Submitted by Anthony Davis

“Not a single one!

That was the reaction of a senior official at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies in response to SUNDAY SUN questions whether any students had turned up with proof of having received one of the thousands of bursaries promised by Government eight weeks ago.

On July 12, while speaking at an official ground-breaking ceremony at the campus, Minister of Education, Ronald Jones, disclosed: “Young people have been saying you need to do more to help us over the threshold now that we’ve made the adjustment in tuition fees and we are committed to that. In the first few years, we will do some 3000 bursaries to help those with challenges and this has already been agreed to.

“We can say with the greatest of accuracy that not one person who has registered has brought any document or payment showing they have received a bursary from the Ministry of Education, and as far as I am aware the university has received no correspondence from the ministry indicating that any bursaries have been awarded,” the official said on condition that he not be identified.

“On August 29 Minister Jones revealed that 1695 people had applied for bursaries to cover tuition fees and officials of his ministry were processing them, after which he would take the matter to Cabinet for “sign off”. Well placed sources in the ministry told the SUNDAY SUN they were unaware of any paper being taken to Cabinet on Thursday, the last time  Cabinet sat. Repeated attempts to reach Jones for a comment were unsuccessful.”

Well, well, well!

The Government of promises and plans have struck at the heart of the poor, the needy, and the vulnerable once again. This Government which always seems to have such lofty plans and make such promises which they cannot put into action is only demolishing everything that others have put in place to help those mentioned. Now they cannot even keep their promise to help them with bursaries!

Mr. Blackett said that it is a “people-centred government” and I still want to know what he means by that!. Which people do you mean, Mr. Blackett? The Butch Stewarts of this world and their ilk? You certainly do NOT mean the lower echelons of our society, because you and the rest of this government have done nothing but pull rug after rug from under their feet.

RPB needs to change the words to his song “Cahn find me brother” to “Cahn find me Minister”. Ministers in this government seem to go AWOL quite often. Only recently the Minister of Agriculture couldn’t be found either. I wonder with whom this one is hanging out.

Is the minister sure that he didn’t place his paper work in his cabinet at home? Maybe this all came about because he said he wanted to do the bursaries. You don’t “do” bursaries. You award them or give them. That’s probably why he doesn’t know what he has done with them.

You have millions of dollars to pump into a hotel which is always about to start building again, but “No Seasons” seems to be too far gone, or nearly $250,000 to spend on a trip, but cannot find the money for the bursaries for the scions of the poor, the needy and the vulnerable. This means that only the progeny of the upper echelons of our society will be able to study certain subjects because of the high tuition fees.

Is this being “people-centred?

I think not!

On the other hand: Enemies’ promises are made to be broken!