The Education Ministry has it made it clear that no child/parent in public schools should pay any fee for examination papers, cleaning of schools, textbooks etc. as grants are provided for such expenditures. Unfortunately, this situation continues to prevail much to the detriment of our children’s education.

This newspaper has recently received a report that parents are being asked by a school in Georgetown to fork out $1,000 per child to fund a tour to a rice factory at Ruimzeigt on the West Coast Demerara, and this is non-inclusive of lunch. A simple calculation would show that the normal bus fare from Georgetown to that location would cost about $140 per child one way and therefore $280 for a return fare. So what happens with the remaining $780? The obvious reply would be paying for waiting time because the vehicle (s) would be on special hire, but would the difference in the fare be as much as $780?

There is also another issue of serious concern with respect to fund raising where many schools hold Sales Days and this apparently has become a “culture.” The idea of involving children in fund raising exercises is fundamentally a good one because it helps to build the collective spirit and organising capacity of children but the problem is when parents are coerced into providing resources for such activities which they may not have at the time, and the end result being the vicitimisation of their children.

Fund raising activities in school should be executed through voluntary participation rather than by decree. And the Education Ministry’s policy is also clear on this issue but continues unabated.

The other aspect of this problem is that very seldom if any at all proper financial accounts are made available and kept, and from circumstantial evidence it appears that fund raising activities are used by some teachers to enhance their finances, because several of them have been heard to remark that because their salaries are low they have to resort to alternatives to supplement their income. Well nothing is wrong with supplementing their incomes but certainly not by such means as exploiting parents who are also facing difficult financial times. They work for five hours a day and five days per week, therefore they should find enough time to get involved in gardening and other healthy means to supplement their incomes.

While the Education Ministry/Rights Of the Child Commission has laid down clear policies and guidelines on these matters under the prevailing circumstances it is imperative that greater oversight be placed to ensure that they are rigidly adhered to so that this rapacious behaviour is halted, and our schools fulfill their primary task and responsibility of educating our young minds and prepare them for life. If not our future as a nation would be threatened.