Kamla: Hazel misleading nation about school violence

EDUCATION MINISTER Hazel Manning is misleading the population about violence in the nation’s schools and it is mind-boggling why her husband, Prime Minister Patrick Manning, did not move her when he reshuffled the Cabinet earlier this month. This was the charge levelled yesterday against the Minister by her predecessor, Kamla Persad-Bissessar. The former Edu-cation Minister told Newsday that Manning publicly contradicts herself every time she speaks on the issue. She said Manning’s latest bungle was in a newspaper report yesterday, in which the Minister initially said there was violence in less than one percent of the nation’s 620 schools but then said there was violence “across the board.”

“What is the truth? One percent is one percent too many,” she declared. Persad-Bissessar said Manning’s responses to school violence were “knee-jerk reactions” and this was aptly highlighted by plans to deploy police officers at “high risk schools.” She explained that security mechanisms such as guards and fences were important short-term measures and the Government was not being “holistic” in their approach to school violence. The Siparia MP recalled that in 1989, a task force was set up under the NAR government to deal with the problem and the UNC expanded on those proposals through a task force of its own in late 1999. Persad-Bissessar said among the recommendations devised by this task force was a system of heads and deans to deal with academic and non-academic problems in schools. She added that these proposals were approved by the then UNC Cabinet.

Persad-Bissessar also knocked what she described as “high public relations for the Minister” and claimed Howard Chin Lee conducted a similar exercise when he was National Security Minister. The former minister said it was clear from Manning’s actions that she has abandoned the Stra-tegic Intervention Strategies (SIS) developed under the UNC and had chosen instead to focus on “minor practices.” She questioned what happened to the values and health/family life education policies developed under the UNC. Persad-Bissessar declared that the Minster should have resigned and failing that, the Prime Minister should have removed her from her post. She also disclosed that she intends to file a question in Parliament on school violence very soon.