Dear Editor,
We, residents of Subryanville, note Mayor of Georgetown Alfred Mentore’s response to Citizen Jamela Ali’s letter (Stabroek News, 6 Nov, 2025) in which she explained the betrayal of public trust by the Mayor and City Council in granting permission for construction on Farnum Playground.
We regret that Mayor Mentore has not used his response to provide the copies of the documents which the M&C&C used to make their decision to grant permission for the construction on Farnum Playground. We have been asking the M&C&C for these documents since we learned that they did not intend to stop the occupation of Farnum Playground. We are surprised that the Mayor thinks that the population of Subryanville and surrounding areas has a shortage of educational facilities. There is no public record of residents asking the Ministry of Education to build additional schools to serve Subryanville and nearby communities.
The Mayor’s surprising reference to ‘densely populated’ in our experience is only around the traffic congestion and associated problems caused by the presence of the school, which has reportedly 2000 students. We regret the silence of the Ministry of Education which is the custodian of the right to education for Guyana’s children.
We are shocked that the Mayor believes that ‘superior education’ means an education which is grounded on local governance which is not transparent, which is not accountable and which betrays public trust. We agree with Citizen Jamela Ali that “A true and valuable lesson in child welfare is teaching respect for the rule of law, public integrity and environmental responsibility – not disregard for laws, justifying unlawful conduct or the art of circumventing laws.” And we expect the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders in education in Guyana to affirm these values and to reject the values espoused by the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown in the matter of Farnum Playground. We intend to continue our calls for transparency and accountability.