Sorry, but I will not talk about politics or the economy today. I am not sure that the issues have changed in any way to warrant further comment.
The unions are still complaining, the Government is still not listening and the population is still waiting. While, the state of the current economy is extremely important there are a number of other social issues which are emerging and urgently need attention.
We need to be careful that we do not acquire tunnel vision which makes us lose sight of the fact this society and how it functions is based on an interconnection of economic and social factors. I firmly believe that growth and development is not just the result of capital formation but is also contingent upon the extent to which we have a good measure of social stability.
In this context, I want to talk about the increasing violence and bullying in our schools. It has become quite rampant throughout the school system from primary to secondary level. More alarming for me is the contemplation that this violence and bullying is symptomatic of our households and the wider society.
Knee-jerk response
As usual we continue to have a knee-jerk response to individual incidents which are highlighted in the media. I am unsure if we are systematically grappling with the scale of the problem. I do not know that we fully appreciate the emotional damage that is done to victims and more importantly I do not know that
we fully grasp what the acts are saying about the personalities and emotional state of the perpetrators.
We were all alarmed by the story of the person who walked up and shot a man in his head. The question we were all asking was; what sort of person can do that, walk up to another and shoot them in the head. How about if we ask another question, what sort of 14- and 15-year-old puts a rope around another student’s neck or beats them senseless? What sort of students stand around laughing while it happens? The violent killers and murderers do not just emerge from never-never land or out of space. We are actually rearing them in our households and schools.
I actually believe that these instances of violence and bullying are severely under-reported in the school system. It is also a myth that it only happens in newer secondary schools or that it only happens to students from poor families or students who look weak. The issue is more nuanced than this. We only hear about these cases because some parents are at their wits end because no one is listening and they feel they have no recourse.
While I appreciate the frustration with which the Minister of Education Ronald Jones spoke about the issue when he called for principals to summon the police and have the perpetrators locked up, this is a reactive response to an issue which requires a more systematic and integrated approach.
There will be students and parents who for whatever reason will not report the incidences and there will be schools who will not call in the police, least their good name be sullied. What happens then? Just because we do not see it does not mean it is not happening.
The response has to be more than lock them up. This addresses the perpetrators but what about the victims? Who rebuilds their self-system? Who addresses their fears and ensure that they grow well-adjusted and do not once again become victims in their workplaces and families.
This re-emphasises the need for a strong family court which would investigate what is happening at the household level and if necessary mete out equal punishment to parents.
I believe firmly that the parents of perpetrators should also be held accountable. I am not moved by the argument that parents do not know what their children are up to and who they are becoming. It’s your business to know and once you know it’s your business to deal with it. Ignorance in this situation is no excuse.
Sanctions and incentives
Additionally, outside of training and the development of internal protocols to address the issue, there has to be sanctions and incentives for schools to properly deal with the issue. If we leave it up solely to the discretion of principals to address the issue there will be too many intervening variables that can come to play which might influence how they respond. The Ministry of Education has to be able to identify some schools publicly for either how well they are, or are not, addressing the issue. If we are serious about this, there has to be some measure of accountability.
Unfortunately, individual bubbles have not been invented for us to put our children in so that they become immune to what is happening around them.
We all have to address this issue on a number of different levels. If we do not handle this issue holistically in our schools we will continue to reap the results of the men and women they will grow to become.
•Shantal Munro-Knight is a development specialist and executive coordinator at the Caribbean Policy Development Centre.