PARENTS, especially the mothers of Riverview, have voiced several concerns to Regional Chairman Renis Morian and a team of the Regional Democratic Council of Region 10 who visited the hinterland community last Monday.Scores of residents turned out to meet the team, as the members deemed the visit a long-awaited one. According to Toshao Elvis Williams, “It has been three years since any governmental official visited the community in an effort to engage the residents on issues that are of concern to them.”

The Regional Chairman visited the community following the mandate of President Granger to visit all hinterland communities to have a more cohesive interaction with the residents and be able to ascertain what are their needs, so that sufficient allocation can be made in the upcoming budget to address those needs.

One of the main issues heard by the Regional Chairman was that of the high transportation cost which is being faced by parents who have to send secondary school children to Bartica on a daily basis.

According to the parents, it costs them $1000 per day to send a child to Bartica, and this excludes other expenses, such as lunch. With the absence of a school boat, the parents are finding this very unbearable, as the round trip cost on the speed boat from Riverview to Bartica is $600.

Then, upon entering Bartica, the students have to pay additional bus fares to their respective schools.
It has been revealed that, in the past, a school boat was provided by the previous Ministry of Amerindian Affairs. However, that service was discontinued after the completion of a school dorm in Bartica. According to one parent, the previous Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai, had requested that parents have their children stay in the dorms, which would eliminate the daily travelling from Riverview to Bartica. With the response being very negative, the boat service subsequently stopped.

Parents are hesitant to send their children to stay at Bartica, which is approximately three miles away, and five to seven minutes’ boat ride from Riverview.

“We can see Bartica from here, so why must we send our children there to live?” argued one parent. “We want our children home so that we can monitor them and to help them with their school work, because children go in the dorm and break out, and we do not want our daughters to get pregnant,” she added.

The Regional Chairman guaranteed that the parents would get a school boat, as the President is presently making boats available to hinterland communities, since he does not want transportation to be the responsible factor for students not attending school.

The toshao also put forth a long-term solution of having a secondary school constructed in Riverview, as he is of the opinion that there are sufficient students to qualify the community to have its own secondary school.

LOCAL TEACHERS NEEDED
Parents also voiced concerns about the lack of teachers at the primary and nursery school within the community. According to one parent, there are currently only five teachers to manage a primary school with six classes. In addition, the children are having difficulty understanding the accent of some foreign volunteers.

“They are sending the foreign teachers and the children cannot understand them, so we need our own Guyanese teachers that the children will understand,” said one parent.

In addition to this, the sanitary condition of the school is in a deplorable state, as only two toilets are available for the entire nursery and primary school, which comprises 100 children and seven teachers.

The toshao deems this very unacceptable, as both male and female students, as well as teachers, are forced to share two toilets that are situated outside of the school. The sanitary condition of the toilets is also deplorable, lacking water storage facilities and having a pressure pump that is in a state of disrepair.

There is also very little yard space for the children to play in and to participate in regular outdoor and extra-curricular activities, especially at the nursery level.

The toshao is requesting new playground equipment and larger yard space for the children.

Regional Chairman Renis Morian has promised to give these concerns immediate attention, as he stressed that education is important to the growth and development of the community. The residents are optimistic that, with the removal of these issues, the community could produce recognized personalities, such as the current Minister of Health, Dr George Norton.

By Vanessa Braithwaite