The Ministry of Education has implemented new security protocols in public schools following a recent rise in shootings.
The new measures require stricter monitoring by security officers. Visitors must present national identification cards and provide a valid reason for entering the school premises.
“We have a priority for looking out for the welfare, wellbeing and safety of our children,” said Minister of Education Kay McConney as she toured the Springer Memorial School, the nation’s only all-girls secondary school on Monday, the first day of the academic year.
She highlighted that schools reflect broader societal issues and stressed the need to ensure external violence does not infiltrate school environments.
“The school system is a microcosm, a little, small representation of what society is like. Unfortunately, what we are seeing happening out there in the wider society does not spell well for what our children are learning. Children will live what they learn. And if they are learning things that ought not to be learnt outside of school, rest assured that when they come into the school they will probably bring it with them,” she said.
Explaining the new protocol, McConney said: “It is important for those who have responsibility for safeguarding the premises of our schools to ensure that they are vigilant and to ensure that persons who are coming to the schools have an appointment. If they don’t have an appointment and they have to be there for whatever legitimate reason, we are asking the public to please bring their ID card. You will find at most schools, the security is going to be more significant. You will have to offer your name, the name of your child and the purpose for which you will be coming; and you will have to show your ID card at the gate.”
The education minister called for public cooperation with the new protocols, emphasising that they are in place for the safety of students.
“This is in the best interest of your child but I think the problem of violence is much wider than the school situation. The principals, deputy principals and school management, we are asking them to be more vigilant and to let discipline be the standard. There should not be any slackness; this is where there is tight management,” she said.
McConney also urged closer collaboration between schools, communities, and law enforcement to maintain security and prevent external threats from entering school grounds.
She said: “Our relationship with the police, our relationship with the communities around us must be tight. It is the responsibility of the principals, the deputy principals and the entire school team to build those relationships with the community and law enforcement to ensure that when those horrible things seek to come from the outside and bring themselves into their schools, that they have the proper protocols, that they have the proper standards and the proper communication and relationship to be able to deal with them immediately and to be able to protect the community. Our ministry is putting security as a priority and we ask all that are involved to please comply, particularly with the new protocols for entering schools.”
While an onslaught of gun violence has so far claimed more than 34 lives this year, children have been caught in the crossfire in two alarming incidents in recent weeks.
On Sunday, a six-year-old girl was shot and injured in 1st Avenue, Lower Carlton, St James, in a fatal gun attack on a man; while on August 22, a 12-year-old girl was injured outside her Silver Hill, Christ Church home when two masked men opened fire in the area and she and other children were playing.
The ministry’s new security protocols come in the wake of criticism from the Association of Public Primary School Principals, which recently chastised the ministry for failing to adequately address security concerns.
President Olwin Walker had highlighted multiple security breaches at St Margaret’s Primary School, where unauthorised individuals accessed the premises, with one even blocking the principal’s door. Similar incidents were reported at St Matthew’s, St Stephen’s, and West Terrace primary schools, despite the presence of security personnel.
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
