Garcia outlines plans to deal with indiscipline in schools

In an address to the nation last night, Garcia focused on the incidence of bullying and violence which have been highlighted in the media and on social media.

These include a school girl beaten unconscious by three schoolmates at the Mayaro Secondary School and an 11-yearold boy who was diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) at the Santa Rita RC School in Rio Claro. The boy’s alleged bad behaviour sparked protests by parents of other children attending the school.

Garcia said the schools which are being closely looked at are Mayaro Secondary, Rio Claro East Secondary, Mayaro Government Primary, Santa Rita RC Primary and Carapichaima ASJA.

He claimed the ministry’s plans have worked although the situation continues to worsen.

“The plan for addressing school indiscipline, inclusive of bullying, was a school-based, data-driven approach,” Garcia said. “Each school was mandated to have a discipline committee which consisted of representatives from the administration, guidance officers, social workers, students, heads of department, a dean and school safety officer.” He said reports on school indiscipline, bullying and misconduct were disheartening to most.

“The ministry’s aim is for citizens to recognise the importance of and place value on learning, healthy lifestyles, national pride and a sense of right from wrong.” Garcia said his ministry has implemented several initiatives to deal with indiscipline and violence.

These include schoolbased management and curriculum reform which addressed under-performance in language and maths at the primary and secondary school levels.

The ministry engaged key stakeholders to sensitise them to the plans, objectives and anticipated outcomes of the programmes.

He said the Morvant/Laventille Project, launched in October 2016, was designed specifically for the community to enhance numeracy and literacy in government schools, reverse the current trend of poor mathematics grades and provide remediation solutions for teachers.

Former education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh said there were 23 areas where there were programmes that may have had enormous success and if continued, would have resulted in a significant reduction in school violence.

Gopeesingh said the Students Support Service Division has been depleted and the officers who were social workers have not been paid for the year. He said all teachers should know who the students with discipline problems are, and should be able to give a figure on the statistics.

He said teachers should be trained in identifying students with behavioural tendencies.