Latest update February 20th, 2025 12:39 PM
Sukhai defends access to education in Amerindian communities
Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai, yesterday vehemently refuted comments from the opposition benches that Amerindian students do not have access to quality education. She argued that significant strides have been made by Government to bridge the gap of delivery of education on the coastland and the hinterland.
Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai
During her budget debate presentation, the Minister reflected on the poor delivery of education in the hinterland under the People’s National Congress Reform, which is the largest party in the Opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity.
“We can recall that at CPCE under the PNC days, the enrollment of Amerindian teachers was minimal. The hinterland schools depended mostly on coastland teachers. Since the PPP/C took office this has been completely turned around. Is the opposition saying that today that the majority of Amerindian teachers are poor quality educators?
Furthermore, today, the PNC legacy of deplorable schools has been transformed into quality institutions of learning with modern facilities, proud Amerindian teachers and student-friendly learning environments,” Sukhai said.
In an attempt to provide an example of exemplary performance of an Amerindian, she pointed to Martha George, a former student of the Waramadong Secondary School, who is now serving in the medical sector.
However, this was met with heckling by some members of the Opposition who emphasized that that was just one example and does not represent the true picture.
The Minister also pointed out that APNU Parliamentarian Dawn Hastings is a beneficiary of the same quality education.
“Let me underscore that over the last 20 years the Hinterland Scholarship Programme has produced 7,000 students. And, in 2014, Region Seven registered the second highest number of students – eighty- in the programme,” she added.
According to Sukhai, the total investments in this programme for the last five years are more than $350M. This year, an estimated 470 students will benefit from the allocation of $66.6M.
“As proposed in the 2014 budget, more than 30,000 Amerindian students will benefit from the $10,000 grant, and I hope the opposition will not deny this right to our Amerindian brothers and sisters and our children…This is an additional $300M educational support to indigenous students!” she said emphatically.
Sukhai reflected that under the interland scholarship continue to bPNC Government, the scholarship programme only catered to the top three; training of teachers was centralized; there was no targeted school feeding programme, no school uniform programme; only one secondary school in the hinterland, and no text books.
Nonetheless, she said, the annual national school uniform project now provides benefits to a total of 30,000 hinterland students of which more than 95 percent are Amerindians across Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine with an investment sum of G$350M over the five-year period.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
A flawed interpretation of international law
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News – The assertion that “under international law, Venezuela is responsible for... more
CARICOM Nations Should Respond Together To new U.S. Policies
By Sir Ronald Sanders Ambassador to the US and the OAS, Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News-Two Executive Orders issued by U.S.... more
Weekend Cartoon
