VAT on private education will cost Granger electorally

Feb 21, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
In my previous letter, I made the observation that many private schools offer adult level CXC classes. In my research for authoring this letter, I found no such government operated program where anyone desirous of finally writing CXC can do so. Many of those enrolled in the diploma level programs such as ABE are also low-income women and not the millionaire.
If the government wants to quiet the private institutions, it should take several steps. First, it should do away with CXC which deprives many of earning a high school diploma and institute a national high school certification program in keeping with twenty-first-century developments. Second, educational reform should include smaller class sizes and more teachers; computer classes from nursery to university because if we are not equipping our children for the competitive technology driven environment, we are robbing them. Third, our schools need redesigning and doing away with the one room or auditorium style design and have classrooms with doors and soundproof.
Each school should have home economics, music, science labs, computer labs, woodworks, and agriculture, history (not social studies) and business as core subject areas of their curriculum. These should be a national curriculum, and the government should invest in making sure each school has its complement of competent educators. Also, part of education reform should be a school feeding program. Students cannot study on empty stomachs. Nutrition and education go hand-in-hand; for hungry bellies are a greater distraction than the crime. Studies prove well-fed children perform better in school. These are the areas of concentration the government should focus on, not imposing further taxation on citizens already struggling to eke out a living with the meager wages they earn.
Editor, one commentator had this to say “I didn’t send my children to private schools because I could afford it but because under the prevailing circumstances, I couldn’t afford to!” This sentiment adequately sums up the collective feeling of those who have to sacrifice to send their children to private schools. This same commentator also stated “putting quality education out of financial reach is anti-development.”
As I stated in my first letter, this instituted taxation goes against the campaign promise of an “a good life” you cannot deliver a good life if you’re overtaxing one of the most heavily taxed population in the Western Hemisphere. During the 1980s the late American President Ronald W. Reagan called such policies “voodoo economics,” or as the adage goes “what rain cannot fill the dew will not full.” Trying to boost the public coffers by taxing private education is wrong, how about we change the tax exempt laws that allow the top tier of our government to earn ridiculous salaries on the back of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and not pay income taxes.
Minister Jordan has negatively equated paying tuition fees with that of parking fees at the airport; this exposes to us that this gentleman is keenly unaware on what services attract VAT. He also said that parents and students have a choice, the choice they have is to send their children to attend public schools that are both overcrowded and poorly staffed. So far this government seems bent on a path which is antithetical to their promise of change. We cannot and should not burden the public when we fail to provide the critical services that the very public funds, by paying both value added tax and income tax.
I am sure that these private institutions pay both corporate and income taxes to the government so taxing students’ tuition is double taxation, and this policy should be repealed with immediate effect so that people can continue to exercise the choice of sending their children to private schools and keeping Guyana somewhat competitive.
Finally, I would like to remind the Granger administration the, 5,245 votes which put you in office, you’ve already lost their support, and your new taxation scheme will ensure you will double this. The only way I see this administration getting re-elected is if there is no true organized opposition to them and their current opposition. What Guyanese got on May 11, 2015, was status quo dressed in new clothes, colours and touting a new name and this policy epitomized such.
Tyrone Talbot

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VAT on private education will cost Granger electorally

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