Moonilal setting poor example for children

THE EDITOR: On two occasions last week, students of the Rami Trace Hindu Primary School were taken out of their classrooms and deliberately deprived of an education. They were made to engage in public protests at the Ramai Trace Junction, SS Erin Road, Debe. Their actions were supported by their parents and Member of Parliament Dr Roodal Moonilal.

Personally, I support the call for the Ministry of Education to find the money and complete the Ramai Trace Hindu Primary School, which is reportedly almost complete, so that these students can have a more comfortable environment.

However, I am very concerned that Moonilal, a lawmaker by virtue of being an MP, would endorse and support with his presence our primary school students breaking the law, forming a human barricade and thus creating a disruption in the flow of traffic, disregarding the instructions of the police and putting their lives in danger. This is a very poor example being set by Moonilal for the children of this nation and his actions must be condemned.

Moonilal cannot say his presence was coincidental since he is on record telling the media they will take their protests to the Government, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Education Ministers Anthony Garcia and Dr Lovell Francis. This is pure politicking at the expense of our children’s education.

Moonilal must take some of the blame for setting a bad example because the students were made to suffer in the heat and were dressed in their school uniforms. They were deliberately mobilised and transported to a strategic location, the Ramai Trace Junction, which is a distance from their school. The group of students was encouraged to engage in protest action while other students and their teachers were in school.

The Ramai Trace Hindu School is one of the many incomplete projects inherited by the Ministry of Education, where the contractor was not paid. Like many other incomplete schools, the ministry under former education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh apparently left no budgetary allocation or source of funding to complete these schools, thus the present dilemma for hundreds of teachers and students.

RAVI MOONESAR, Debe