Chief Education Officer should rethink policies and procedures specific to donations minus the bureaucratic system

Your article, ‘Ministry clamps down on unapproved access to schools’, STABROEK NEWS, Wednesday January 31, 2024 and the ‘MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, CIRCULAR NO.: 5/2024’, of 30th January 2024 from the Chief Education Officer, refer. Inter alia, the above-mentioned circular said, “WITH IMMMEDIATE EFFECT, any person or organization who wishes to enter a school building/ compound to engage learners in any discussion and/or to conduct activities such as donations or the distribution of gifts must first obtain written approval from Central Ministry (respective Assistant Chief Education Officers) through respective

Regional Department of Education.”

Editor, over the years, I have periodically provided gifts to my alma mater (primary school) on my own behalf and on behalf of my contemporaries. I was not aware of the existing policies and procedures and now admit to their contravention. However, when one considers the fact that a Headmaster/Headmistress shoulders the responsibility and authority for the lives of hundreds of students and staff on a daily basis—a priceless worth—it boggles the mind that the same Headmaster/Headmistress cannot be authorized to accept donations of school supplies and stationery worth a few thousand Guyana dollars.

It has often been said that our

Guyana was never an easy place to do business. Now it appears it is just as a difficult place to make simple donations to one’s alma mater. Policies and procedures are not cast in stone. I am, therefore, appealing to the Chief Education Officer to rethink these policies and procedures and allow the Headmaster/Head-mistress to be authorized to accept donations without the requirements for the donor(s) going through the bureaucratic system. Such authority does, in no way, absolve the Headmaster/Headmistress from his/ her responsibilities to provide reports pertinent to the donation(s) as may be required.