A watchdog group with representatives from a number of youth organisations is scolding Government for its deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), saying it will stifle education and increase unemployment, hunger and crime in the country.

The National Youth Parliamentary Watch Committee (NYPWC), set up by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture to give young people a voice in how Government operates, lashed its parent body for its “disregard for the poor and youth”.

Quoting United Nations Children’s Fund statistics on the effects of IMF loans on sub-Saharan Africa, the group foresees increased crime, disease, illiteracy and death for young people in the next 27 months.

The group, which is to present a document with policy suggestions to Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Finance Minister Audley Shaw in the next two weeks, warned that it will take “forceful and organised action” to coerce Government to change its policy direction.

“The Government will just have to listen to us. We are serious and we intend for the Government to take us seriously,” the group’s vice-president, Paul McFarlane said.

He added that they are not ruling out any type of action at this time, including “islandwide demonstrations”.

Treasurer Jeffrey Brown said Government’s recent actions, such as the tax package and the freeze on subsidies to the tertiary sector, were directives from the IMF. Brown, whose master’s degree thesis focused on the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) reform, also suggested that Government use graduate students at the universities to research the 1990s financial meltdown rather than “paying hotshot lawyers” for an enquiry costing the taxpayer $150 million.

President of the University of the West Indies’ Guild of Students Vishuanauth Tolan described aspects of the Students Loan Bureau as “ridiculous”, noting that “students who needed loans the most cannot get loans because they find it hard to identify two guarantors”.

McFarlane called the SLB’s interest rates “one of the highest in the world” for similar institutions and said government had reneged on its promise to review the interest rate.

He also suggested that Government bond university graduates who benefit from the tertiary subsidy to work for for two years in Jamaica.

The group said while it understood the need for Government to invest in the early childhood to secondary levels of education, it should not be done at the expense of the tertiary sector.

While in agreement will the Jamaica Debt Exchange, the group says it wants to hear how the savings from the exchange will be accounted for.

The NYPWC also criticised the freeze in subsidies to the country’s tertiary institutions against the background of the public sector wage freeze.

The group said that it is non-partisan and consults with schools, universities, the National Youth Parliament, the youth arms of both political parties and other interest groups, including Jamaicans For Justice, trade unions and public and private sector groups.