It takes a special kind of arrogance for a sitting Minister of Education, who is also a lawyer, to respond to the legitimate concerns of citizens with political spin, misplaced sarcasm, and a disgraceful smear. But that’s exactly what Priya Manickchand did when confronted with the failure of the Hosororo Secondary School project.
Minister Manickchand seems unaware of the fact that it was the residents of Hosororo, who invited the media to witness the abandoned, crumbling remains of a school their children were promised. A school that still doesn’t exist. A dream that remains trapped in bureaucracy and broken contracts under the PPP government.
Instead of addressing the community’s real concerns about stalled construction and the absence of classrooms, Minister Manickchand launched into a rambling defense of PPP performance across the region, padded with empty boasts and unfinished schools. Her grand finale? A vile, reckless and irresponsible insinuation that the APNU+AFC had something to do with the arson that destroyed North West Secondary School.
It is reprehensible, legally and morally, for a sitting minister and attorney to float such a suggestion without evidence. But then again, fires seem to plague Guyana’s education infrastructure only when the PPP is in office. While she is loud on fire insinuations against the APNU coalition, the minister is deadly silent on her on own culpability in the murder of 20 students at Mahdia under her watch at the Mahdia school dorm. Maybe Priya should focus less on casting blame and more on investigating the patterns of her own administration.
Manickchand boasts, “five secondary schools in one term” but doesn’t mention the lack of proper ground facilities, maintenance budgets, properly trained teachers and clean bathrooms at those same newly built facilities. The minister’s boasts might impress the sycophants, but to the children still without classrooms, teachers, or textbooks, it means nothing. What matters is what’s finished, what’s functional, and what’s fair, not what’s “in progress” for yet another election cycle.
And please, spare us the sermon on APNU+AFC’s record. APNU+AFC did not have access to the oil money which the PPP are spendig like drunken sailors. Voters must remember that every time the PPP says they “care,” taxpayers lose money, communities lose trust, and children lose out on their futures.
Minister Manickchand, this isn’t a joke. It’s not about scoring political points. It’s about a government that breaks ground, makes headlines, then disappears, leaving behind unfinished structures, suspicious fires, and slogans that ring increasingly hollow.
You say we should compare? Fine. Let’s compare massive corruption, burned schools, the under-education of the nation’s children to the APNU’s 4 years in office and see which really scares citizen’s more.
