Ameen: PNM against youths

In her contribution to the 2016/2017 Budget debate in the Senate, Ameen held up a copy of yesterday’s Newsday and referred to its exclusive story about Crosby’s achievement.

She said both Crosby and his mother Juliana Crosby-Oladele should feel “justifiably proud” about the scholarship.

Ameen paid tribute to Crosby-Oladele as a single parent for helping to guide her son towards achieving academic excellence.

However, after doing so, Ameen declared the Budget failed to address the needs of the country’s young people and had strangled opportunities for them.

Boasting about the achievements of the former People’s Partnership (PP) government in education, Ameen charged that the PNM was neglecting the education of children and this could lead to many of them falling into a life of crime.

After claiming there were “dramatic cuts” in areas such as the school feeding programme and the provision of laptop computers to students, Ameen claimed “a huge reduction” in security at schools would, “endanger the lives of ambitious, defenceless students.” Earlier in the sitting, Independent Senator Paul Richards said higher salaries for teachers must come together with higher accountability in the discharge of their responsibilities to their students.

Comparing this country’s education system with those in other countries, Richards expressed regret that TT’s education sector is not producing persons who are critical thinkers.

He referred to a study he participated in which showed a vast difference in the behaviour of teachers and students in denominational schools as opposed to their counterparts in government run schools.