POLITICAL Racial attacks on school children in Region #5 - Afro-Guyanese students physically assaulted and verbally abused

On the 17th of February 2023, during the instructional period, the peace of Woodley Park Secondary School was disturbed by some residents of Woodley Park Village, West Coast Berbice. During this disturbance (which was a continuation of a similar occurrence on the 16th of February 2023 on the entrance streets to the school) AfroGuyanese students were physically assaulted and verbally abused as seen in a video emanating from parents of students from the above-mentioned school. Persons were seen armed with pieces of wood walking around the compound of the school as parents and teachers confronted the intruders in the presence of students. In the said video recording one student complained to a teacher that he was cuffed.

Subsequently, photographs from parents sent to Member of Parliament Mr. Vinceroy Jordan showed the severity of physical injuries to the hands, feet and head of the affected students. One parent stated on her Facebook page, “After physically abusing the children they said this is a coolie area black man not supposed to be here.”

While parents and teachers tried their utmost to put the intruders out of the compound, they vowed in the presence of all to return after lunch on Friday 17th of February 2023. This matter was then reported to the Department of

Mr. Vinceroy Jordan, MP

Education, Region No. 5 while the parents reported the matter to the Police.

It is reported that as the Villagers promised to return the following day, a larger gang of villagers converged at the school and attacked only AfroGuyanese students this time causing bodily injuries, disrupting school sessions for the remainder of the day by entering the school compound halfdressed and consuming alcoholic substances. There was no Security Guard at the school.

A follow up on the reports that was made by teachers and parents at the

No social justice with increasing poverty and inequality

We, in the PNCR and the Coalition, continue to express our alarm over the growing poverty and inequality in Guyana under the PPP. The PPP has presented no plan to directly eliminate these twin evils. Growing food inflation, unemployment, exclusion, and suppressed wages are shrinking the disposable income of families. The PPP's sporadic and patronizing cash transfer scheme will not work. Its trickle-down economics (money for its friends, families, and favorites) will not work.

The PNCR and the Coalition are proposing a people-centred development strategy --one that puts ordinary people first by building from the bottom up and the middle out.

Fort Wellington Police Station indicated that no arrest was made. Senior Officials of the school visited the Education Department seeking immediate help but at that time no Education Officer was present to give guidance while the Regional Education Officer could not be reached by telephone.

The Ministry of Education through the Department of Education has failed to visit the school or the affected children and parents so as to give guidance on this matter. This leaves the parents and teachers with more questions of their safety and security of their well-being both at school and while traversing the community to get to school. Member of Parliament Vinceroy Jordan met and spoke with several teachers, parents, and students who all expressed fear for their lives and safety at school. To date the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Home Affairs have not visited the affected persons nor issued a statement on the matter.

We are, therefore, calling on the Ministers of Education and Home Affairs to immediately investigate this matter and put mechanisms in place so as to ensure that instructional periods are not further disturbed, and the parents and students can feel safe returning to school.

We believe that the Rights of the Child Commission as an independent body has an active role to play in this partic- ular matter in ensuring they advocate for the rights and interests of children and the young people affected in this heinous crime.

Further, we wish to call on the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) which has a constitutional function, to foster a sense of security among all ethnic groups while encouraging and promoting the understanding, acceptance and tolerance of diversity in all aspects of national life and promoting full participation by all ethnic groups in the social, economic, cultural and political life of the people and to investigate and report on matters contrary to this function. We call on the Ethnic Relations Commission to investigate this matter and make the findings of this matter public.

We vehemently condemn the actions of some residents of Woodley Park, West Coast Berbice, that is, assault causing bodily harm and emotional abuse to our students in school at Woodley Park Secondary School and causing public terror in the community. The nonaction of the PPP/C administration and the police is sending the wrong signal and might very well encourage the further terrorizing of the affected children and embolden the aggressors. It should also be noted that the act of terrorizing one ethnic group will exacerbate racial tension and does not augur well for ethnic unity.

What drives the attitude of the PPP towards the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)

Clearly, the PPP is intentionally slowing down the work of the PAC to keep it from reaching the accounts of the PPP in office. The Stabroek News editorial fully describes all its tricks. But we, the citizens, must note the following. The PPP is not only trying to hide its corruption and other financial crimes from public scrutiny. No, its attitude comes from a deeper place than that. The PPP actually believes it is above accounting to the people. It believes that as self-claimed lord and master of Guyana, it is a total eye-pass for the PAC to be reviewing and asking it questions about its spending. This, we must not accept.