Bartica tackles teenage pregnancy, substance abuse by offering scholarships

By Bibi Khatoon

The Bartica Town Council has embarked on an initiative which provides scholarships for teenagers to further their education.

Mayor of Bartica, Gifford Marshall told News Room that the region is without a tertiary educational institution and as a result, teenagers are often times becoming caught up with illegal drugs or becoming pregnant at an early age.

Currently, one person is being supported by the town council to attend the Guyana School of Agriculture.

“This year, we hope to support a number of other students to go to the Guyana Technical Institute and the Guyana School of Agriculture. We cannot afford for our young people to complete school, stay home and just get pregnant in a few months and just start making children and we can’t afford for our young men to just be smoking drugs in our backyard,” the Mayor said.

The council is also funding students who need to rewrite the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination.

The Mayor said interviews were conducted with the persons who expressed interest in furthering studies in various fields including nursing.

“They did not have the required subjects so what we decided to do is pay for them to go back and get the relevant subjects and at the end of the year, of course, they will apply and hopefully get into the nursing school.”

The initiative is funded by the resources of the council which are mainly taxes collected from residents and grants received from central government.

The Mayor is hoping that with the evaluation of properties, the taxes will be increased, thereby increasing the council’s revenues to conduct its work.

The council is also lobbying the Government to receive a percentage of the funds collected from the four quarries located in the township.