I can’t say that I disagree with the decision to cut free textbooks to schools. This was nothing more than a buy-vote scheme that has run its course and must now be culled.
I say this, not because I didn’t appreciate it, but the ministry always took too long to deliver the books to the children. In addition, I saw parents who you know didn’t need the books quarreling for free books and then quarreling that the books were not up to standard. It was like a wonton free for all. I saw a lot of parents buy the books when it was taking too long.
Now the next step is the computers and tablet giveaway. This annual freeco, which cost the Government something like $94 million dollars has got to stop. The former administration wanted to give tablets to first year university students as well as infants. This is total madness. It must have been that Kamla Persad-Bissessar thought the money would never run out; and now it has.
Let’s face it, everybody has a computer. People did not want the Government computers—they took it because it was free. They behaved like their children could not live unless they had a computer to play games, to go on Facebook and play the fool.
Nowadays the littlest child has a smart phone, a tablet. This is where we have reached. The Government is quite right to restore this country to its sobriety. It shouldn’t only be raising gas, land tax and wage freezes which impact heavily on the working class. One way or the other, the social security net must be adjusted downwards. And parents must tell their children that schoolbooks are a priority and not the 42-inch TV, not the new galaxy phone and so on.
Next on the chopping block is the baby milk nonsense and the $500 baby grant. The private sector has been making enough money to be able to fill this gap.
God bless this nation
Lystra Marajh,
Glencoe