Hartley Neita

You will remember, I am sure, when the beginning of the school year was marked by hundreds of parents converging on the Ministry of Education demanding that their children be placed in the schools of their choice. That problem is not taking place anymore. Thank heavens.

In fact, the agony once associated with the opening of the new school year has now been limited to complaints of inadequate furniture, lack of space, repairs to classrooms that have not been completed, and toilet facilities that have not been repaired. Even then, these problems have been getting fewer and fewer.

Playing politics, of course, had to rear its ugly head this year. There is the current Jamaica Labour Party advertisement promising the world and his wife, if and when they become the Government, and to hear Andrew Holness assuring us that we do not have to worry.

"You have my word," he promises. But on what basis are we to accept his word? What promises has he made in the past and kept, and which enables us to accept his new promise? Please Mr. Holness, you are a young man with a possible bright political future. Do not smear it now with promises you may not be able to keep. You have my word! Poppycock!

The other piece of vulgar politics was by a councillor who deliberately misled a television crew by showing them abandoned toilet facilities at a school in St. Mary and claiming that these were what the children would have to use in this new school year. And when it was discovered that new facilities had been built at the school his comment when asked why he had misrepresented the facts was that "me is a politician". I hope I did not hear this comment, and if I am misrepresenting him, I apologise a thousand times. If I am right, however, I expect his leader to reprimand him.

Incidentally, I asked a number of principals of prep and primary schools what were the major items of expenditure at their schools. High on the list was the purchase of toilet paper. And what was the major problem they had to attend to daily? Getting a plumber to repair the toilet facilities.

Ppolitical games

Putting the political games aside, the impression is that generally the new school year has had few glitches. My helper and former helper began buying schoolbooks and uniforms six weeks ago. On the other hand, my jack-of-all-trades gardener, mason, carpenter, electrician and painter - discovered on Monday that he could not find his child's birth certificate. He joined long lines, every day since, trying to get it and up to yesterday was without luck.

Watching news reports on television and reading news items in the press this week, I was surprised to hear a principal saying she returned to school on Monday, only to find that repairs being done were not completed. I had to ask myself where she was during the holidays. Any principal worth his or her salt would have been visiting his/her school at least once each week to monitor the progress of work and if it was behind schedule, raising hell and high water with the Member of Parliament, education officer and chairman of the school board.

The preschool year activities also saw a more co-ordinated approach by ministries and departments, and most of all by parent-teacher associations. In fact, I am of the impression that where there are active PTAs, problems are much less.

The police have also decided on a more pro-active approach to the behaviour of children. Superintendent Derrick Knight of Clarendon is to be congratulated on the programme he and his men will be pursuing to curb the misbehaviour of school children in the parish. It was a shock to hear him say that schoolgirls give bus drivers pornographic music to play while on their way to and from school. That will be a no-no this term, he says. And children who are seen in gambling dens and places of ill repute will be taken to the police station, and their parents and teachers sent for by the police.

Congratulations, also, to the Ministry of Water for activating a programme to truck water to schools in drought-stricken sections of the Corporate Area. And a thousand claps to the headmaster of the school who had his children line-up for an inspection of the belt buckles they were wearing (some with vulgar emblems), and the length of the skirts worn by the girls. That he decided to send the girls home and would not back down from his decision is commendable. It reminded me of my father and his staff of Sis Green, Ivy Hamilton, Zada Webley and Icis Clarke, having us line up on Monday mornings and inspecting our fingernails to see if they were dirty or too long.