Dropout rate for boys alarming

MORE boys are successful at the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) examination, but less are graduating from secondary schools and/or successfully writing CXC examinations after the expected five years.

Education Minister, Anthony Boatswain, said that more boys are lost somewhere between forms two and three due to “deviant behaviour”.

“The boys are dropping out of secondary schools at a faster rate than girls and so we have a situation where more girls are pursing further education than boys,” Boatswain told the Parliament last Friday.

In his ministerial statement, the Education Minister said that the solution to this problem is not just one for the Government, but one that will involve the partnership with parents and the wider community.

“We are losing too much of our boys on the road. We need to encourage them, we need to take action to ensure that they reach the end of the secondary school journey and continue on,” he said.

He also informed the Parliament that not all the children who will be sitting the upcoming CPEA entrance examination will be placed in a secondary school.

“There is no guarantee that all those who take the examination will be placed in a secondary school,” he said, while explaining that parents should understand that there are some children whose assessment will indicate that they are not fully prepared to embark on that journey.

“It’s for this reason that in 2013 we kept back 40 children. This year, they are ready and will move on to a secondary school,” he assured the House.

Hundreds of grade six primary school students will today, Friday, May 16, sit the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment. Those who are successful will commence their secondary school life from September 2014. (LS)

CDB committed to region’s youth

THE Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is committed to further supporting initiatives which encourage innovation and promote youth inclusion.

Looking at the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), CDB was delighted to be a partner in Digital Jam, and pledged its commitment to an effort such as Digital Jam 3.0 Caribbean Edition.

The winning MediRevu Team comprising Shannon Clarke,
Samora Reid and Lybron Sobers are working to provide a
regional and international solution to monitoring
non-communicable diseases and helping doctors and
patients better manage these costly diseases.

Portfolio Manager in the Private Sector, CDB, Peter Blackman, said: “We at the CDB are keenly aware of the central role that technology can play in transforming our regional economies and recognise that the region’s youth must take centre stage in this quest.”

Cognisant of the need to combat the issue of high youth unemployment throughout the Caribbean, he said: “Our region is faced with some very daunting challenges, with rising unemployment, particularly among the youth, being one of the biggest concerns.”

Presented with their certificates and MacBook Air laptops for
winning in the ‘Pioneers of the Caribbean’ Category of the
Digital Jam 3.0 Regional Apps Competition, held on
March 1 and 2, 2014, by Project Officer in the Social
Development Sustainable Development Department of the
World Bank, Nicola Magri (left), and Portfolio Manager in the
Private Sector Development Unit of the Caribbean Development
Bank, Peter Blackman (second from right), were Samora Reid,
Lybron Sobers and Shannon Clarke (centre L-R).

Using statistics, he illustrated the situation, saying, “In 2012, 14.3 per cent of the nearly 75 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 that were unemployed worldwide lived in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

And he posited, “As a result, a disturbingly high number of young people in our region have become victims of social exclusion and marginalisation.”

But he hastened to remind, “Many young people are also making significant contributions to the development of their communities and societies.”

Therefore, he insisted, “We are being challenged to harness the energies of our youth and to engage them productively in the region development. Deliberate and strategic action to curb youth unemployment is a must if we are to significantly improve our medium to long-term development prospects.” (KG)

Residential property owners to pay 10% VAT on rental earnings

By Linda Straker

Property owners who rent residential properties that are equal in value or more than the Value Added Tax threshold of EC$120 000 will have to register to pay VAT.

Parliamentarians in the House of Representatives on Friday approved an amendment to the Value Added Tax legislation, which will require all suppliers of accommodation to register and pay a ten per cent VAT of the amount charged for the property.

Under the law, accommodation includes: a supply of accommodation in a building, part of a building, a group of buildings (including the structures within the cartilage thereof) that constitute a hotel, motel, boarding house, guest house, villas, an inn, student housing dormitories, apartment complex, private house or a room or similar establishment in which lodging is regularly or normally provided for a daily, weekly, monthly, or other periodic considerations.

Accommodation is also is defined as a supply of accommodation in, or the right to occupy as a residence, a caravan, houseboat, camping site, boat, marina berth or similar place on terms commensurate with those of landlord and tenant if the accommodation is provided to an individual (alone or together with other individuals.)

Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell, who is also the Finance Minister, presented the Bill to the House and explained that the legislation is meant to plug the holes within the system that allows for some to get away without paying tax to the system.

“If you are making thousands of United States dollars, you have to pay your fair share,” he said.

All accommodation suppliers will have to register before July 31 as the law is expected to go into effect as of August 1, 2014. Failure to register the accommodation with the VAT Unit can result in penalties that includes fines in excess of EC$5 000.

New areas of study a step in the right direction

The region’s foremost tourism body is commending the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) for the introduction of five new subjects, among them Tourism, at the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) level.

At the recent launch of the subjects which CXC have dubbed the new-generation subjects, Bonita Morgan, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation’s Director of Resource Mobilisation and Development, contended that these new areas of study help address specific needs in our societies or areas where knowledge and skills should be developed.

“We at the CTO are really one of the major advocate behind the Tourism subject being launched here today, having had discussions with Ministers of Education, Ministers of Tourism, Chief Education Officers, the Caribbean Examinations Council, etc., over many, many years to try to convince them of the need to introduce tourism as a subject within our school system. Some countries in the region have gone this route already without waiting for the education directorate to sanction anything,” she said.

Among those countries, Morgan noted, are the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and St. Martin and St. Barths.

She added that the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) has also gone the route of developing specific tourism education materials for primary and secondary schools, which some countries are using to buttress their own tourism education and awareness programmes.

Career awareness

The Director of Resource Mobilisation and Development contends that building career awareness is important for the tourism sector, and the introduction of the tourism subject into Caribbean schools is one of the building blocks in the development of the human resources needed to sustain the tourism industry.

“Tourism is the lifeblood of the Caribbean at this time in our existence, and will continue to be an important economic sector for our region for some time to come. We have been saying for the longest while that one in every four persons in the region either works directly or indirectly with the tourism sector.

“Tourism is labour intensive, which is a good thing for our small economies, and we need to attract persons to work in the sector… It is a reality of our economies, and we should, at minimum, prepare our young people to understand something about the scope and workings of the sector, so that they can make intelligent choices when they begin their own career planning and forging their own career path,” she said.

Moreover, Morgan is suggesting that by introducing tourism in the school system, countries are able to positively influence public attitudes and awareness to tourism and, by extension, tourists.

Her comments came as she contended that Caribbean countries need to do a better job at educating local populations about the role that tourism plays in their economies and to their individual well being.

She stated these benefits include the creation of jobs, the earning of foreign exchange, attracting local and foreign investment, and the creation of goods and services used by the sector. All these, she stated, help to create a better quality of life for the region. (JRT)

Grenada tops alcohol consumption in the Americas

GRENADA, with an average consumption of 12.5 litres of pure alcohol per person per year, tops the countries in the Americas with the highest rate of per capita yearly alcohol consumption.

This was among findings in the latest report launched by the World Health Organisation, which was released on Monday. The report claims that, world-wide, 3.3 million people died in 2012 due to harmful use of alcohol, while harmful use of alcohol makes people more susceptible to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia.

Grenada is followed by St. Lucia with 10.4 litres per person, Canada is third with 10.2 litres per person, Chile fourth with 9.6 litres, fifth is Argentina with 9.3 litres, and six is the United States with 9.2 litres.

The Region of the Americas has the second-highest per capita alcohol consumption among WHO regions, after Europe. It also has the second-highest (after Europe) rates of heavy episodic drinking, a drinking pattern associated with harmful effects on health. In addition, the region has the lowest rate of lifetime abstention from alcohol use.

The report said that, on average, people in the Americas consume 8.4 litres of pure alcohol per capita per year, second among WHO regions after Europe, where people consume 10.9 litres per year.

Twenty-two per cent of drinkers in the Americas engage in heavy episodic drinking (consuming about six standard drinks on a single occasion once a month or more). Globally, 16% of drinkers drink this way.

The Americas region has the lowest proportion (18.9%) of lifetime abstainers, or people who have never consumed alcohol. Globally, 48% of people are lifetime abstainers. In the Americas, beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage, contributing 55.3% of total alcohol consumed.

Wine accounts for one-ninth of total alcohol consumption in the Americas, due mostly to the high wine consumption in Argentina and Chile. Countries in the Americas with the lowest per capita consumption are El Salvador (3.2 litres per year), Guatemala (3.8), Honduras (4), Jamaica (4.9), Nicaragua (5) and Cuba (5.2).

The Americas has the highest prevalence of alcohol use disorders among females, with an estimated 12.6% of girls and women affected.

The Global status report on alcohol and health 2014 provides country profiles for alcohol consumption in the 194 WHO Member States, the impact on public health and policy responses.

On average, every person in the world aged 15 years or older drinks 6.2 litres of pure alcohol per year. But as less than half the population (38.3%) actually drinks alcohol, this means that those who do drink consume on average 17 litres of pure alcohol annually.

Men dying over women

The report also points to the fact that a higher per centage of men than women die from alcohol-related causes – 7.6% of men and 4% of women – though there is evidence that women may be more vulnerable to alcohol-related harm compared to men. In addition, the authors note that there is concern over the steady increase in alcohol use among women.

Harmful use is defined as drinking that causes detrimental health and social consequences for the drinker, the people around the drinker and society at large, as well as the patterns of drinking that are associated with increased risk of adverse health outcomes.

Budget problem

THE experience of the Caribbean with the budgetary process over the past ten years indicates that there is much room for improvement.

So says Dr. Dave Seerattan, Research Fellow at the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance.

In a commentary on fiscal policy in the region, Dr. Seerattan said that in particular, revenue forecasts tend to be very inaccurate, governments almost never stick to their expenditure targets, and public sector investment programmes are notorious for their lack of implementation.

“In this context, medium term fiscal consolidation programmes generally do not meet their targets, both reflexing and amplifying the region’s fiscal sustainability challenge,” Seerattan said in the commentary appearing in the most recent edition of the regular CCMF newsletter.

“Very importantly, governments in the region are only now starting to focus on value for money and asking questions about the kind of output or services they are getting in return for public expenditures,” the Research Assistant maintained.

Measures

Saying that this is an important development in the Caribbean’s public sector governance culture, Seerattan said in the publication that it “can be a catalyst for more of the fundamental change that is required to address weaknesses in the budgeting process in particular, and the fiscal challenge in general, faced by the region.”

According to him, “In terms of specific policy imperatives, among the most pressing issues on the revenue side is the need to improve revenue buoyancy of the tax system and administrative efficiency.”

He noted that some specific measures that may aid in this process include reducing outstanding arrears on VAT and personal income tax, simplifying the tax system, training to address human resource constraints, and substantial efforts to improve tax administration including institutional change, such as centralising the tax collection in one agency.

NO MONKEY BUSINESS – Mona Monkey population under threat

Tourism Minister, Alexandra Otway-Noel, said that research conducted to determine the status of the Mona Monkey in Grenada has revealed that the population is significantly reduced in the wild and the species may soon be declared endangered.

“One of the reasons for the reduction is the fact that hunters continue to hunt them outside of the hunting season, not just in the allowed hunting areas but also in the National Parks areas where hunting is prohibited year round,” Otway-Noel stated during last Friday’s sitting of the House of Representatives.

“Some of these hunters are killing the mothers and fathers and then selling the babies as pets,” she said.

“If this continues, soon or later there will be no Monkeys as part of our wildlife. People, therefore, have to obey the law and allow for the monkeys to mature so that the population will grow,” she told the Parliamentarians.

Using the Grand Etang Hospitality Centre as an example where the reduced population is observed, she said that previously more than 20 monkeys could be seen in or around the Centre’s compound on any given day, but nowadays only three monkeys come to interact with visitors.

The Grand Etang Hospitality Centre is one of the attractions within the rain forest of Grenada. Visitors are allowed to feed and take photographs with monkeys on the Centre’s compound as memories of the visit. The research into the population of the monkeys was conducted by two French researchers.

Grenada, since the passage of Hurricane Ivan, adopted stronger measures to protect its wildlife that is under threat, by allowing a shorter hunting season while wildlife delicacies are banned from being served at restaurants during the close season.

The challenge for the Department of Forestry is continuously monitoring the forest to ensure that wildlife is not exploited by hunters for their own consumption during the close season.