THE parliamentary outreach to schools programme, initiated by the Parliament of Guyana last year, will continue despite the challenges it has faced in its first phases, Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Raphael Trotman said.

He gave the indication at a press conference in Public Buildings, Brickdam, Georgetown, on Thursday, when he updated the media on the outcome of the 16th Biennial Regional Conference of Presiding Officers and Parliament Clerks of the Caribbean, the Americas and the Atlantic Region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), which was held in Guyana from October 28 to 30.
“I believe that the challenges that we face were the expected challenges, the teething problems and we are on our way to resolving them and making things better, but I am pleased with the roll out of our project, so far,” he reported.
Among three resolutions adopted by the delegates is: to ensure some very important initiatives are taken with regard to narrowing the gap between the legislature and the public, with much emphasis being placed on youth.
One of the actions to be taken under that resolution, which was unanimously supported, is for the establishment of Parliamentary Outreach Programmes in each CPA branch, to focus on educating youths of the Region.
Speaker of the Trinidad and Tobago House, Mr. Wade Mark, who was at media briefing, too, emphasised the importance of such a programme, noting that, without parliament there will be no democracy in any country.
“The bastion of democracy lies in the legislature, in the parliament, so we have a responsibility to imbue into their (youths) consciousness the importance of parliament as an institution,” he posited.
Parliamentary democracy
Further, Mark stated:“Parliamentarians are not held in high esteem in many countries…and there is a kind of cynicism among young people and adults as it relates to how they view parliament and parliamentarians and so we have taken the initiative to reach out to the young people through this outreach programme, where we intend to visit schools in our respective territories and bring to the attention of the young people the importance of parliamentary democracy, because they are the future and they need to understand how parliament works.”
Meanwhile, Trotman, continuing, pointed out that Guyana already started an outreach programme last year and Trinidad and Tobago did likewise this year. So these two countries will honour the resolution by continuing their programmes and sharing their experiences with each other and other countries, as well.
Acknowledging that Guyana’s programme had some challenges in its first stages, he said any new initiative or project will have such. Nevertheless, he said the response, thus far, has been fantastic.
Speaker Trotman related that outreaches have been undertaken at Kwakwani, Ituni and Linden in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) since the beginning of the programme last year and, more recently, at Paramakatoi, Kato and Mahdia in Region 8 (Potaro/Siparuni).
He said others are expected to take place before year end and he will continue speaking with Trinidadian Speaker, Mark, about how the programme is executed in his country, with a view to bettering the local exercise.
However, Trotman said Guyana’s process is not challenged to the point where it cannot work, although one of the things that poses a difficulty is insufficiency of materials to share with students.
“When you get to places like Kato and Paramakatoi, you meet anxious young faces that have never seen anything like this before; so you realise that they don’t just want to hear, you want to leave something in their hands,” he said.
He also noted that, on such outreaches, they get complaints and suggestions and they have various ways of dealing with these, such as reporting to the relevant ministers about the different issues.

(By Nadine Sanchara )