IN LIGHT of the wounding of two teachers in deep rural schools at opposite ends of the island, the Jamaica Teachers Association has renewed calls for the removal of violent and uncontrollable students from the mainstream school system and their placement in special facilities for rehabilitation and the continuation of their education.
Classes were briefly suspended at the St. Thomas Technical High School last Tuesday and at the Knockalva Technical High School in Hanover the following day as teachers protested against the wounding of two colleagues by students in those institutions.
Our own Editors' Forum with students from across the island has again highlighted the growing problem of student-on-student and student-on-teacher violence in our beleaguered school system. Clearly, the matter stands in need of urgent action for solution. Education transformation goals will fail to be realised if schools cannot be made safe learning environments for serious students.
But even as we seek to grapple with our problem of violence in schools, the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands has approached Northern Caribbean University for help in rehabilitating its increasing number of juvenile delinquents.
What the Turks and Caicos Government is doing is seeking the expertise developed by a Jamaican university in handling problems of juvenile delinquency. The church-owned-and-operated NCU has been running a Community Counselling and Restorative Centre. Turks and Caicos wants to establish a counselling and restoration village for housing and rehabilitating delinquent juveniles, providing shelter for abandoned children, and counselling and skills training services. NCU is expected to provide leadership in advising, maintaining, and providing counsellors and other skilled professionals for the multi-purpose centre.
Led by the Prime Minister of Jamaica, there is renewed interest in the role of the Church in dealing with social issues. And no less a person than the eminent retired UWI sociologist, Professor Barry Chevannes, in a public lecture, has described violence as a spiritual matter which must be acknowledged as such as a basis for dealing with the problem. A faith-based institution, backed by hard research data and practical experience, may be in a particularly advantageous position to guide reformation of delinquent human behaviour.
The Turks and Caicos problem is tiny compared to ours. Even with a far smaller population, in the last six months only about 20 youngsters have appeared before the courts on criminal charges. But an official of the Department of Social Development says the British dependency is moving swiftly to nip the problem in the bud.
Our bud has long blossomed beyond the point of nipping, but we need to draw on all available resources to reverse the growing trend of juvenile delinquency, and of serious deviant behaviour in the schools. We share the view of the JTA that seriously disruptive, uncontrollable students, and certainly those guilty of criminal acts, should be pulled out of the mainstream school system so that the business of teaching and learning can proceed with minimal disruption.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
