“Hold your leaders accountable” – Norton to Region 8 villagers
Minister of Social Cohesion, Dr. George Norton, has urged the residents of Region Eight to engage in self-help activities to ensure that community projects and infrastructure are maintained.
Dr. Norton was part of a team of Government officials who visited Kato Village on Wednesday and met with toshaos and councillors of District One in Region Eight. The other ministers in that team were Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, and Minister within the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Valarie Garrido-Lowe.
Social Cohesion Minister, Dr George Norton, speaking to village leaders of Region Eight
“Self-help is not an old thing, it can still work. We have to start doing it sometimes… I agree there is some amount of limitation, but we have to do our own thing, our own little work here and there,” Minister Norton told the village leaders.
According to a GINA report, Norton said residents should not complain to ministers about issues that they themselves can resolve, such as students defacing the sanitary facilities at the schools. “You can’t expect the Ministry of Education (Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine) in Georgetown to come and fix your school toilet that your child using every day. That’s not how it works; the residents themselves should come together and make certain that it is clean and properly maintained,” he pointed out.
Norton noted that while all of the issues cannot be addressed overnight, village leaders need to be more responsible, because they were elected by the people whom they are required to serve.
In the area of education, Minister Norton said the results for mathematics at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) examination in the hinterland are very worrying. “…they are without teachers and then we have to go and compete against the students in Georgetown. This worries me… But, if I could have reached up to Queen’s College and go on to study further, I think you could do it too, and your children could do it. We must not deprive ourselves of this (opportunity), and I don’t want to hear excuses (about can’t),” Minister Norton admonished the residents.
The ministers’ visit forms part of a series of outreaches ministers have been conducting to share information directly with residents on the plans and policies of the Government.
