When things go wrong don’t go with them. – Elvis Presley
Very recently I was forced to call the Chief Education Officer Mr Laurie King. Ever since the retirement of the former chief Dr Wendy Griffith-Watson, a number of issues have been burning hot in the educational sector.
The acting chief has been around education for a while and “knows his unions”. He must be commended for the ease with which he has been able to step up to the plate to facilitate a virtual seamless transition. Congratulations, sir!
I called my CEO on two points about which I have been peeved. The first relates to what I believe to be driven by the United Nations Education Children’s Fund. In a nutshell a number of schools at the secondary level have been asked to be part of an initiative to make our schools “child-friendly”.
Now give me a break! We have had ministerial Government since 1954. We have moved from the days of “primer” and “seventh standard”. One recalls the days when the priest of the Anglican Church in the community used to choose the persons who could become teachers.
Can’t forget the days when a female teacher who became pregnant out of wedlock would actually lose her job.
I recall my days as a boy at St Jude’s Mixed School as it was called then. I had some of the greatest teachers then. The late Sydney James’ daughter whose warmth and caring attitude was as motherly as any classroom practitioner could be.
If we impose a 21st century view on the culture of the school system of that day, we might conclude that given the approach to discipline then, our schools were not “child- friendly”. I recall the oneness of purpose that was evident between the mandate, mission and practice of the school and the community.
I take serious offence to UNICEF suggesting, however subtly, that in spite of the phenomenal achievements of our educational legacy, that our schools were other than “child-friendly”.
On the issue of the call for the removal of corporal punishment in our schools, I have already told Mr Tom Olsen, who is the regional programme co-ordinator of UNICEF, the he is not in any position to tell us how to run our schools.
Neither, can they tell us how to raise our children.
It seemed as though they had backed off; but now all of a sudden they are trying to achieve the same objective through the back door. When my colleagues at the primary level embraced the notion, it would seem as though they were duped into indicting themselves and the entire system. Now that the focus is on the secondary schools, it must be exposed for what it is.
As I told my CEO, I feel insulted by the initiative that saw a number of secondary schools being chosen for involvement in the programme “to make our schools child-friendly”.
As a child I in primary school, I was a beneficiary of a “child-friendly” regime. As a student at the secondary level, I owe my choice of teaching as a career to the sheer sense of care that characterized my formative years in school. I hope that my colleagues will dismiss the folly that the initiative is.
To do otherwise is to concede that we do not know what we are about.
The second issue came out of a conference convened by the Association of Primary School Principals. It is the practice of parents sending boys into nursery and primary schools with their hair braided. Put differently, the practice of principals allowing boys with plaited hair in our schools.
Ever since I challenged the appropriateness of a former senator with his hair braided attending the ceremony for the opening of Parliament, many in our society have had a “corkscrew” attitude toward the issue of hair. The lyrical master RPB even reminded me that hair is not my speciality.
As I contended then, I maintain that if we start allowing this and accepting that, the question is: where will we stop? I predicted that sooner rather than later female Members of Parliament will soon be demanding their right to “bear their breasts” – even in the august chamber.
Unless primary school principals, with the support of the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, set the standards for our schools rather than pander to the whims and fancy of parents, the next practice that will be weaved and pierced into our school culture is that of boys wearing earrings.
The bottom line is, if there are no boys with braided hair attending our secondary schools, why are my colleagues at the nursery and primary levels allowing it? Here is where I call on Mr Laurie King to put the issue of “braided hair” or “cornrows” in our schools into its right perspective.
We cannot allow a few misguided parents with their own agendas to run our schools.
• Matthew D. Farley is a secondary school principal, chairman of the National Forum On Education, and a social commentator. Email laceyprinci@yahoo.com.
