~ Says govt envisions a ‘fast-track’ compulsory education project ~
CAY HILL--“Children should not suffer because of decisions their parents make,” Leader of Government and Education Commissioner William Marlin said in reaffirming government’s commitment to continue with the introduction of compulsory education.
“Government has decided that we will tackle the problem once and for all,” Marlin told participants in a compulsory education summit held at the Belair Community Centre on Wednesday.
He said undocumented children had been trickling into St. Maarten over the last 30 to 35 years and today the situation had become a “monster that we cannot control, but one that we cannot ignore … [or] walk away from, … one that we have to tackle head on.”
He said government had envisioned a “fast-track project” for the continued introduction of compulsory education to be financed through Dutch aid. He said, though, that to reach this chapter, yesterday’s summit was necessary and proper documentation of the issue was needed.
The preliminary findings of a study on the issue of undocumented children were released to education stakeholders during the summit.
Marlin, who spearheaded the implementation of compulsory education for young pupils in September 2009, three months after his coalition government took office, acknowledged that continuing with its implementation would be a challenging task for St. Maarten that would have to go hand-in-hand with the closing of loopholes to ensure that it would not recur.
He said there were businesses creating breeding grounds for undocumented children by keeping their workers illegal.
“If we do not put the proper checks in place to go out and find those people who are hiring undocumented people on purpose so that they can exploit them and so that they can create the perfect breeding ground for undocumented children, we will solve the problem in 2010 and in 2020 it will come right back to bite us,” he said.
Compulsory education also has to be accompanied by the “closing of the fence,” to ensure that persons who come as visitors do not remain here.
He likened compulsory education to a “two-edged sword,” saying that while some agreed with it, there were others who didn’t.
He said, though, that it was “criminal” to deny children an education when they were born here and when the “system” had allowed them to reside here.
“It is our responsibility to help these people to realise that it is wrong. It is wrong to allow this to continue. … It is a crime to have children born in St. Maarten being allowed to live in St. Maarten and to basically allow them everything else – to catch a bus, go to the movies, Carnival Village and shop in the supermarkets and go to the doctor, but they are not allowed education.
“The child who … has an education has a future ahead of him or her,” he stressed.
Government had been postponing the implementation of compulsory education for too long and the situation had ballooned out of control, but it is now time to be proactive, not time to play the blame game, he said.
Rewinding the clock in history, Marlin said the issue of education for undocumented immigrant children dated back to the 1970s when there were the first signs of immigrant children without papers being educated here.
He said several of those who had been educated then were now well-educated adults. He alluded to one case in which a former undocumented student who had been attending a so-called “undocumented school” several years ago was now a law school graduate who had just applied to work for the government of St. Maarten.
He also referred to another case in which someone who had been undocumented while young was now completing her education as a medical doctor. He said if these persons had been denied education back then, they probably would not have been able to contribute to society.
“I think solutions should always … have been found to accommodate the educating of children,” said Marlin, an educator by training and a former schoolteacher and principal. “Regardless of their status, … the fact is, as long as the system allows them to live here … we cannot continue to turn a blind eye.”
