Wale calls for free fee and internet to students

The Leader of Opposition, Hon. Matthew Wale calls on the government to prioritise the need to ensure that the education of our young people is not hampered by the current state of emergency.

Mr. Wale says, the ongoing education of our young people is important to the country as a whole, hence it is important that this process is continued despite the hardships that have befallen the country.

He says the current emergency restrictions have already thrown our school programs into chaos and who knows what else will happen if we do have an outbreak of the Covid-19.

Hon. Wale adds, “With the recent reopening of our schools, parents will now amongst other things, also worry about how they will pay their children’s school fees and related costs. This situation can easily force some parents to put their children off school”.

He stressed that this is not right and as a country, we must not allow our parents to be put in this situation.

“I therefore repeat my earlier call on the government to make an emergency order to waiver all remaining school fees for the 2020 academic year, and to meet any shortfalls experienced by the schools by increasing their school grants.

“Secondly, I also call on the government to provide free internet access (including ISPs to lower profit margins on bandwidth), and to charge the costs for this to the responsible ministry. 

“Furthermore, I also call on the government to procure reasonably priced laptops for our students in the emergency zone.

“The internet provides a viable option to ongoing learning in such times and fits in well with current emergency restrictions.  The present situation provides us with the opportunity to make use of this technology and set a new pathway of learning for our schools and students,” says Hon. Wale.