In a large public meeting in the stronghold seat of Sandy Point, the People's Action Movement kicked off its public education campaign with the release of its first set of policy proposals. All indications show that the next poll, constitutionally due in 2009, will occur soon as the Governing Labour Party attempts to consolidate its fragile grip on the reigns of power. With a strong momentum generated from a successful week of public meetings organized to undermine the politically motivated May Day march the PAM came out strong in Sandy Point with two far reaching policy statements.
The first concerns the payment of school fees for early childhood education. In a country where the education of children from five to sixteen, the mandatory school age is free for all, it seems anachronistic that the vital pre ' school phase must require that parents pay fees. ~~adz:Right~~
The Pam proposes to remove all fees for Government funded pre ' schools in order to ease the burden on already over stretched parents. The reality is that most children live with a single mother and a significant number of these women work for the minimum wage. The costs associated with education such as books and other supplies are already too high for these parents and the PAM seeks to offer relief. For a mother working at the Industrial site or who is a Government Auxiliary Employee and only earns minimum wage the weekly cost of pre 'school amounts to between 6% for those earning $250 weekly to nearly 10% for those who make $200 or less.
The result is that some of these women are forced to forego this vital phase of education and rely on family to mind the toddler while they work. This places these already poor children at a significant disadvantage. This policy is also designed to encourage lower income mothers to enroll children in early childhood education as this has been proven to be a tremendous boost to high educational attainment in the later school career.
Secondly the PAM proposes to remove the $10 prescription fee that has been imposed on those seeking to acquire medication from Government dispensaries. This fee is a significant burden especially for those on fixed incomes from Social Security such as the infirm or elderly who cannot work. When one considers that the basic social security pension is $40 weekly it is obvious that spending 25% of this meager sum just to get some pain relief is unconscionable. The PAM proposes that this will be a bad memory when it assumes office after the next poll. |
