Errant School Children Feeding Crime
The only real advantage to society resulting from the public showing of the fight between two students of Barataria North Secondary School, involving an adult relative, and ending in a drain, is a return of the national focus on misbehaviour of the school population. Once again, we have come face to face with the urgent need to reverse the downward trends and new phenomena such as girl gangs which eventually provide fertile ground for the hardened criminal industry.
Indiscipline in schools did not start under the stewardship of Minister of Education, Dr. Tim Gopeesingh. However, Minister Gopeesingh, having been part of the former UNC Government and Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar, herself a former Minister of Education, must both be certainly aware that the current disciplinary and punitive methods have had little or no impact in terms of curbing delinquency of students in the educational environment.
More recently, in May, 2007, another former Minister of Education, Hazel Manning, made a presentation to Parliament in response to a debate on school violence, referring to a national consultation as far back as 1988, which concluded that the malaise was not a feature of a certain type of institution or geographical area. By 2009, three deaths as a result of school violence had happened: Dillon Griffith, Mark Hillaire and Callendar Duncan. Additionally, arrests of students for serious acts of indiscipline, involving personal injury and loss of property were on the increase, despite continuous efforts with counselling, police interventions, additional security measures and interventions by the Student Support Services Division of the Ministry of Education.
These ‘plasters’ are the same ones being used by Minister Gopeesingh to cover the steadily widening sores of student indiscipline. For his part, the Deputy Police Commissioner has said that he will give attention to the incidents and see what role his officers could play in conflict resolution and the influence of gangs on the school population.
As the Chamber recalls, Minister Gopeesingh was reported to have given the same response following the violent confrontations between students of El Dorado West Secondary and El Dorado East Secondary months ago. Yet the Minister is still contemplating measures such as the introduction of legislation to make parents more accountable for the actions of their children.
Is it reasonable for the Minister to plead for more time to study and research how developed countries have treated with the problem and what methods this country could adopt? By his own admission, 11,000 students have been suspended in the past six years for misbehaviour of one type or another – 3,300 of these for the academic year 2009-2010 alone. Add to these figures the 4,000 who simply dropped out of the system, which he disclosed earlier this year, and anyone can conclude that this is easy fodder for the industry of crime!
Consequently, in the Chamber’s opinion, Minister Gopeesingh must immediately change this “soft” approach, the impact of which may be felt for generations to come. His technocrats must already know, that he needs to assemble all the forces he requires as Minister to wage this war on violence in schools.
The Minister needs to urgently and aggressively pursue a legislative agenda which will empower schools’ management and Boards, as well as the Minister, to effectively and impactfully eliminate student indiscipline. It is clear current strategies are not working. Some students look upon the exercise of the disciplinary power of suspension by principals as “earning stripes” in the gangs. It has lost its effectiveness and undermined the disciplinary authority of both teacher and principal. The Chamber shares the view of TTUTA President Rouston Job, that the measure is meaningless, unless also coupled with some enforceable remedial programme to be attended by the suspended pupil over the period of suspension.
We know that the greatest measure of influence is by example, and with the assistance of TTUTA and the Teaching Service Commission, the 49 teachers against whom disciplinary complaints currently stand, must have such complaints quickly heard, determined, and appropriate measures taken to ensure that those in their charge do not remain at risk to teacher indiscipline in an environment which ought to engender the very opposite.
The Chamber supports the review by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) of regulations to improve the efficiency and competence of its system of handling disciplinary complaints; similarly, its requirement to be notified within 24 hours of any act of indiscipline by teachers, as any delay in exercising the power of discipline undermines the very authority to do so.
Teacher absenteeism, too, which according to the Minister remains high, is bound to increase idleness, mischief and low productivity on the part of students. This must not continue in 2011 with rising school violence statistics.
Our churches, other religious and youth organisations have crucial roles to play in assisting with the education of the nation’s most impressionable minds about right, wrong, indifference, values, relationships with one another, love of country and fellow man. The Chamber trusts that this is part of what Minister Gopeesingh has in mind when he speaks about “teaching about religion.”
We share the opinion of the Minister that school violence is generated primarily by deficient parenting, absent caregivers, low self-esteem, peer pressure, dysfunction and disability. These must not be allowed to continue to impact negatively on the rest of the student population. Minister Gopeesingh must press into action in this year of delivery to the electorate, the services of every single Ministry and the resources to address all these challenges.
The Chamber assesses rising violence, immorality and indiscipline in the nation’s schools to be a reflection of the wider society and therefore part and parcel of the war on crime. The Police must also play a pivotal role in its containment, with the assistance of all other stakeholders. The future of the country is in the students’ schoolbags and laptops. The country may have already lost several generations to the ranks of the unemployed, financially dependent, vagrant, and, undoubtedly, criminal elements. Repeatedly “soft” approaches by the Minister of Education and Government simply swell these ranks.
