Dear Editor,
It is disgusting when as a teacher you have no control over a certain situation as pertained at the Patentia Secondary school.

I was a teacher for very many years and it was always of much concern to encounter out-of-school youths hanging around the school gate during dismissal time. When they are in groups they would exhibit such bravado that no one could penetrate their reasoning.

I can remember several episodes where youths on bicycles would force their attention on the young ladies and in many instances they would end up in near physical clashes with the young men from the school. In some instances they would find themselves in the school premises and even threaten teachers who would ask them to leave.

While the incident at Patentia is very regrettable, it should be a wake-up call for the Ministry of Education to take a holistic look at education in terms of not only the curriculum and school buildings, but also appropriate security of the environment from the likes of gangs that hang around schools.

School areas within certain distances must be quiet zones as well as prohibited areas for loiterers. The police must visit school areas in the afternoons and even stick around for a few minutes and apprehend a few loiterers time and again to send a message to those bent on this type of nuisance.

It is a common belief that the relevant authorities always operate in a reactive manner; they would only try to remedy situations when the worst has happened. We can also cite areas of never-ending complaints such as noise nuisance, squatting on reserves, potholes in roads, late responses from the police following reports of a crime, etc. It is as if they never heard about a stitch in time saves nine.

With so much money expended or budgeted for in education, at least the basic areas of concern could be ad-dressed, i.e, proper and effective security in and around schools. In a number of schools valuable equipment, tools, etc, disappear and all that happens is that a report is asked for by the people at the top. That is the end of the matter in many, if not all of the cases. The Ministry of Education needs to listen and plan from the bottom and not from the top. Many experts can learn from those at the very bottom, from the communities. Outreach programmes to address school problems should be held in every school district with the aim of correcting deficiencies and not for show.

Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)