Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
Placard-bearing students of Eltham Park Primary School in Portmore, St. Catherine demonstrated at the school yesterday after a teacher was allegedly wounded by a parent at the school. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
A DISPUTE between two schoolboys in Cross Roads, St. Andrew yesterday has left both nursing stab wounds.
According to information reaching The Gleaner, the boys who attend Kingston College and Calabar High, were fighting over school flags.
Inspector Valbert Scott of the Cross Roads Police Station said the injuries were not serious but the boys will be charged.
Meanwhile, angry students at the Eltham Park Primary School in Portmore, St. Catherine, yesterday protested over the stabbing of a teacher who was attacked on the school grounds.
Reports are that the teacher scolded a student who she allegedly accused of stealing money. The student went home and reported the incident to her mother who, along with another person jumped the school fence, stabbed the teacher and smashed her head with a stone.
This has been the second attack on educators in schools since the start of the week.
On Tuesday, a teacher at Salem Primary and Junior High School was chopped several times by her ex-boyfriend who invaded the school compound.
The Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) is continuing to insist on immediate security upgrades in schools, despite the Education Ministry's admission that it has been incapacitated by a shortage of funds.
According to the JTA, the security improvements required include the erecting of perimeter fences, hiring of trained security guards in all schools, improved linkages between police and schools, increased police patrols for some schools, and an expansion of the Safe Schools Programme.
MONEY NOT AVAILABLE
The teachers' union was responding to Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson's claim this week that the Government could not address the issue of security at this time as there was not enough money available.
Mrs. Henry-Wilson was responding to the JTA's call on Tuesday for increased school security after two staff members were attacked and injured at Salem Primary and Junior High School in Westmoreland.
Yesterday the JTA reiterated its commitment to work with all stakeholders to achieve a world-class education system. The association argued however that if Jamaica is to achieve the millennium goals as it relates to quality education for all, then security of schools has to be given priority.
