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School-age boys during school hours idly ride a bus along Kingston streets.Leonardo Blair, Enterprise Reporter
A MAJORITY of Jamaican students labelled as violent and disruptive in the nation's school system have been found to be suffering from a variety of behaviour disorders, mental illness and learning disabilities, which some school officials are not fully equipped to identify by themselves, according to a recent report from the National Youth Service (NYS).
Investigations by the Enterprise Team also reveal that some schools are now expelling students from this growing community even though their disorder has been recognised and treatable.
The report presented by Reverend Adinhair Jones, executive director of the NYS, shows that more than half of the 202 students who participated in the NYS' behaviour modification programme for violent and disruptive students last summer were diagnosed with behaviour disorders, while nearly a third of them were recommended for psychiatric intervention.
Students were primarily recommended to the programme from 15 Corporate Area high schools and most are non-traditional.
Among the findings, 29 per cent of the students were diagnosed with critical to severe behavioural disorders while another 24 per cent of them had mild to moderate behaviour disorders. Another 29 per cent of them were identified as being in need of psychiatric help and 10 per cent of them had learning disorders.
ON THE OFFENSIVE
While admitting that most schools have been trying to accommodate these students as best as they can, Rev. Jones said some schools have gone on the offensive by expelling them.
"Our first remit is that the students are to return to school and remain in school without any type of prejudice once they have been through our programme. The NYS does not believe that expulsion is the best outcome," said Rev. Jones. "My reflection from dealing with two of these camps is that the Ministry of Education, maybe through the Ministry of Health, will have to do more thorough diagnostic tests to identify how to treat with the problem in a more holistic way," he added.
Cynthia Peart, prinicipal of Papine High, whose school manages a significant number of these special students, explained that schools could be expected to maintain students with severe cases of behaviour disorders. Addressing questions from Enterprise regarding one male student whom she was forced to expel, she explained that he just had to go.
"We don't normally exclude children just like that," she explained going through the student's spotty record. "We exhaust all our resources." She explained that the school has now put in place a programme for students who participated in the NYS camp last year. She explained that those students involved in drug use were referred to the Detox Unit at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Those students with behavioural problems get ongoing help from a University of the West Indies-based psychologist and the child guidance clinic on the campus. In some cases, the students are referred to the Family Court.
NUMBERS GROWING
Government authorities she said, need to work harder at alleviating the situation for schools as the number of dysfunctional children coming into the system each year is growing. "My suggestion for this whole thing is that the educational system needs attention from the early childhood state to assess the children.
"The system should also follow through at the primary level. But some of the children coming to school have to be removed from the system. Their lifestyles are not compatible with school life," explained principal Peart.
"We have been asking the Government to provide a school for these children. Sometimes you identify that there is a problem, but what can you do? There is just not enough support. The NYS is a good start and I commend the Government for that but there is just so much more that needs to be done," she said.
