'We cannot build a country of dependents'
Published:Wednesday | April 20, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Claudette Crooks wants fewer people to rely on welfare
Keisha Hill, Gleaner Writer
A CALL has been made for Government to implement systems to wean Jamaicans off welfare and give them the skills required to take care of themselves.
The Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), established by Government in 2001 targets poor families to include children, the elderly, the disabled, pregnant and lactating women.
However, president of Money Masters Limited, Claudette Crooks urged the Government to implement a system, especially in the education sector, where over a specified time, persons currently on the programme can become less dependent on it.
"We cannot build a country of dependents. We need to gradually take them off, and take them from where they are coming from, to where we can take them at a higher level," Crooks said last Friday, while addressing a Gleaner Editors' Forum, which was held at the company's North Street Kingston offices.
Crooks said the Government must examine how every dollar is being spent on education. She said most of the money budgeted for the education sector is reflected in salaries and there are areas allocated for feeding programmes, but there should be a consistent effort to give persons the opportunity to make a living for themselves.
careful spending
"At the end of the day, somebody has to watch how the public purse is being spent. If a man is getting $70 billion to spend every single year, you must show me what that money is producing for me, three years down the road. It can't be that you are spending $70 billion, and every year you are coming to me saying you need $70 billion, and you cannot show me what is the incremental value that you have brought by virtue of spending that $70 million," Crooks said.
Recently, Minister of Education Andrew Holness praised PATH for helping to significantly increase enrolment in secondary schools.
Holness said 220,000 children were on the programme and being assisted to attend school. He also noted that $1.9 billion goes directly to nutritional support for children through PATH.
Holness also said that some basic schools can now get direct grants through PATH and that a total of 96,000 basic-school children can be assisted through these grants.