Latest update April 20th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 20, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
You learn everyday of how terribly disappointing this country can be. A few weeks ago, I did a column on the expulsion of a student at Mae’s High School in Subryanville, just two weeks after the academic term had begun. My reason for doing the article was because I read the Ministry of Education’s guidelines for all schools, whether public or private.
It was evanescently clear that a child cannot be expelled from a private school without the sanction of the Ministry of Education. After the publication of that essay, I received many, many calls about parents’ terrible experience at Mae’s. I said to each parent that phoned me; “Why didn’t you tell the media about these things?” There was a standard answer. “I don’t want any problems”.
What problems? Your child’s rights were violated, how on top of that should you be saddled with problems? It would shock this nation to know who these people are that had a bad encounter with their children at Mae’s and who made contact with me. One is a good friend of many of us at Kaieteur News from top to bottom. Another is the owner of one of Georgetown’s most famous business places.
The commerce takes place in Georgetown but it is a household name throughout Guyana. Another is one of Guyana’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The list includes another well-placed business personality. And here this one! One is my lecture-colleague at UG in the same faculty with me. Her story is about what her three grandchildren endured at Mae’s.
Here are some of the complaints. The person associated with this newspaper explained to me that at Mae’s, students ordered lunch from well known fast food restaurants to be delivered at the gate. Mae’s put an end to that and opened a canteen which has become the only source of food for the students. The prices are enormous.
I was told by my Kaieteur News associate, that a popsicle at Mae’s canteen is a hundred dollars more than what obtains on the market. In the last day of classes, two students were accused of breaking furniture. On the second day of the new term, his parents received a letter of expulsion. Fees have to be paid one month in advance. A penalty of 10 percent is added if the deadline is missed.
Of the four cases of expulsion that came to me, there was no reimbursement. But one parent told me she requested repayment because the child was told to leave only three days into the new term.
What I cannot fathom about the furniture breaking incident, is that it happened in the last week of classes. Why was the removal made when the new term had begun? In no instance of expulsion was there an official inquiry in which parents were allowed to defend their offspring.
More disturbing is the behaviour of politicians on the Opposition benches who want us to vote for them to run Guyana. Mrs. Debra Backer never made it public that she found the penalty for last advancement an onerous imposition that violates students’ rights and she protested it. She simply took her child out of the school.
I was told that Mrs. Backer felt it was the wise thing to do just in case the child faced victimisation. Mrs. Clarissa Rheil intervened to get a child’s eviction reversed.
Mrs. Rhiel is a lawyer who should know that in her fight for that particular student, the Ministry of Education has to give its approval and that was not done. The Chief Education Officer (ag) told me that a school cannot expel a student without the Ministry’s consent.
Two of the four parents (I am using one parent per student and not as a couple) told me that Minister Baksh informed them that the Ministry of Education cannot get involved. The Minister knows that he evaded answering me on this question.
In the case of my colleague at UG, her two grandchildren were suddenly written to ordering that their hair be cut or they must leave; the school said that their hair was too long.
Her granddaughter was registered for the wrong course in engineering but when confronted, the school said that the situation could not be reversed because it had financial implications.
These episodes I have investigated at Mae’s. This is not to say that they aren’t other horror stories at the other prestigious high schools. My daughter went to Marian Academy and I know that non-Catholics have to participate in Catholic events at the school.
This newspaper reported last week on a strip search of female students for a missing cell phone. All the parents in all these situations were afraid to speak out.
Where is the BETTER MANAGEMENT/RENEGOTIATION OF THE OIL CONTRACTS you promised Jagdeo?
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