The Petition and the Crossing
Students at a secondary school on the East Bank Demerara, Region 4, want a pedestrian crossing. The school has 620 students, and about 240 of them cross the public road daily at a junction 30 m from the gate. In six months the students recorded four near-misses and one minor collision, and noted that traffic peaks between 07:15 and 07:45 and again at 15:15. They write a petition, collect 500 signatures from students and parents, and plan to hand it to the President at an Independence Day event. A teacher says the Neighbourhood Democratic Council 'owns the road'; a parent says it is the Ministry of Public Works; another student has heard that 'the Constitution gives us the right to petition, so they must act'. The same petition also asks for the voting age to be lowered to 16 so that students can 'decide for themselves'.
1. Where should the petition go first, and what should the students ask for? Set out the route you would advise.
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A public road is national infrastructure, so the body that can actually order a crossing is the Ministry of Public Works, with the Guyana Police Force traffic department carrying out the road-safety and traffic-count assessment. The NDC and Regional Democratic Council are the correct local channel and can press the case, but they do not build crossings on a public road.
A workable route:
- Written request to the NDC councillor and the ministry, copied to the head teacher and the Regional Education Officer.
- Ask specifically for a traffic count and safety audit, offering the students' own times (07:15–07:45, 15:15) as a starting point.
- Follow up in writing and keep a dated file.
- Escalate to the Regional Chairman if there is no reply.
Handing it to the President is lawful but slow: it will be passed down, and the technical assessment still has to happen. Go to the people who do the work, then escalate.
2. A student says: 'The Constitution gives us the right to petition, so they must act.' What is right and what is wrong in that statement?
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Right: the Constitution protects freedoms of expression and assembly, and citizens may petition public bodies without fear. The students are not doing anything wrong by organising and asking, and no one may punish them for it.
Wrong: a right to ask is not a right to a particular answer. 'Must act' confuses two things - the duty to consider a petition and the discretion to decide what to spend on it. A crossing needs a survey, a design, and money from a budget that has many competing claims. The agency must consider, but it may reasonably say no or say later.
There is a second weakness. The petition rests on 500 signatures, but most are pupils of one school. That shows concern, not community-wide demand. The stronger argument in the document is the dated list of near-misses and the traffic peaks, because it is evidence a traffic officer can check.
3. Evaluate the proposal to lower the voting age to 16. What would actually have to happen for it to change?
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The position now: the Constitution sets the voting age at 18, so under the present law a 16-year-old cannot vote however many signatures are collected.
What change requires: an amendment to the Constitution passed in the National Assembly by a special majority - two-thirds of all elected members - and, for the most deeply entrenched provisions, approval in a referendum. It cannot be achieved by petition, by a school vote, or by a minister's announcement.
Arguments to weigh: 16-year-olds study civics, many work and pay taxes, and turnout among young voters is low. Against: consistency with other legal ages, and the cost of registering a new age group.
Advice: keep the two demands apart. A crossing is a small, evidence-based local request that can succeed. Attaching a constitutional demand to it invites refusal of the whole petition. Good judgement means not spending a strong case on a weak one.