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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
 Remarks By Thomas Desmond Bannister at The 2016 F.N.M Convention July, 2016:
Mr. Party Leader and Mrs. Minnis
Mr. Chairman and Mrs. Collie
Parliamentarians
Party Officers
Fellow Delegates
Friends of Democracy
I wouldn’t dare skip the protocol tonight because all of you matter.
Mr. Leader, my remarks tonight are offered in tribute to two outstanding Bahamian patriots, the late Jack Albury M.C.M., and the late Frankie Russell M.C.M. We all know that Jack and Frankie shared our belief that the work of this party matters a great deal to our country.
Fellow Delegates, Your FNM party believes that education is critical to empowerment. The FNM wants to ensure that every child in our Bahamas is educated to his or her fullest potential. That's why we have an unmatched record of building schools throughout this country to provide opportunity for our children to learn in their own communities. Because for us, Bahamian children matter.
The FNM built 17 new primary and secondary schools in our 15 years in government. In contrast, the current Prime Minister cannot truthfully say that his government has built a single primary or secondary school in his two terms as Prime Minister. He and his party have failed our children. They have failed our families. They have failed our communities.
Despite our hard work and outstanding accomplishments, however; in 2012 that other party convinced the Bahamian people that they would, and I quote "double the investment in education and training". You can all laugh now, but that's the promise that they made.
You see, the P.L.P. knows the importance that we all place on education. They know that we all aspire for high levels of achievement by our children and grandchildren, and they perpetuated a cruel hoax on the Bahamian people knowing full well that they had no intention of living up to their word. Fellow Delegates, for the P.L.P.the truth does not matter.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the truth is that the P.L.P. significantly decreased the investment in education. From 2011 to now, the budget for the Department of Education has been cut by millions of dollars!! They also decreased the budget for B.T.V.I. Then they lumped both B.T.V.I. and C.O.B. together under the Ministry of Education’s budget to give the appearance that they had increased it.
This year the P.L.P. sneaked more than one and a half million dollars into the Ministry’s budget so that they could hire hundreds of their supporters in temporary dead end jobs. It’s all a game for them. They have no intention of improving the delivery of education in our country. You see, ladies and gentlemen, they know, as Maximilien Robiespierre said, and I quote “the secret to freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret to tyranny is in keeping them ignorant”. Make no mistake about it, their broken promises, greed, victimization and cover ups clearly show that they want to keep us all ignorant.
Fellow Delegates, Over the past 4 years, Parliament has allocated 17 million dollars to build new primary and secondary schools, with another 4 million allocated this year. Of that 21 million dollars, 5.5 million was specifically earmarked to build new primary and secondary schools in Inagua, San Salvador, Lowe Sound, Andros and Gregory Town, Eleuthera. The P.L.P. spent millions of that money, but they have not built a single primary or secondary school. So where did the money go? After all, knowing what happens to your tax money matters.
Fellow Delegates, by not spending that money for the purpose for which it was allocated, the P.L.P. has betrayed the children of those islands who need new schools so badly, and who were counting on the government to live up to their word. You see, accountability matters.
Nobody in the government is prepared to tell the Bahamian people what happened to the 17 million dollars! Most likely, when the next F.N.M. government holds a Commission of Inquiry into the Carnival or Bamsi scandals we may find that they were financed at the expense of the development of educational facilities for our children.
Ladies and gentlemen, this Prime Minister is shuffling while our vulnerable children in Lowe Sound are being forced to sit in hot, uncomfortable trailers every day.
They gave contracts to cronies and drug dealers yes known drug dealers, while our vulnerable children in Inagua are required to take classes in sub par rented facilities.
The people who said that they believe in Bahamians abandoned our young children in Gregory Town where they are forced to takes classes in the burial society lodge hall and instead spent hundreds of thousands of your tax money on foreign entertainers;
At a time when our seventh graders from A.F. Adderley Junior High should be integrated into their new school, the PLP is bussing them a mile away from their classmates every day; and instead of constructing classrooms to replace the trailers, this uncaring PLP government is wasting our tax money rebuilding a Bamsi building that the Bahamian people are now having to pay for twice.
Right now, fellow delegates:
The L.W. Young School needs to be replaced. The current structure is dangerous for our children.
The Government High School, Harbour Island School and the C.W. Sawyer Primary School must also be replaced urgently.
The L.N. Coakley High School in Exuma has serious and dangerous structural defects.
George Town Primary school has outlived its usefulness.
Colleagues, Throughout the country our schools have been permitted to deteriorate over the last 4 years. I could tell you about the unsanitary bathroom block that is endangering the health of students and teachers at the Eight Mile Rock high school; the plumbing nightmare at D.W. Davis and Uriah McPhee; the electrical problems at Central Abaco Primary. Beginning next year Your FNM government will do better because unlike that crew, children matter to us.
Beginning in 2017:
We will rebuild the morale of our teachers, and
Your F.N.M. government will attract our brightest young minds to that noble profession
We will take the necessary steps to attract more males back to education
Your F.N.M. government will embrace technology in schools. Our children are technologically savvy, and no Minister of Education should be chiding M.P.’s for not donating money to buy computers for the schools. It’s his job to provide the money to meet this critical need. After all, he’s the Minister of Science and Technology.
We will create special family island scholarships so that the child in Acklins, Mayaguana, Cat Island, Inagua or any other island can have the same educational opportunities as the child in Nassau.
And Carmichael, I’m back home, so We will build the badly needed Carmichael Road Junior High School to ease overcrowding in the Southwest.
As you all know, Carmichael matters most of all. Why else would they fire a whole M.P. before the election even call? and then the fella say he ga run some place else where he could win, just after he got run out of Carmichael.
Carmichael is serious. If you don’t believe me, just wait till they ring that Bell.
Fellow Delegates, as I approach the end of these remarks, I want to warn Bahamians not to be comforted by empty PLP promises. For the second time in 3 years, San Salvador has been promised a new school. Instead of being shamed by their failure to build a single school, this time the PLP has been emboldened and they have now promised San Salvador two new schools.
Most likely, the next F.N.M. government will have to finish those schools, just as we had to complete the construction of the Anatol Rodgers High School and the T.G. Glover Primary School when the P.L.P. wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and could not finish them.
Colleagues, In spite of all of this PLP incompetence, let us encourage our students to stay strong.
We in the F.N.M. felt their pain when the P.L.P. created new fees and raised so many of the other fees for our students at the College of the Bahamas.
We understand how the uncaring initial imposition of value added tax on education hurt hard working families throughout our country.
We know how the calculation of interest on student loans can be demoralizing for those students who are sincerely attempting to repay their debt.
We in the F.N.M. have great confidence in the ability of our students to surmount the challenges, and beginning next year we will solicit their assistance in helping the new F.N.M. government build a modern Bahamas. Because our students matter.
Ladies and gentlemen, Another school year is fast approaching. I close by encouraging each of you to uplift and inspire our hardworking teachers and administrators for their dedication, commitment and sacrifice. We know that they have persevered patiently under this uncaring government.
There are record shortages of teachers in critical subjects;
Classrooms are overcrowded;
Teachers face poorly serviced facilities; and they have inadequate supplies and resources to do their jobs properly. Let’s motivate them to persevere, because our teachers matter.
Fellow Delegates, You all matter
May God Bless you all
© Copyright 2016 by thebahamasweekly.com
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