DESHIFTING OF SCHOOLS

A contributory factor to a great deal of the social problems involving the youths of Trinidad and Tobago today will end with the planned deshifting by the Ministry of Education of Junior Secondary Schools and other secondary schools operating on a two-shift basis. Schools in the two-shift system had built in minuses from their introduction some 30 years ago, including the troubling problem of thousands of students remaining unsupervised for several hours each school day.  School children on the afternoon shift were at home alone for several hours when their parents went off to work, and those on the morning shift were unsupervised, again for hours, before their parents returned from work.    
    
And while the more committed may have studied, all too often negative group peer pressure would see scores of schoolchildren, for example, blocking the pavements on Frederick Street in Port-of-Spain or High Street in San Fernando, or liming in malls. This meant that several hours a day were under-utilised, at least profitably, and all too often many of the less responsible engaged in running battles either with students of their schools or students attending "rival" schools. What aggravated the problem over the years was the high degree of criss crossing, with school children from one area being assigned to a school in another area and vice versa. And while in 1974, shortly after the Junior Secondary School system was expanded, the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) operated 91 units in its School Bus Service with special services to Junior Secondary Schools (among other schools) in such areas as Couva, Diego Martin, Mucurapo, Ste Madeleine, today the daily bus availability position of the entire PTSC service is below that of the School Bus Service 30 years ago!
 
Admittedly, the Ministry of Education has contracted maxi taxis to take students, who live some distance from school, to and from school, but the number remains inadequate to the schoolchildren's needs. In turn, many of the schoolchildren, who are assigned to schools several miles from where they live, use the excuse of unavailability of transport, even where this is untrue, to arrive at school late or home late on evenings. In extreme cases, transport is employed as a copout, and instead of the children heading for school and classes, they head instead to the homes of friends. While it is a bitter pill for any community to swallow, nonetheless over the years some of the more irresponsible girls took unfair advantage of the weaknesses of the two-shift system and ignoring the educational opportunities offered them, developed physical relationships either with fellow students or adult predators, and had babies as a result. In addition, they were often re-admitted to school.     
 
From its inception there were too many deficiencies. Indeed, the two-shift secondary school system should have ended either by the late 1970s or, after the slide in the price of crude, then when the country's revenues took an upward turn in the middle 1990s. And together with the lack of positive parenting in scores of homes across Trinidad and Tobago it must share a large part of the responsibility for the waywardness of many of the nation's youths today. Notwithstanding, we salute the Minister of Education, Hazel Manning, for seeking and gaining Cabinet's approval for the allocation of funds to end an unfortunate chapter in the development of the country's education system.