Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 20, 2017 Letters
Dear Editor,
Please allow me a few precious column inches to address yet another distressing policy from team “A Good Life.” Recently I read that citizens attending private schools and sending their children to such institutions will have to pay value added tax (VAT) on their tuition. Let me explain how this ignorant fiscal policy is the antithesis to the promise of a good life for all.
First, our educational system is a woefully inadequate to deliver the educational training twenty-first century Guyana needs to be competitive. Outside of the occasional spark at the Caribbean Exam Council (CXC) level, our public education system is producing functionally illiterate citizens. This new taxation, coupled with a high dropout rate at all levels of education— the University of Guyana is not immune to the phenomena—has rendered our citizens the least equipped for the twenty-first century.
The only saving grace is the private institutions that bring a much better quality of education (though they can improve their delivery and curriculum) which the government refuses to deliver and is incapable of delivering despite education being one of the biggest line items in the annual budget. Our public education system is as if the nation is still singing “God Save the Queen,” and the Union Jack is our flag. That system was designed to keep the brown and black citizens functionally literate to be exploited. However, in that oppressive environment and the one immediately after we have produced our brightest minds. Today we cannot boast of being the second most literate nation in the Western Hemisphere I am too scared to check our ranking.
Second, private institutions are critical to the delivery of education, without them our nation would rank worse than it is currently. Our leaders cry we are a democracy and in any democracy private education competes with public education for the best minds so as to boost their reputation and attract future students. In such a competitive environment, the winner is not the schools but the nation because this competition produces quality. Many parents make a great sacrifice to send their children to these private institutions and also pay taxes that fund the inadequate public education system. So the imposition of VAT on the tuition they are paying to either attend private schools or send their children to such is double taxation, is the antithesis to development. Value added tax program is not designed to use in such a manner as to oppress people’s choice. Again, no democracy operates in such a matter one will have to break in North Korea for such an example.
Third, the President, Prime Minister, Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority and many others do not pay income taxes on their hefty monthly salaries that range from $1.1 million to $2 million. Many of these high officials send their children overseas for their education because they have zero faith in the education system they administer. When this government took office, it promised educational reform and today thirty-three months into this administration; we are yet to see this promise fulfilled or near being fulfillment. There is also no indication it will before May 11, 2020.
Fourth, students who borrow loans from the government to attend the ill-equipped and the dramatically understaffed University of Guyana are burdened with no jobs after graduation. They also, cannot travel overseas due to their passports being listed in the prohibited exit rolls. This sort of behavior smacks of a Communist/Socialist nation which prohibits its citizens from traveling overseas and keeping them in oppression.
Many of the people send their children to these private schools, such as Association of Business Executive (ABE) a distance tertiary educational program operated out of Nations School; because the University of Guyana’s degrees come with questions marks. Institutions like Nations School, Mae’s, Green Acres, APEX, and others provide their student’s tremendous educational opportunities. With smaller class sizes the delivery of education is more potent than the public school system which lacks enough teachers and larger class sizes. A critical program some of these schools provide is adult level CXC classes for students who dropped out of high school. The majority of the attendees of these types of programs are low-income women. Another letter on the subject is forthcoming
Tyrone Talbot
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