Root cause of school violence

THE EDITOR: School violence did not erupt on us out of the blue. Part of the blame has to be placed on the MTS company. Originally this company was set up when the government embarked on the junior and senior secondary school system. Providing security, cleaning and maintenance services for these large schools was MTS core business; in the early days they were known as Edu Systems. With secure contracts for the schools under their belts, the MTS company embarked on new business, forming the “Can Do” crew cleaning and security services which were expanded to the wider public. Soon ,enough of these giant schools which the company was originally formed to service began to pay the price for this expansion. Cleaning crews were shrunk, kids had to make do with toilets without tissue, maintenance jobs on school equipment began to take longer to execute if at all and critical security staff were trimmed and the officers’ salaries scaled downwards.

Schools which once had twelve guards in the 1980s now had two. This is the crux of the problem mammoth schools with 1700 kids and with only two guards on duty, one at the front gate and another patrolling. This is the root cause of the upsurge in violence. Government should put all MTS services to the schools under the microscope especially during the time of the last regime when the company heiarchy paid themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonuses while leaving the schools to run riot.

MC DONALD JAMES
Couva