despite collecting three vouchers, none of the three school age children are attending classes for the present term.
When asked why the children are not going to school, the fiercely independent mom claims that she does not have passage to send them to school.
Yet this same mother can be seen donning the latest fashions and is ever so often at the hairdresser having her hair done. She is also a party animal on weekends and is known to be out late at nights, safe in the knowledge that her mother will babysit the kids.
This fiercely independent mom is not an isolated case. There are many more like her who always find an excuse for not sending their children to school, thus depriving them of an education.
The present school term is in its second week now and there are many children who are absent from school. Many of them have not even bothered to register and thus the school to which they are assigned have no record of them.
Some action needs to be taken against these defaulting parents who find convenient explanations for keeping their children away from school. It is no longer acceptable to offer the excuse of not having money to buy uniforms.
In fact, even in the rice flour days, this was never a legitimate excuse. The government offers a uniform voucher which may not go the full nine yards but which, given the prices of materials, goes a far way to outfitting children for school.
The unfortunate thing about this uniform voucher is that both the rich and the poor benefit from it and some multimillionaires have been known to urge their children to uplift the vouchers at schools.
These vouchers are supposed to be used only for uniforms but Guyanese have found creative ways at some places- not all- to use the vouchers for purposes other than uniforms.
The universal distribution of uniform vouchers should be discontinued. Instead the Ministry of Education should target those extremely needy cases in which some parents genuinely have financial difficulties in outfitting their children for school. It is not difficult for those really needy cases to be identified.
The Ministry of Education also needs to come down harshly on those parents who keep their children away from school without just cause. There is little excuse which can be made for this practice.
Guyana is fast becoming an individualistic society but despite this there is great deal of humanity within all communities in Guyana and when it comes to children there are many persons who if asked would readily push their hands in their pockets and help someone in their community who may need help in sending his or her kids off to school.
There are persons who would be reluctant to give monies to adults because they may not be sure what that money will be used for but when it comes to children, persons will give and give generously. As such, there can be little excuse for any parent keeping their children away from school because that parent cannot afford the uniforms. Not in Guyana.
There used to be a time when there was a special unit that used to go around arresting kids and their parents when these kids were not at school. The media always seemed to be in tow on these operations.
Many parents have faced embarrassing publicity because of these operations which unfortunately only capture an insignificant population of absentee students.
It is time for a better approach to be adopted and for a hotline to be dedicated for persons to call in and report cases where children are away from school.
In addition, schools should be required to produce a report to the Ministry of Education about those children who are frequently absent so that the social workers from the Ministry can visit these students can ascertain the problem and see what assistance can be rendered.
The big stick approach will not work. What is needed is for investigations to be done and where it is found that parents were neglectful in not sending their children to school action, including support, should be rendered. But where there is no justified reason, then charges should be filed against the neglectful parents.

 

 

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