Moonilal slams PM's bad-parenting theory

OROPOUCHE East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has taken the Prime Minister to task for blaming escalation of crime on bad parenting saying the government had abolished, what he called, one of the significant opportunities to recognise and reward good parenting.

At the UNC virtual report on Monday night, Moonilal referred to Government’s decision to no longer recognise top performing Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) students.

“Every year, there is one significant moment when the SEA results are presented, the top performers are chosen and you celebrate their excellence.”

On such occasions, he said, children were happy to meet the Minister of Education who would have presented them with tokens.

This was also a time to celebrate teachers, principals and parents who often told stories of sacrifice made to assist their children achieve their full potential.

Every modern, developed society, he said, recognises and celebrates excellence in education, training, vocational skills.

“In Trinidad and Tobago, they stop that. The PNM and Rowley and Minister Folly, or Minister Dolly (Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly) don’t want to recognise the excellence of our children.

“You help others who don’t do as well by lifting the people who do well and making them the example so others will follow.

“But you don’t lift the children, you don’t motivate, you don’t inspire. You want to talk about bad parenting but do not want to commend, acknowledge, reward good parenting. That is the dilemma this country faces.”

Moonilal also called for a public inquiry into the award of contracts for the construction of the Port of Spain General Hospital central block.

“Apart from the legal issues, this is a serious problem. When you take highly skilled workers from the lower level, but you do not take management, supervisory staff or health and safety officers, you might be exposing workers to serious accident, injury or fatal injury because you do not have the supervisory or managerial staff to manage the operators.”

Moonilal was also critical of a report that the chairman of Paria was leading a golf team to France at a time when the commission of inquiry into the death of four divers was set to take place.