Guards for all primary schools by June

IN THE NEXT two months, all primary schools in the country will be secured with guards, and the Education Ministry will embark on the installation of surveillance cameras at the schools. This was revealed yesterday after a meeting between the Primary Schools Principals’ Association and Education Minister Hazel Manning, at the ministry’s St Clair office. Assistant Secretary of the Association, Trevor Oliver, told reporters that 392 of the 488 primary schools in the country have already been secured. He said the minister assured that the remaining 96 schools will be “secured in the next two months.”

Oliver said the ministry has also agreed to its request to modernise the security systems at schools. He said while the policy was not to have armed guards at schools, guards should be equipped with communication devices to enable them to contact armed personnel if it was needed. He said the “only thing to support guards is prayer when they work the graveyard shift from 6 pm to 6 am.” Oliver revealed that the ministry was considering the installation of surveillance cameras at schools to support the services of the guards. The ministry has also set up a $35,000 annual fund, from which primary school principals can access money for minor repairs and for recurrent expenditure. Manning told the association that the fund was approved by Cabinet, but the distribution system had to be worked out before it becomes operational.

The ministry also gave the assurance that it would accelerate the repair and refurbishment of primary schools, and was advised by the association of the importance of “preventative maintenance or it will make no sense to have new schools which are not maintained.” Primary schools will also benefit from more computers in their schools with an information technology (IT) specialist to assist, since education was not just about “chalk and talk.” As for the unexplained absenteeism of some teachers from schools, Oliver said the “ministry had to do what has to be done.” He said “unpunctual and absent teachers cannot be tolerated.”

He added that once there “are complaints from principals and the statistics show they have been absent, the onus is on the ministry of education to act.” He said he had no problems with people making demands on teachers, within reason. Oliver also announced that the ministry had agreed to work with the association to fight illiteracy. He said a programme entitled “Reading, the epicenter of all learning” will be launched in all schools to “raise the level of functional literacy.” Without giving statistics about the current illiteracy rate in primary schools, Oliver said “we consider it imperative to make an intervention at this juncture.” He said “teaching children to read rather than having them pick-up reading will be encouraged.” The association is hoping to report on the success of the campaign by December.