Henry-Wilson

Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

The Ministry of Education and Youth is to consolidate the plethora of behaviour modification programmes which exist, to see how best it can address the rampant increase of violence in schools.

This decision was made on Monday as various stakeholders held a three-and-a-half-hour meeting to examine the recent upsurge of violence in the island's schools.

Some of these behaviour modification programmes which currently exist include the Safe Schools Programme, where police personnel called School Resource Officers are placed in schools, and Peace and Love in Society, among others.

"We are doing an inventory of all the programmes that exist and see how they fit in with our intervention," Maxine Henry-Wilson, Minister of Education and Youth, told The Gleaner.

Levels of concerns

She added: "There are different levels of concerns in terms of schools. Issues relating to behaviour, and once you allow it to get out, it develops in what we are seeing now."

Last Wednesday, the police were called in at the Kingston Technical High School after violence broke out at the institution, leaving at least five male students nursing stab wounds.

Four male students were remanded last Friday and are to return to court on April 17. Prior to that incident, a teacher was sexually harassed by three male students while another male teacher was hit with a bottle after he confiscated papers from students who were cheating during a mock examination.

Also last Wednesday, some students were involved in a fight at the Norman Manley High School, Kingston. The police were called in to quell the upheaval.

A 17-year-old student of the Aabuthnott Gallimore High School was stabbed to death by his classmate, over a week ago, resulting in the subsequent charging of a male student with the murder.

Mrs. Henry-Wilson noted that a national code of conduct was needed for teachers, pointing out that absenteeism, among other things, results in some children misbehaving.

A facility which will resocialise students who are at risk is also to be set up.

"The meeting was good as it pulled persons from all over the system," said Hopeton Henry, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association.

"My hope is that it will not become a talk shop and we will see some fireworks," he said.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com