Moblissa residents lament unsuitable learning environment

Nov 17, 2008 News

While the more developed and recognized areas in Guyana are enjoying free and easy access to a proper education, the residents in Moblissa, a small community on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway, are complaining about the absence of a suitable environment for education.

The school which some students in Moblissa have to attend on a daily basis.

During the commissioning of the first water system to be established in the community yesterday, pastor of the community and Vice Chairman of the Moblissa Water Users Association, Arthur Reynolds, complained about the many challenges facing the school system in Moblissa.
Reynolds told this newspaper that only five or six students attend the school, due to the dilapidated state it is in. The school has only one teacher, whom he noted is frustrated to the extent that he doesn’t even want to teach anymore. He added that the institution only teaches to the level of Common Entrance examinations.
According to Reynolds, there are only a small number of children attending the school, as the majority has migrated to the Bamia New Hope Primary School, which is approximately nine miles from Moblissa.
It was evident from the condition of the building that it is dangerous for students to attend the school. The steps leading to the upper flat of the building do not have any rails, there are no proper windows, and the structure generally is badly in need of some repairs.
As it relates to teaching and learning materials for the teacher and students, he noted, none has been made available to the school.
At the commissioning ceremony yesterday, Reynolds appealed to Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud to assist the school in anyway the Government can.
“If we don’t have education in this area, then we would be a backward community. We are not casting blame, but we are just saying that it is part of our concerns,” Reynolds said.
Meanwhile, another concern of the residents in the community is the issue of land leases, which the Vice Chairman noted are not being made easily accessible to residents.
He explained that residents in the area have been applying for land over a period of time and have not received their leases.
In this regard, Reynolds noted, the community is willing to work assiduously with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission to sort out this issue.
Accordingly, Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud told the residents that his ministry is already examining the issue. He pointed out that, in the past, there were certain areas which were restricted to livestock farmers.
He noted that the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission already has a number of proposals to regularize and to bring to an end some of the outstanding problems that have been affecting farmers from moving forward, and their long-term certainty in terms of access to the land.
As it relates to the crops planted in the community, the vice-chairman noted that farmers do not have a readily available market for their produce and, as a result, many farmers have abandoned their farmlands. Reynolds called on the relevant authorities to look into this situation.
Another concern for residents in the area is the $60 million access road which was recently built for them. According to Reynolds, this road is being significantly destroyed by timber trucks which traverse it on a daily basis.
“We have to work within the parameters of the law to see how best we can stop these heavy timber trucks that spread the loam on the road and thereby destroy it.
You build the road, and then you have these trucks destroying them. Then we are going nowhere.
But, as a community, I would like to say to my brothers, don’t be moved by what you see around here, but be moved by what you believe in, and you believe that as a people we can move this community forward if we work together and work assiduously to bring Moblissa to what it was and even beyond that,” Reynolds noted.