Plea for help

Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) president Rudy Lovell says there is a strong possibility the level of violence being seen among school children could be linked to a lack of soft skills due to them being restricted to online classes at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And he is calling for more to be done to help students develop their social skills.

Lovell told Barbados TODAY some children did not have the conflict resolution and communication skills needed to navigate their school journey and did not know how to properly interact with others.

“Some serious thought has to go into the post-COVID-19 situation regarding the children’s lack of social skills or what they have not been able to develop over the last three years. Greater focus needs to be placed on that and enhancing what they are lacking at this time,” he said.

Lovell’s comments follow a stabbing incident at the Parkinson Memorial Secondary School last Friday where two 16-year-old male students were involved in an altercation which resulted in one of them nursing wounds to his left arm, left side and back. He was treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The school was closed immediately following the early morning incident and remained closed on Monday. It is expected to reopen on Tuesday.

Last week a number of videos circulating on social media showed various students involved in verbal and physical confrontations.

Lovell said that teachers met with officials from the Ministry of Education and counsellors to express their concerns.

He said the teaching staff was still in shock and would need time to resolve the current issues.

The BUT president also said that students should get the opportunity to say how they felt about the situation and state how it would impact their learning process.

He noted that the union was also concerned about another development in public schools. Lovell said some students were not prepared for classes, showing up without exercise books, pens, pencils and other stationery.

The union boss said they were also not going to school in the frame of mind to be in a classroom environment. Lovell stressed that parents should ensure students walk with the necessary tools for class and reinforce the importance of learning.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb