Philipsburg: --- Education Minister Omyra Leeflang in rebuttal statements while responding to questions posed to her said St. Maarten has access to Naf.20 million which is at USONA and this money can be used to build schools. Leeflang is on St. Maarten to participate in the UNESCO meetings. In a brief meeting with the media she said she checked with USONA prior to coming here and she was told by USONA that St. Maarten still has Naf.20 million. She further explained that even though she is the Minister of Education she had problems acquiring the information since she already signed off the monies to the islands. "I checked before I came here and St. Maarten has one project to the value of Naf. 600,000. I need to know when St. Maarten would use this money since it would be there from 2009 to 2012. She said if St. Maarten wants to use these monies they need to come up with humongous projects or massive programs." She further explained that is why she said St. Maarten need to build schools, since it is only by building schools since it is the only way for them to use up these monies. The Minister said with additional schools children would have a place where they can be educated.
Leeflang said she went as far as telling St. Maarten she is ready to grant teachers temporary permits to be in the classrooms, since they already said if they have more schools there would not be sufficient teachers. "I am willing to issue temporary permits to teachers that have a certain level of education. These teachers she said can even get training courses which would bring them up to par with the education system of the Antilles." The Minister said if there are sufficient schools and teachers then compulsory education can be implemented. She said when this done the island would have a dual economic and educational achievement. Additionally the island can attack its economical crisis by having a construction boom by building schools.
The Minister said she signed an agreement at the beginning of 2008 where she handed over all the monies she got from Holland for education to the islands. St. Maarten she said was a signatory to that agreement and they have access to Naf.20 million. Leeflang said the central government has right to 10% of that money but she did not keep any of the monies since she wanted the islands to get this money to further strengthen education. The Minister said the only thing she made clear when the agreement was signed in 2008 that there were going to be laws in place that must be respected by all the islands. Leeflang said the reason behind putting these laws in place was to make sure everyone offers the same quality of education in all schools of the Netherlands Antilles. She also indicated that all the laws on education are ready and she would be presenting one of those laws next week when she attends the parliamentary meetings.
She said her Ministry no longer has access to these monies since she gave it to the islands. "If I had the monies or had access to it I would have done what had to be done for St. Maarten. Leeflang explained when the Central government gave away their authorities the only thing they can do is monitor the islands. "In the past the Education program had belonged to the Central government. However, in light of the constitutional reform a decision was taken to hand over some powers to the islands in an effort to prepare them to own their budget."
Leeflang said one of the reforms that were highly criticized is the FBE (Foundation Base Education). She said her Ministry amended this program by taking out the problematic areas and it will be presented again next week.
Asked if there is a lack of communication since the Commissioner of Education and the Minister is releasing different information. Leeflang said that is exactly a problem, and she intends to meet with Commissioner Wescot Williams next week. She said she could not meet with the commissioner on this trip since she is the chairperson for the UNESCO meetings.
