Reform curriculum curb school violence

Delivering recommendations to deal with school violence contained in the First Report of the Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration, which was laid in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Mahabir said many of the psychologists, social workers and guidance officers who testified before the committee agreed that one of the causes of the violence in the schools is that many students cannot cope with the mainstream academic curriculum “and the skills of the children transcend the normal narrowly defined academic skills of reading, writing, mathematics and language skills.” According to Mahabir, “There are skills in creativity; there are skills in drama; there are skills in art; there are skills in woodworking; there are skills in building; there are skills in sporting activities; there are skills in other areas - singing and cooking. We need to identify that there are students in the school system who are not able to exploit their innate talents - the talents in the designing of garments, for example, it is not something we emphasise in the school system and, by excluding a large amount of students from the areas in which they have innate ability,we are creating a situation where frustration among the student bodies in their inability to handle the mainstream curriculum can result in a level of frustration which can be manifested in the type of deviant activity that we are seeing.”

The committee is recommending a drastic increase in the number of guidance officers in schools. Mahabir said the current ratio of one guidance officer, social worker or counselling staff to 250 students is inadequate and there is a clear need for much more guidance officers and social workers to address the problems in both the primary and secondary schools. He said providing the additional staff will cost a lot of money but the money must be found if the problem is to be solved. He said the committee had heard from a wide cross section of interest groups including primary and secondary school students themselves who had testified, which he said was a first for the local Parliament and maybe even within the Commonwealth.

He said there needs to be a different type of administration in the school system including the use of peer counsellors for conflict resolution. He said that by peer counsellors the committee meant someone in the school system such as a prefect or a respected member of the school community who could command respect, act as an arbiter in disputes and defuse some of them. He called for effective Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) in all schools, adding that the committee was not convinced that the existing PTAs are as vibrant as they should be.

He said the committee is recommending that the Ministry of Education ensure that every primary and secondary school has a PTA so that parental involvement will be on an ongoing basis “and this will provide early warning systems for the problems which are arising.”