Boot camps for maladjusted students

THE EDITOR: Please allow me to express my views on education and the behaviour at schools. I am sure that many people have realised the horrific crimes being perpetrated by students today.

I believe that these problems were made worse by the introduction of “School for all.” Now we have to separate the good from the bad; those who are willing to learn from those who are not. In my opinion, we must get rid of the half-day school system, ie the Junior Secondary Schools. Why must there be both a Barataria Junior School and a Barataria Secondary Comprehensive School? Two or three more buildings could be added to the compound of both schools, increase the capacity and make it a whole day school. It can be then made one school and renamed Barataria’s High School.

Two Boot Camps could be built, one in the north and one in the south of Trinidad, with educational facilities and dormitories. At these places the teachers will focus on academics while the army will be responsible for enforcing discipline and ensuring security. All children, especially students, who are violently delinquent and disrespectful would be sent to the Boot Camp, with getting weekends and school vacations off being based on academics and discipline. Thank you for your time and I hope that some of my ideas are adequate enough to be implemented into a full-scale improvement of Trinidad and Tobago’s schooling institutions by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Security.

Shamillia Rock
St Joseph