Several bills including one to radically revamp the education sector are currently in draft format before Cabinet for review, Presidential Adviser on Governance, Gail Texeira said.
According to Teixeira, the bills in varying stages of draft are expected to be tabled before the National Assembly in the near future. These include the highly anticipated Education Bill.
Teixeira, who was speaking to media operatives at last Friday’s post-Cabinet press briefing, noted that the other bills include the Solid Waste Management Bill and the Hire Purchase Bill.
Speaking with Guyana Times International, Education Minister Priya Manickchand noted that the education legislation when comes it into force will repeal the current Education Act and allow the Education Ministry to adopt a more modern and hands-on approach to various issues impacting the education sector.
The Bill, among other things, seeks to address issues such as private schools licensing, requirements for persons to be employed as a teacher and students admission age at the nursery level.
She noted too that the current Education Act does not have much regulation as it relates to private schools. She noted that there are clauses in the Bill that will stipulate how private schools should function and be managed.
The Minister also related that the Bill will address the highly contentious issue of corporal punishment. The Bill was drafted after extensive stakeholder consultations countrywide.
The Minister added that the regulations governing the Bill are expected to be tabled at the same time.
Hire purchase
As it relates to the equally anticipated Hire Purchase Bill, earlier this year, acting Tourism Minister Irfaan Ali had said when this legislation comes into force, consumers will no longer be at the mercy of hire purchase schemes, noting that the current system that prevails is disadvantageous to consumers.
“We are working on having the hire purchase legislation laid in Parliament before the recess,” he said, adding: “I know we have been having a lot of problems with the repossession in the automobile industry and now also with the gold miners… we have persons paying as much as 80 per cent and just because of the remainder not being paid, they lose the items and the money they would have already paid.” This, he explained is a grave disadvantage to consumers.
Ali also added that the bill is not only being drafted with the protection of the consumer in mind, but also that of the companies which offer hire purchase plans to consumers. As it stands right now, consumers who would have failed to complete payments on items bought on hire purchase would have their items repossessed by the stores. This would be done even though the consumers have paid a large part of the total amount of monies owed for the item.
With regards to the Solid Waste Management Bill, acting Local Government and Regional Development Minister Norman Whittaker early last month said government is very close to tabling the Bill in the National Assembly.
The Finance Minister was asked to have a second look at the section of the bill that deals with the issue of financial arrangement.
The Solid Waste Management Bill seeks to, among other things, bring order to the way in which solid waste is managed, primarily by the way of a Solid Waste Management Authority.
