-financial constraints found to be the major problem
SOME 75 truants were nabbed in a truancy campaign conducted last Friday by the Region 6 (East Berbice/Corentyne) Education Department.

This disclosure was made during the Ministry of Education sponsored campaign dubbed ‘Operation Care’, held on the Upper Corentyne , where School Welfare Officers, assisted by ranks of the Guyana Police Force , found the truants during the one day exercise which targeted school aged students.

Senior Schools Welfare Officer, Jainarine Singh, related that the campaign also targeted school aged persons working as conductors on the Tapirs which traverse the Springlands thoroughfare.

‘Education is a serious investment but instead you get nothing all because you fail to send your child to school “, Singh offered.

The Tapir is a locally produced passenger car for local transport. The vehicle is a small box shaped mini bus which should carry about seven passengers.

Meanwhile, during the operation which began at 08:30 hours on Friday, 15 boys below the age of 14 were pulled off Tapirs where they were employed as conductors.

Many of them revealed that having failed the Grade Six and subsequently the Grade 7 end of term examinations they opted to work, instead of remaining in the school system as failures.

The boys also revealed during an interview that most of them are drawn from single parent homes and, as a result they have to provide for their respective households.

A lad revealed that he works on his father’s Tapir in order to assist him in repaying for a loan borrowed from a lending institution.

The parents and guardians of the truants were required to visit the Skeldon High School where those under their care were taken to be interviewed and thereafter replaced in their former schools.

However, many of the truants opted to continue to work rather than return to the school environment. The parents, on the other hand related to the officers, that they could ill-afford to send their offsprings to school. Nevertheless, some were given letters which would allow them to be re-admitted into the education system, while others received assistance in the form of clothing from the Ministry of Education.

Meanwhile, of the 75 truants nabbed, 62 were boys, aged 11 to 15 years. It was found that one a 14-year old boy from the group is unable to write his name and could not form the letters, though he could spell the word, as he never went to school.

Two boys, aged 12 and 13, were taken off a truck [ GGG 7188] , where they worked as labourers, being paid $1, 200 ,and $1, 000 respectively per week to off load concrete blocks.

Another boy was nabbed selling rice in the Skeldon Market while his parents took the day off to see a relative off at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, while another was begging with his blind father.

As the team traversed the upper Corentyne area, a nine year old, dressed in uniform, with a school bag filled with books belonging to his sister was nabbed. He told the educators that he was off to school , having done so every day, however he was sure that the name on the books was his and not that of his sister.

A parent of Lot 120 Rampoor , Coriverton, revealed that her husband, a cane harvester was involved in an accident in the backlands, and is confined to bed, however because the family has not received any benefits from the National Insurance Scheme, she is finding it difficult to send her 13-year old son to school. The minor has since found work within the community where he does odd jobs for villagers.

A brother along with his sister related that they were adopted but their foster parent took them out of school prior to them writing the Grade Six examination. At that time they lived in East Canje, but after being returned to their elderly father’s care, the children who now lives at Coriverton has not reentered the school system.

‘Carilla Man’, as he is preferred to be called, has not sent his two daughters aged nine and 11 respectively to school since their mother walked out on him in 2001.

The man, who sells corilla in the neighbourhood, says he can ill-afford to purchase essential items such as exercise books, and pencils, along with snacks.

His daughters were found wandering along the roadway, wearing dirty dresses and unkempt state. Their feet were bare, and they eyes wandering with their hands out stretched. The older sister, like so many nabbed in the raid should have written the National Grade Six Examination last April.

‘Carilla man’ blamed the law, which to his mind benefits only women. ‘The law is unfair, it gives the women all the rights … the man cannot go to court and summon the women for maintenance for their children , but a woman can do so .’

Meanwhile Singh, who was ably assisted by his colleagues Alpha Mohammed, Dinesh Jaiprashad and Marlyn Alphonso, in an invited comment said the exercise targeting the Tapir drivers were designed to send a warning to the operators to desist from employing under age children. He said in future exercises those caught will be prosecuted.

In addition, Singh told this newspaper that as of September parents will no longer be warned about their responsibility, but instead will be summoned and thereafter prosecuted in the court of law.