Where was the Minister of Education when this date was being contemplated

Dear Editor, What can we glean from the May 11, 2015 election date? Clearly, the announcement of this date is an indication of how the PPP/C government cares for education and the nation’s children. Because they care, they decided to jeopardize the education of our children by planting the much anticipated election on a date on which our children should be writing their regional examinations. Is this a genuine oversight or was it a deliberate effort on the part of the regime to orchestrate some other sinister things? If this was an oversight, it would inform us of how irrelevant the interest of the nation’s children might be to the PPP/C regime. Certainly the future of the nation’s children appears to be far removed from the regime’s list of priority. Where was the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, when this date was being contemplated? Could she not have advised her cabinet colleagues that May 11, 2015 will affect our children? Guyanese students have been writing this examination for many moons now and it is a fact that the months of May and June have always been identified as a time period when many examinations associated with the Caribbean Examination Council are set. The PPP/C having been in government for more than twenty years must know this fact, hence should have realized that holding elections during this time would cause major disruption in the education agenda of our children. Yes, Guyanese want election, yes the people are eager to vote the PPP/C regime out, yes Guyanese are ready to embrace change and carve a promising future for their children, but they are not prepared to sacrifice the education of their children in the interim. It is time we rise to the occasion and put our children first as clearly, this current PPP/C administration seems to have no concern or consideration for our children. Secondly, was this date thrown on the people to catch them off guard so that the PPP/C can deliberately orchestrate some of their devious plots? We know that over the years the schools around the country have been primarily used as polling stations, since they are more centrally located and more easily accessible to the people. However, what we experienced in recent election cycles elections was a hub of confusion, which emerged mere days prior to polling day and even on the polling day itself. This confusion was caused primarily by the sudden assignment of private residences as polling stations. In some instances, voters were directed to cast their votes at areas and polling places they never knew existed. I recalled running from one location to the next with my laptop trying to find peoples’ polling places. In one instance, a man who had done a transfer to vote at his new residence was listed to vote at a residence of someone he did not know or had ever heard of. Mind you, this man was a new resident in the area. He indicated that when he checked the preliminary list earlier, his polling place was listed as being at a certain school, which he had earlier checked out and knew how to get to. In another instance, I spent more than two hours trying to get a woman to a polling place, a private residence on the East Coast Demerara. After asking many questions and knocking on many gates we finally ended up under a bottom house minutes before the close of poll. These are some of the frustrating situations “private residences” used as polling stations can cause. One would have thought that owing to past experience, we will never again frustrate and confuse the electorate in this manner. However, planting the election on a date when schools will be used for regional examination is unacceptable and should be rejected by all right thinking Guyanese. This decision by the regime to hold these important elections on this date is likely to hinder the democratic process rather than facilitate it. Let us not be hoodwinked or fooled by the PPP/C. This is a time when we must scrutinize their every action and decision, as I believe that from this juncture the hidden agenda of the regime will intensify and magnify. We have to be vigilant, we have to stay focused, and we have to be resolute in our efforts to ensure that every legitimate vote counts. No eligible voter should be disenfranchised, we just cannot afford for this to happen, for the nation has suffered much too long. I therefore urge Guyanese to rally behind the call made by the APNU leader and Presidential Candidate David Granger, who frontally stated that a new election date should be considered in order to smoothly facilitate our children’s examination. This is a noble, considerate, thoughtful and commendable position to adopt. Let our children’s future be protected. I was hoping that the Minister of Education would be the first to adopt such a position, but of course such positions might be in keeping with her “because we care” profile. The administrators of the CSEC examination have already expressed that they will not be moving the examination date to facilitate Guyana’s election, and they are right. These examinations are planned and set years in advance, thus the onus is on the Guyana government to do due diligence and ensure that they get things right. With the announcement of this date, Guyanese must do two things; the first is to demand that the date for the elections be moved to a date when our students will not be writing these regional examinations, and the second is to ensure that no private residence is used as a polling place. Let the future of our children and that of the people be protected and respected. We must not be placed to choose between our children’s education and democratically held elections as both are important, both are necessary and are mutually dependent on each other.

Lurlene Nestor