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| Cabinet Secretary in the Nevis Island Administration, Mr. Ashley Farrell |
Charlestown Nevis (September 7, 2006) Nevis' Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Ashley Farrell on Thursday September 7 reiterated that the new Administration had taken all of its commitments seriously.
"I am here to assure you that the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) takes all of its commitments to the people of this country seriously," said Mr. Farrell in a televised address to the people of Nevis.
He attributed those comments to the fact that, during the just concluded election campaign, one of the Nevis Reformation Party's promises was to provide text books to students at the secondary and primary school levels. However, the time to respond to the free text books for the upcoming school term and the campaign was very short, thus a number of transactions were not completed.
Mr. Farrell noted that for the academic year 2006/2007, the Administration had decided to implement certain measures. "Parents and guardians who would have already purchased books for their children would be reimbursed by the government," he said.
"In the case of those parents and guardians who cannot raise the funds to buy the books and then seek reimbursement, special arrangements would be made between government and the book suppliers so that their children would not be left at a disadvantage.
"The programme would be coordinated by the Premier's Ministry, working closely with the Ministry of Education and the schools. There would be no reimbursement without the presentation of receipts and the books. This is necessary to ensure that the system is not exploited by any one and that there is no wastage of the public's money," added Mr. Farrell.
The Cabinet Secretary pointed out that the books provided by government would be the property of the government and should be taken care of by students and parents. He also pointed out that only government secondary and primary schools will be covered by the programme.
Accordingly, "new books will be issued annually to students of the high schools, once the texts used during the preceding year are returned to the Ministry of Education in good condition. It is anticipated that this programme would help students whose parents fall in the lower socio-economic classes," he said.
In response to general comments that the provision of text books was a waste of money, the Cabinet Secretary stated that the Nevis Reformation Party Government had not subscribed to such views. However, he said that the Government recognised that education was expensive and that was the main reason why they sought to help the people of Nevis through the programme.
~~Adz:Right~~"We do so because we recognised the cost to this country would be even greater if we keep our people in ignorance. The NRP has a reputation of educating and training people. The text books program is yet another demonstration of this.
"NRP values education and intends to ensure that our students are given the resources to realise their full potential in school. This Administration would not be side tracked by selfish and uncaring persons and would not allow any child to be denied of an education. The schools text book programme is the NRP's Administrations first step in ensuring peace, progress and prosperity for all Nevisians," said Mr. Farrell.
