Injustice to TT’s young people

THE EDITOR: The Technical Institutes previously offered several NEC craft courses and vocational short courses that contributed to the alleviation of crime and unemployment. Every year John D alone took hundreds of youths from the most “at-risk” group — the 17-25 year old African males of the East-West corridor — from off the streets. For small money they went to John D to do welding, plumbing, carpentry, auto mechanics, house wiring, tailoring, air conditioning, food preparation and many other courses. Even if they didn’t pass, they could still get a little apprenticeship. Every year advertisements appeared in the daily newspapers and this job was being done by the Institutes without any fanfare or racial bias. It was a support for business and industry and led to the growth of many small businesses.

Now that they are part of COSTAATT, the issue of race has raised its ugly head and yet this job is no longer being done. Is it that COSTAATT wants big money now? There seems to be only a few free programmes running now and they are only for women but it is the males who are involved in crime. These institutes have almost ground to a halt without any explanation to the public. Are the teachers being paid to sit idly by and do nothing? Somebody must be sleeping on the wukk! How long will this injustice against our young people go unchecked by the authorities? Don’t they know that almost every night there is candle lighting in the ghetto as another little black boy bites the dust? So how many more must die? Mr Manning, Mr Imbert, Mr Burris, somebody please check this out. In a recent tragedy, a youth was killed on his job at a store while waiting to go to Sando Tech. What if we found out that one of the youths who was responsible for his death was waiting to go to John D?

A CIDO
Port-of-Spain