“The acts … highlighted have widened to include violations of pornography laws as well as physical harms and threats to the person.” – Hon. Ronald Jones
During the week just ended, the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation and key stakeholders in education were engaged in major discourse and dialogue on critical issues that, according the Minister, “cannot be allowed to hold us as leaders and managers to ransom”. As I prepare to take my exit after 41 enjoyable years in the system, I could not help but reflect on the range of issues on which we focused during two conferences.
I do not have a mandate to report on the proceedings but I wish to share some thoughts on the issues most of which are not new. The media would have already covered these events and as such I am not bringing any tales out of school.
The first conference was held under the theme Facing Tomorrow with Today’s Students.
Mr Jones, like all of us, is concerned about how students conduct themselves on and off the school premises.
He insists that we cannot turn a blind eye to the reality of the changing attitudes of some of our children as the transformative agenda is pursued. He highlighted the fact that teachers have been the targets of violent acts within the school and stressed the need for educators and the delivery of the educational product to be protected from the agents of deviance.
Of particular interest to me as an educational administrator, was the attempt by Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Mr Erwin Boyce to answer the question as to where the functions of the principal end and where those of the police begin. This session highlighted the cautious approach on the part of Royal Barbados Police Force in dealing with deviance about which Mr Jones is concerned. While many of the deviant acts are acts of crime in our laws, the emerging philosophy of the force is driven by rehabilitation rather than punishment.
As such disruptive, aggressive and criminal behaviour that puts the safety of persons, including students, at risk often goes unpunished. While I am not advocating the incarceration should be our first point of reference, unless we send a strong message to those who disrupt our schools with impunity, the situation will get worse and our massive educational investment will be undermined.
Concurrent sessions also examined issues including what we are doing right and wrong; redefining the role of the PTA in maintaining balance, sexually active teens, corporal punishment and disciplinary code, the role of alternate institutions, cyber deviance, the rights of students and major behavioural issues confronting school management.
Conferences the world over never provide enough time for full engagement of issues and there is always the question as to whether their stated objectives are achieved but overall it was a commendable effort.
The second event was not dubbed a conference per se but a symposium which focused on the vexed question of sexual abuse. Under the theme Let’s talk … Student Sexual Abuse, participants heard the sordid details of what we already know about this scourge that is visited both by juveniles and adults on helpless victims. Attending the first day, I left with a sense of despondency after listening to the professionals, child care administrators, lawyers and the police.
While UNICEF should be thanked for their funding, those agencies charged with the responsibility of protecting our children seem hamstrung, somewhat helpless in the face of legal loopholes, an emerging culture of silence and the willingness of some parents to sacrifice their children’s interest on the altar of the dollar bill. I am not convinced that the symposium did anything to prick the consciences of the perpetrators who Mrs Karen Best insists should be brought to justice in order to protect the helpless victims who are often too “limp” to fight for themselves.
While the move to have a mandatory reporting protocol is welcomed, the experience in other jurisdictions suggest that it is difficult to mandate attitudinal changes in an environment in which reporting and informing constitute snitching and is likely to see individuals being forced into a corner of denial of knowing or seeing. It is so sad how very challenged we are in our ability to protect “our brood”. God help us! Both events were well intentioned but the truth of their success will reside in the nature and extent of the action taken after all the talk and the tasty food which we all enjoyed.
• Matthew Farley is a secondary school principal, chairman of the National Forum on Education and a social commentator. Email principal208@gmail.com
