REMOVAL of the Value Added Tax (VAT) as announced in the 2018 National Budget exemplifies the possibilities of a nation when the voices of the people are heard by their government.

To pretend that the charge of 14 percent VAT to access private education was not of concern to the affected students, their families, providers and wider society is to ignore the premium this society has historically placed on education. From the days when education was seen as a major means out of poverty,an opportunity to ascend the socio-economic ladder, to attracting the maxim “education makes a nation,” it is also deemed a fundamental right according to the United Nations and Guyana constitution.

Ours is a society, where once only the so-called brightest child was allowed by the parents to pursue education, girls were kept back and the poor either never saw education as a necessity or just couldn’t afford it. In that same era not many had the benefit of primary and post-primary education, thereby nurturing a sense of elitism or privilege for those who had access, which was discriminatory in thinking and practice.

Knowledge is power and when so empowered, the sky is the limit. And though the earlier days of private education was only for those who could afford or where religious organisations ran schools and being a student necessitated being a member of that community, the advent of universal public education in 1976 propelled the nation’s people as to their limitless possibilities. The universality in this approach set in train co-education and co-mingling of persons, irrespective of class, gender, race, creed or location.

Education not only became the great equaliser, it set in train the nurturing of minds to respect and appreciate diversity, learning from each other, and valuing the importance of education to the people and nation’s development. As government was pursuing the path of self-sufficiency and investing in its citizens’ education, making it free from nursery to university, at technical institutions, colleges and trade schools, to deny that the country was on a cusp to greater heights is to deny our sense of being and capabilities.

School buses/transportation, meals, uniforms, accommodation, and exercise and text books, the cost of which was borne by the Government toppled barriers to entry and learning. That the economy, like all economies, experienced a down turn, aided in part by natural economic cycle, international factors such as oil price and scarcity of foreign exchange, and some would say management deficiencies and probably biting off more than we could chew at the time, such do not deny the fact of the boldness of our ambition and the audacity to create an educated nation.

Where efforts were made and are being made by government to remove hindrances to acquiring an education, particularly the basic by the re-institution of some, if not all of these, stated services are steps in the right direction. That for one reason or the other, when university education was no longer free and private education was returned, to deny that this direct cost to students was not felt is to ignore the economic reality of most, notwithstanding the felt importance to make the needed sacrifice to have the service. Bottom line is, education, be it private or public, should not be prohibitive.

This also suggests that providers of this service, be they not-for-profit or for-profit, should seek not to be exploitative and or create a new class where only the wealthy can access.
At the same time government may find it of importance to ensure private schools adhere to some regulatory framework to ensure the national thrust, including the values of nationhood and appropriate skills set are incorporated into the curriculum.

A nation’s education has to be designed for its people’s development. Another issue of concern is that of the educators. Where the State provides free tuition through the Cyril Potter College of Education, this is at a cost borne by taxpayers and Government shoulders a responsibility to ensure that the public school has the most benefits.

Where some can attribute teachers serving a contract staying in the public school, or paying to exit the contract in order to teach at the private school, a balance has to be found to ensure that public education is not under-served.

There is no intent to propose what should be done, but merely to point out that where the moulders of minds (i.e. educators) are the nuclei for the viability and effectiveness of the public school system, their inputs and support are needed.

Their importance cannot be ignored or taken for granted. According to Minister of Finance Winston Jordan, the withdrawal of VAT on education services would see government lose $342 million. However, there is no doubt that government is convinced that the price for ignorance and deprivation is qualitatively and quantifiably greater given the consequences to citizens and the nation’s development.