Get to the root of the problem

Each time it raises its head, we suddenly hear of numerous raids and road-blocks. We suddenly hear of who got arrested for which long-standing crime. And it happens all of a sudden. And then it is soon suddenly forgotten.

And we hear of how many pieces of legislation required in order to enforce crime prevention and detection. And we make more and more legislation, some of which are proclaimed and many of which are never implemented. Why not attempt to implement the existing ones first?

And despite having the best ratio of police officers per population, we still hear of manpower shortages and high overtime. And the perennial problem of no vehicles in a police station, easily managed by the publicity-created handing over of a few vehicles soon after by the Minister of National Security.

But no one goes to the root of the problem. The basis of development of a country is Education, Health and Agriculture. Health is in shambles and will remain in shambles for a long time to come. Agriculture is never a priority for the easy solution is to import food. For example, of the 65,000 acres of Caroni lands, less than 25 percent will remain in agriculture.

The Government presently boasts of their numerous programmes which include OJT, MUST, HYPE, MILAT, MP PAT, CCC, YTEPP, GAPP, TDC, YAPA, etc. Whilst these programmes are excellent, they are geared towards the youths who have already left school. And these are some of the youths, for many are lost. What about those in schools? CEPEP and URP are not worthy of mention as these are counter productive to national development, short-term and long-term.

Promotion of tertiary education is welcome. Most skills today are supported by a Diploma as a minimum qualification. But in order to promote tertiary education, we need proper secondary and primary education. The value of free tertiary education therefore will become questionable.

Government therefore should place most of its emphasis on Primary and Secondary education. Whilst highlighting the high achievers is good for the high achievers, more emphasis needs to be placed on the level of failures.

PHILIP AYOUNG-CHEE

San Fernando