— appeal to Government for help to send children to school

By Vanessa Braithwaite

RESIDENTS of the farming community of Moblissa on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway are soliciting the Government’s assistance to provide transportation for students, probably under President Granger’s 5 B’s initiative, before the reopening of school in September.The residents took the opportunity to voice their transportation plight, among other matters, to Government representatives at the recently held ministerial outreach in Linden.

Denise Cornelius, a resident, speaking on behalf of the group told the Guyana Chronicle that lack of transportation for the students attending school in Linden, which is approximately seven miles away, is causing serious financial strain on parents who are just small-scale farmers.

“We have 14 high school children coming out of Moblissa to go to school every day. It is seven miles in from the highway and we don’t have any transportation running in Moblissa, we have to pay $2,500 to get out and $2,500 to get in,” she revealed.

Several parents cannot often afford this hefty cost and the children are forced to walk the long distance, which deters many of them from completing their secondary education.

“Because of the transportation problem we have a lot of dropouts, you know the youths them when they reach a certain age they don’t want to work anymore, we have a lot of teenage pregnancy and all these things,” she bemoaned.

In addition to the physical fatigue of the students having to wake very early to walk the seven miles, in the evenings the walk is deemed dangerous as one young girl was recently robbed of her cellphone, money and other devices while walking home after lessons.

Representatives from the Ministry of the Presidency visited the community on Sunday and held meaningful discussions with the residents, even forming a youth group.

The representatives also promised to engage President Granger about providing a school bus or bicycles for the students to boost regular attendance and punctuality.

The Government representatives were still unable to bring closure to the decade-long issue of whether the community falls in Region 10 or Region 4.

Cornelius said that this ongoing situation has cost them many opportunities to receive much needed assistance as regional authorities would claim that the community is not in their remit.

“When we come to Region 10 for help they would tell we that ya no we can’t get help here, we have to go to Region Four,” she said.

She is calling on the Government to have these issues addressed since residents have been suffering for “way too long”.