Prime Minister Evelyn Wever Croes celebrated in The Hague recently after she signed an agreement with the Netherlands for the official introduction of the Landenpakket which will have serious financial consequences for the entire people of Aruba.
MP Arthur Dowers of AVP faction shows that once again the leader of the MEP does not have the people of Aruba in the first place that not a single year of his governance has passed, that his government has not hit the people with measures.
We could see how happy Evelyn was in The Hague recently, where, among other things, van Huffelen reported that millions would be invested in the education sector of our country, something that is a necessity, after once again a government of MEPs completely neglected the education sector for six years.
This is not new, however, as during the cabinet of MEP Nel Oduber from 2001 to 2009, the education system was neglected in such a way that the ceiling of classrooms fell on the heads of students and teachers.
Bad bathrooms, classroom doors covered in plywood with broken glass, and collapsed school curtains for lack of maintenance.
Therefore, when listening to van Huffelen talk about investing in this education in Aruba, it would be good to mention how necessary it is, since the cabinet of Mike Eman I and II, from 2009 to 2017, invested in education, an impressive amount of 55 million, 555.099 thousand florins to ensure that our children and youth could get education in a dignified and relaxing place.
I personally held responsibility as Minister of Education from 2001 to 2009 where during this period, I invested a sum of almost 26 billion florins to repair schools that the MEP government had allowed to fail.
A total of eight schools during this period were renovated for a total of 22 million 725,829 thousand, schools that were practically falling into another while for the reconstruction of school wards a sum of 2 million 185 thousand florins was invested while the sum of 1 million florins was invested for schools that were in bad condition and for 8 years did not maintain them.
From 2013 to 2017, the cabinet of Mike Eman with Minister Hooyboer in charge of education, continued to invest in education through 14 FDA projects, which were attended for a sum of 25 million, 812.471 thousand florins.
In addition, funds known as the “Wonderwijsfonds” were invested, which received money from Dutch authorities to help 13 schools renovate water pipes, asphalt school grounds, install trailers and renovate several schools, which led to an investment of 3 million 831,799 thousand florins for a total of 29 million 644,270 thousand florins.
In the last six years of the governance of other MEP governments, neither invested in the education sector, but instead allowed former minister Rudy Lampe to spin the whole system, creating unnecessary problems instead of continuing to invest in the educational progress of our children and youth.
It is a shame to see Prime Minister Evelyn happy to have signed the Landenpakket, knowing that her two governments have done nothing for the education of our children and only invested in family- and friends, said MP Arthur Dowers.