Douglas condemns denial of economic costs to students

Leader of the Opposition, the Rt Hon Dr Denzil L Douglas said Tuesday the new Labour Administration which will be formed following the upcoming general election will put an end to the “selectivity, discrimination, victimization, neglect and disrespect that have come to dominate the education system of the present Team Unity Government.”

Responding to reports that qualified nationals who have been accepted to attend the University of the West Indies to pursue tertiary level education are being denied economic costs who are perceived or their families, not to be supporters of the government.

“We have gone too far beyond those days when that kind of practice stigmatized a number of our students here in our country. Each child must have ample opportunity, irrespective of his birth in life. He or she must be given equal opportunity and the necessary support from the State is he or she wishes to pursue further tertiary-level education, either at home or abroad,” said Dr Douglas, who said that was the basic philosophy that invigorated the policies in education of the Labour Administration that he led from 1995 to 2015.

Dr Douglas told listeners to his weekly radio programme “Ask the Leader! on Kyss 102.5 FM that “this must not be allowed to happen.”

He said the matter is so serious that parents must be outraged and called for the fight to be taken to the government to reverse this policy.

“You cannot deny people opportunities. You have to provide opportunities for young people even when the path is not even clear in its outline. You have to assist them because the young people will continue to be the embodiment of the soul of the nation,” Dr Douglas said.