Government is taking a no-tolerance stance to violence in the island’s schools.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley made the declaration Saturday after a meeting of stakeholders in the education sector.
Present were three representatives of each of the following teachers’ unions and principals’ associations: Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union, Barbados Union of Teachers, Barbados Association of Principals of Secondary Schools, and the Association of Public Primary School Principals.
Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw, other ministry officials, teachers and stakeholders in the youth affairs and social services, police commissioner Tyrone Griffith and Barbados Defence Force chief of staff Colonel Glyne Grannum were also in attendance at the meeting which was held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC)
“There can be no tolerance in this country for any child to believe that they are in a position to threaten or attack any teacher or their parents or any adult in this country. If we allow this to happen we will be surrendering our country to lawlessness and to young people who will not come to appreciate that their behavior is unacceptable in every form,” said the Prime Minister.
The meeting was in response to the scourge of violence in the school system. Prime Minister Mottley described the violence in society as “a public health condition” that needs to be immediately addressed.
“We have a duty as a nation to condition violence out of the next generation,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
Mottley outlined a slew of initiatives that will be implemented to address the violence in schools. She announced that Government will be creating a residential facility similar to the Edmund Nicholls Centre which caters to troubled children. Within the next two weeks, the Government will be forming a group or committee that will assist in stabilizing and managing of at-risk children.
Mottley also declared that a legislative framework was in the works whereby the chief education officer, in the absence of the parent can consent to intervention for a student. This consent will be given following discussions with the student’s principal, social workers, and psychologists.
The Prime Minister stated that less than 200 students were guilty of acts of violence or deviant behavior in schools. She argued that the initiatives proposed by the Ministry of Education sought to prevent troubled students “from going to Dodds or the Government Industrial School”.
Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Sanita Bradshaw revealed that an additional guidance counselor will be assigned to the schools deemed at risk. She indicated that the safety officers assigned to the terminals and school routes were expected to work with guidance counselors in identifying students that needed attention.
Bradshaw also announced that social workers will be entering into the primary institutions for the first time to address issues of violence and deviance from an early age.
“Nobody becomes deviant at the age of 16, the patterns have shown that the signs are there often at the primary school level, sometimes even manifesting at the nursery school level and it is really a situation that we have to start and deal with this issues at the root cause,” said the Minister of Education.
Bradshaw went on to beseech parents be more involved in the lives of their children. She called on parents to actively participate in the parent-teacher associations and promised that the Minister of Education will assist parents where intervention is needed.
“It is high time that we don’t only pay attention when the children have gone into secondary school or when it is around the exam or third form year where they go on to specialize . . . it is now time for parents to pay attention to their charges on a regular basis.”
(KK)
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Why should Santia resign?..why wunna REJECTS din tell DENIS LOWE to resign?
Santia moves around of her own free will....Denis Lowe had to be HELPED AROUND.
Johnny Crow: Once again I must agree with you. Santia is the best minister that is in Mia's cabinet, but unfortunately, she is not well. I would also advise her to resign (mainly, so that she can concentrate solely on her possible recovery).
Then many of these ministers make some silly village comments (like them eating at their back door) witch- (wallah) comes back to bite them in the ass, while the children take full advantage of the situation.
@Roger - U can fib all you want but u cannot fool me not one bit. Until u understand the rudiments and what went into the making of both the black man and woman into nothing but CLONES, drones, zombies, and PARROTS u will never understand y this people are this way. U can blame parents all you want but a person/people cannot give what they do not have or what was not passed on to them. The Chinese, Arabian, Asian, Japanese, etc ALL have a culture of THEIR OWN. The only people with IMPORTED LAWLE$$ culture is so called black people and this is the CRUX of our ENTIRE plight as a COLLECTIVE people. Until the root of this tree is replanted u people will continue on your spiral.
@Belfast - Exactly and well done.And I notice u threw "experience and training" up in there.
We got primary school children bullying each other and telling each other "u real black". Krist, in 2019 our school children still do not know the purpose or effectiveness of melanin.
@Johnny C - Agree with you on Santia resigning. And we need a person with a militant no nonsense Sebi type up in that position.
I agree with you JC, Santia should resign from her positions, this is politics which is serious business in these difficult times.
Santia, you CANNOT run this Ministry from your hospital bed in Miami, nor can you fulfill your constituency needs. Time to resign from the constituency of St.Michael South East seat Santia, you father was not elected, you were. Do the correct thing. It's been a year almost already.
JENNIFER
@Roger – In your line of work, have u ever felt less than>>>> rather than more than around non-“black” co-workers. I bet your answer will be yes. Now why do u think that is? And more importantly what do u do about it?
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If you feel inferior in such situations, then you are inferior. I've worked alongside many Europeans. Often times not only was I in the minority,I was that minority. Because of my training and experience and application, I felt superior to many of them, and this was backed up by my superiors.
Min.Bradshaw,you are a blessing...committed and certainly intend to make a difference in lives of our children. God bless you dear!!!!!
The school children has taken over the schools the buses the bus terminals and when they finish school they are worst
about time something was done about the school children. that zr culture all plays a great role in all this mess we are seeing with the kids to.them need some serious dealing with too. if its one this i can see is that the prime minister and the minister of education wants the best for children to have a proper education so the can be productive citizens in this country. a zero tolerance is the only way.