Teacher shortage, sexual violence major concerns in Amerindian communities

Teacher shortage, sexual violence major
concerns in Amerindian communities
Kaieteur News, 25 October 2007

More stringent measures may have to be taken against regional
administrations to ensure that they carry out, not only their mandates,
but deal with pertinent issues within their districts.

This is according to Minister of Amerindian Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues,
who yesterday chaired the proceedings at the International Convention
Centre where the Toshaos Conference is being hosted.

The Minister's statements came shortly after listening to several
complaints from Toshaos about issues, which, according to her, should
have been dealt with by the regional administrations.

Yesterday, the delegation was addressed by Minister within the Ministry
of Education, Dr. Desrey Fox; Minister within the Ministry of Health,
Dr. Bheri Ramsaran; and Minister of Human Services and Social Security,
Priya Manickchand.

Among the major issues raised were problems relating to education and
health.

In the area of education, Toshaos spoke of problems within their
communities, among them the shortage of teachers.

Commenting on this issue, Minister Rodrigues said that when the Toshaos
spoke about shortage of teachers, they meant 'shortage of trained
teachers.'

She noted that within some communities there are teachers who are not
trained teaching at the schools.

“Every year, we turn out quite a lot of teachers from the Cyril Potter
College of Education, but some of the teachers opt to move on to the
University of Guyana ,” the Minister said.

She added that once these teachers go on to University, it means that
an entire generation of children in schools at those villages would
have missed out on that teaching.

The Region Ten delegation seemed to be the most affected by the
shortage of teachers.

Minister Rodrigues added that Region Ten is one of the regions with an
over-abundance of teachers.

“This means one of two things is happening, either the teachers are all
packed in one area in Region Ten or they are somewhere else and they're
just on the payroll,” Minister Rodrigues stated.

According to the Minister, if one should check with the head of a
school within any of the communities, one may find at least six
teachers are on the payroll.

If a verification is conducted, it would be found that not everyone on
the payroll is actually teaching at the school, the Minister added.

“I think we need to be a little more strict with them and deal with
these matters.”

Yesterday, Minister of Human Services and Social Security Priya
Manickchand urged the Toshaos to 'stamp it out,' referring to sexual
violence in Guyana .

In her address to the gathering, Manickchand stressed that there is a
need to reform the sexual violence laws in Guyana which have remained
unchanged since 1894.

Late last week, the Ministry officially began consultations to
intensify efforts aimed at 'stamping out' sexual violence and reforming
laws on sexual offences.

In the proposed amendment, the Minister is seeking to establish a
Sexual Offences court with specific emphasis on phasing out Preliminary
Inquiry for sexual offences.

She pointed out that a lot of rape cases are disposed of by the court
after the Preliminary Inquiry.

“The present position is that there is a whole trial in the
Magistrates' Court, where the victim has to give her evidence and then
she has to go through the trauma of all of that, and then do it again
in the High Court,” the Minister said.

It has been proven, she noted, that there is 'absolutely' no need for
victims to go through such trauma, and as such the legislation will
look at abolishing the PI.

“And by that we will have a bundle of written statements which will be
served. There will be no PI, as the victim would not have to give
evidence in the Magistrates' Court and then again in the High Court,”
Manickchand stated.

She pointed out that there will be procedures to allow for submissions
to be made on behalf of the accused to the presiding magistrate.

Based on this, she said, the magistrate will determine whether or not
the case will be sent to the High Court.

This will not only save time but reduce cost and the backlog of cases,
the Minister said.

According to Manickchand, there is also a proposal to have integrated
services provided to victims of sexual violence.

'Comfort Centres,' she said, will be established at specific hospitals
to deal with such matters.

Manickchand said yesterday that instead of having victims go to and
from police stations and hospitals, all the reports and medical
examinations will be taken at the 'Comfort Centre.'

The legislation is also looking at the definition of rape. The new
definition will be more gender neutral, to include rape of both male
and female victims by a male or female offender.

Following the Minister's presentation yesterday, Toshaos raised
concerns of sexual violence and exploitation within their communities.

One of the major concerns of Toshaos is teenage pregnancy and
delinquent fathers who do not take care of their children.

The Toshaos also expressed concern about parents of rape victims
collecting money as part of an out-of-court settlement.

In response to this, the Minister said that the new legislation will
make such action an offence.

Meanwhile, the nominations for the Indigenous Peoples Commission were
completed.

Following the nominations, there were more than three persons chosen,
as is set out in the constitution.

An election will be held today to decide on the three that will be on
the Commission. The first ever National Toshaos Commission has also
been established at the conference. This Commission comprises 20
members. (Tusika Martin)