THE agreement between the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for the programme to tackle child labour through education (TACKLE) ended last week.

But the arrangement, which facilitated free transportation to and from schools, hot meals and a range of other support services for schoolchildren and their parents on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, will continue into the new school term.
Speaking during a closing ceremony, held at Kuru Kuru along the highway last week, ILO Project Officer for the scheme, Ms. Sharon Patterson said, despite the agreed conclusion, the agency has been so pleased with the way it was implemented that some additional funds were found for the continuation of two components.
Those on which the extra funding will be spent are the free transport and the hot meals and snacks.
She said:”I know most of you are thinking that this is a closing exercise, but it is not really the closing exercise. It merely marks the close of the agreement that was signed between the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security and the ILO for the implementation of the project. What I have to say is that, come September, a little more funds have been found, at least to keep these two components of the project running.
“With some projects, when you think that this is the end, somebody says no, the results are too good, let’s see what else we can do. We have, accordingly, managed to get some more resources to keep these two going but I cannot say for how long.”
Meanwhile, portfolio minister Dr. Nanda Gopaul, pledged the support of Government for the benefit of children attending school who have, in the past, been severely inconvenienced in getting to and from school due to the location of the education complex three miles inland from the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
Outstanding success
He said it was obvious that the programme had proven to be an outstanding success in mitigating truancy, child labour and school dropouts within the Soesdyke/Linden community over the past two years.
Gopaul pledged budgetary assistance from the Government to keep the system going.
The TACKLE initiative has also been referred to as the School Retention and Child Labour Prevention Programme (SR&CLPP).
The three educational institutions which have benefited from it, over the past two years, are the Dora Secondary School, the Kuru Kuru Primary School and the Kuru Kuru Nursery School, all located at Kuru Kuru.
The Heads of the schools welcomed the extension of the scheme, acknowledging that it gave them some more time to finalise plans for its sustainability after the ILO’s largesse runs its course.
A novelty
Enterprise and Job Creation Specialist within the ILO Office in Trinidad, Mr. Kelvin Sergeant, congratulated the implementers of the procedure, noting that it was quite a novelty, in that it gave the children, their parents and teachers a menu of products and services that were, as far as he knew, available nowhere else in Guyana or even the Caribbean.
He said the ILO saw that it had been undertaken by the Ministry in fulfilment of its social protection responsibility.
Sergeant emphasised that the ILO’s backing of the project remains very strong and the Caribbean Office will continue to support it and lobby for help to keep it going.
On the issue of sustainability, he exhorted the parents,  teachers and members of the Parent/Teachers Association to utilise the mechanism of cooperatives to acquire their own vehicles in the effort to make the activities sustainable.
Paramount significance
Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Ms. Lorene Baird, said as the leading social sector provider in the country, it considers the issue of prevention of child labour, usually driven by school dropouts, of paramount significance.
“Therefore, when the plight of the children on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, attending these schools, was raised, specifically, as it related to the distance they were required to walk to and from school as well as the socio-  economic circumstances of their families, the ministry sought to collaborate with the ILO to bring relief.
She added:”I am, therefore, very heartened with the response to this project. I am satisfied that the ministry has accomplished more than the anticipated results. The programme now stands as a model worthy of replication.”
The TACKLE or SR&CLPP cost of US$220,000 was funded by the ILO and the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) which is sponsored by the European Union (EU), with  counterpart funding from the Government of Guyana.
The Ministry of Education assisted with the implementation.