How to assist children crying for help

THE EDITOR: I promised myself, never to write to the newspapers again since my first attempt, almost 20 years ago, resulted in ridicule in almost all quarters. My comment then was on the gradual degeneration of carnival and where it may lead, particularly in the context of the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).  However, I am forced to join the debate on school violence and the myriads of attempts being made to stop it. Yes, we know that the problem started to manifest with the introduction of the shift-system because no preparation was put in place for social fallouts. Instead, a Career Guidance Programme was introduced. Today, many enlightened years later, we are making even bigger mistakes. First of all, the entire nation is led to believe that we have Guidance Counsellors in Schools when in fact they are Career Officers...Big difference. They have lost their way and started to believe...not behave.....that they are indeed clinically oriented.

Even our Minister of Education, whom I believe means well, is being misguided. She believes that the Guidance Officers can study, diagnose, treat and plan psycho-social issues to the extent that they have been given the noble responsibility to supervise and guide the new programme of School Social Work. Madam Minister, and whoever the Chief Technical Officer is, this is a big mistake and will lead to even bigger problems later on with human resource boundaries and casework process. Career Guidance Officers/Counsellors cannot supervise professional Social Workers. If the Guidance Officers had focussed on their roles and responsibilities of career-path specialists, they would have made the difference when 14+ students are forced into streams for which they are either not prepared or have no interest. That is one of the causes of the failure rates and school dropouts. They would have analysed trends in skills availability and work — force projections. This would put them on top of emerging careers and skills requirement and redound to the benefit of the students.

They would have learnt long ago that the Common Entrance Class/SEA was a good target for orientation, while they await exam results. They would have tackled things such as teenage sexuality, coping with secondary school culture, drugs etc by planning awareness programmes for same and inviting the right personnel to assist. In my respectful view, these career specialists should be very integral in advancing the changes on the education system and advising on curriculum....Not TTUTA. TTUTA has to see about teachers, not only their salaries and remuneration, but to ensure that they teach and mane learning interesting. They are supposed to be intelligent enough to use alternative, non-threatening means of stimulating learning and make the subject area relevant and interesting. To whomsoever is advising the Minister on school violence, are we building school “prisons” to keep the bullies in or keep them out? What happens when they leave the prisons on afternoons, wouldn’t they face the grim reality of lawlessness, the recklessness on the roads, the drugs and gangs, the general violence among adults? The “control” mechanisms on the school compound is likely to create more “Children Who Hate.” While I tend to agree with most of the measures published to date, may I suggest further, that only the risky areas of the school compound should be brick fenced.

The rest can have wire fencing so that there is two-way observation. Also, instead of School Wardens, we should have Litter Wardens, Traffic Wardens, Environment and Park Wardens. The effectiveness, if properly managed, would be seen within a year. We should work closely with the Ministry of Social Development and the Attorney General’s Department to introduce Guardian ad Litem. We should also re- introduce Truant Officers. We should re-visit the School Social Work Programme and ensure that we have School Social Workers who are professional with years of proven supervised clinical experience. They should also possess post-graduate qualification evidenced by a Degree or Diploma in School Social Work or extensive experience. We should also introduce drug testing of every child, from Forms I - V at least once per year. These measures would reduce the propensity for crime and anger and allow the system to put measures in place to help those who are crying out for help.

R GUY
Port-of-Spain