Africa-Press – Lesotho. The reading of the budget is an annual exercise which mobilizes everyone’s attention – the political class, the trade unions, private sector players, and the measures announced, such as the education of children, for example, are taken very serious.
This ritual in which the Minister of Finance plays the dual role of high priest and star of the Assembly arouses an outcry of criticism based on well-argued and well-founded analyzes for some and, for others, arising from an annual game of discontent and rejection, a comedy played in the public square by seasoned actors on both sides of the political barrier and broadcast through the media.
The lull resulting from the drop in the price of gasoline (the rise in which, it is said, has served as a slot machine for the state to keep the economy afloat) is likely to be short-lived if the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, under the aegis of the current Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, is carrying out the plan to reduce the production of black gold.
The popular discontent will then point the nose again. In the meantime, two measures taxed as ‘populist’ by the opponents and which can only be welcomed by the beneficiaries: the increase of one thousand rupees for those over 60, and the check of twenty thousand rupees that future 18 year old young adults.
Rs 20,000 for each person who reaches the age of majority: it’s a godsend. This is an amount that could contribute to university tuition fees. In 2019, the purple party offered a monthly allowance of Rs 5,000 to each student.
It was also reasonable. However, common sense dictates that you must first know the value of money and work in order to be able to appreciate at its fair value a sum offered to you by the State, a national community.
Shouldn’t teenagers in school first learn how to earn a bit of money every now and then during weekends and long holidays? This would allow them to come out of the family cocoon where everything is offered to them on a plate, to learn to accept the rules of the working world, to leave whims at the door and to adapt to the personality of a boss and learn skills in the field. A whole experience that would allow them to cultivate a taste for effort, to grow and to gain in maturity.
Will this offer be accompanied by an educational exercise aimed at making young people aware of the proper use of a manna disbursed from public funds? The question deserves to be asked, especially for a generation brought up with a smartphone, fed with the internet, hooked on virtual online entertainment and lulled by Netflix in the evening each time private lessons to achieve honorable ‘credits’ at the The SC and HSC review gives them some respite. Let’s not talk about drug dealers who roam around colleges like vultures waiting for their prey!
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