Manickchand, Ally clash over education gains – minister’s speech triggers opposition walkout

While Minister of Edu-cation Priya Manickchand boasted about the advancements made in the education sector, APNU’s shadow minister Amna Ally criticised spending in the sector, saying the nation’s children are not the real beneficiaries.

The two squared off yesterday during the continuing debates on the administration’s proposed $220 billion budget, which the minister dubbed “holistic and comprehensive” while Ally labelled it a “repair and maintenance schedule” and a “spend and hope budget.”

Manickchand’s presentation was overshadowed by the walkout by both APNU and the AFC over her refusal to apologise to former parliamentarian Jaipaul Sharma, who resigned last week over a comment she made in reference to his father facing statutory rape charges. It was Manickchand’s second attempt at making her presentation after APNU had created a ruckus last Friday, preventing her from speaking and forcing Speaker Raphael Trotman to adjourn the sitting prematurely.

However, the minister duly plodded on in her presentation with the loud support of her colleagues on the government side. Ally, who is also the opposition Chief Whip, was the only member of the opposition seated.

“With money comes growth, growth means our children are doing better, it means our children are better prepared for the world tomorrow…,” the minister said. According to the minister, there is no other sector better than education to demonstrate “tangibly” the growth under the PPP/C administration. She said the policy of the government is that education is the one thing that will see poverty being alleviated and she added that over the years the budgetary allocations to the sector increased and with this increase there has been better examination results.

She acknowledged, however, that the government is not happy with the pass rate in English but she said the country will get to a 100% pass rate “because we can, we can plan for it, we can strategise for it and we will fund it.”

But Ally argued that the country is not getting value for its money and that in some cases one cannot tell where the money is going. The “sufferers are the nation’s children,” she lamented, while charging that there is no certainty about the effectiveness of the educations programme. “This is evident having looking at what was supposed to have been done in 2013 and its preceding years. We hope that the government can get serious,” Ally said.

Source: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2014/news/guyana/04/08/manickchand-ally-clash-education-gains/