A sorry saga

Minister of Education Anthony Garcia has launched an investigation into the incident at the Ste Madeleine Secondary School which we trust will be as prompt as it is thorough. Many fingers are being pointed in many directions to seek to attribute blame, which initial indications suggest is plentiful enough to share around.

While the Minister in the Ministry of Education, Dr Lovell Francis, has correctly observed that pupils are the privileged beneficiaries of taxpayer-funded education and while he is right to chide their misbehaviour on the fateful day, we also see their misconduct as likely reflecting their anxieties at the conflict playing out in front of their youthful eyes between adults who on all sides should really have known better.

The pupils’ minds were probably akin to those of children who witness a row between their mother and father, where a stable and nurturing environment is replaced by a conflict that provokes the turmoil of torn loyalties within the child.

From either a legal or medical/ psychological standpoint, a child is not yet deemed to have the full capacity of adult responsibility, however disagreeable their actions may be in our sight.

Anecdote suggests that perhaps most incidents of pupil misconduct occur when there is a lack of supervision by teachers, and we would further suggest that the mere fact of pupils witnessing conflict between adults would serve to rile up the pupils and lead to their unsettled behaviour.

TTUTA, which supported the teachers’ protest against the administration, complained that the conflict is long-standing and that the ministry and the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) had failed to step in to resolve it.

The union published a list of alleged grievances in a paid press advert, earning a pre-action protocol letter in reply, after which ten teachers plus union officials held their protest, with its unfortunate eventual turn of events.

Garcia has vowed to consult lawyers to see if the action was in fact contrary to the Education Act and had brought the school system into disrepute. TTUTA president Lynsley Doodhai hit back to say that Garcia, himself a former TTUTA leader, should know that teachers had the legal right to picket.

Meanwhile, Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh sought to lay blame at the feet of Garcia, alleging months of unease including sporadic incidents of violence at the school, even as TTUTA in its advertisement claimed to have tried to get the ministry and the TSC over the past five years — a portion of that time when Gopeesingh himself was minister — alleging “vacillation and inaction.” TTUTA’s grievances with the school include an alleged failure to motivate, slipping pupil performance, questionable expenditure (such as on a gym and tennis court and a costly CCTV system), a blatant disregard of ILO and IRA practices, and denigration of staff.

Among its demands, TTUTA urged a proper, independent investigation, to let the ministry and TSC resolve the issues in the shortest time.

We reserve comment on the specific grievances as we would not wish to pre-empt the probe launched by Garcia. However, we too again urge the investigation be prompt, fair and thorough.

We hope the probe can also suggest better ways of conflict resolution in our educational system, to avert any repeat of last Monday’s sorry saga.