The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party chairman Fred Mitchell criticised the prime minister’s national address, saying it provided no new information.

In a press statement yesterday, Mr Mitchell said the national address was a useless exercise in self-praise.

Mr Mitchell said: “The Progressive Liberal Party and its supporters were underwhelmed by the national address of the prime minister.”

His comments came a day after Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis held his second national address for the year.

Mr Mitchell said: “With regard to education, the PM rehashed the same tired promises and deceits on education that we have heard before. Nothing that was said on that subject was new and nothing that the PLP had not agreed to do before losing office in 2017.

“The air-time could have been better spent telling us how he is going to put money back into this economy and get people back to work.”

The chairman said the prime minister should have announced the dismissal of Health Minister Dr Duane Sands and National Security Marvin Dames.

He said: “(They) are two MPs and ministers condemned by a judicial authority for their conduct in the Frank Smith case. They must resign or be dismissed.”

During his address on Monday night, the prime minister said education plays a critical role in preventing and addressing crime as he spoke of strides the FNM has made in the education sector since coming to office in 2017.

He said: “At the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year three new pre-school classrooms were opened in New Providence, with an additional four new state-of-the-art pre-school classrooms just about completed. To date, more than 700 additional students have been enrolled in public and private pre-schools through the universal pre-primary initiative. Of these, just under 400 vouchers have been paid to the Ministry of Education-approved private pre-school providers through the Private Pre-school Partnership Programme.

“Three and four-year-olds whose parents could not afford to send them to pre-school now have access to pre-primary education, to prepare them for first grade. We have launched a lower primary school literacy effort. The goal is to implement strategies to increase the percentage of students achieving A-D in language arts in the Grade Level Assessment Test, known as GLAT.”

On the issue of crime, Dr Minnis warned criminals that they will be relentlessly tracked down and brought to justice.

The war on crime will be expanded, he said, through the acquisition of 90 new vehicles for the police, adding 130 new recruits to serve in New Providence and Grand Bahama, installing 507 more closed circuit television cameras in the capital and the roll out of a drone programme.