Last week we reported the case of a student who was killed at lessons. As we mentioned in our report, this is the second fatal lessons stabbing for the year; in February a seventeen-year-old was killed, with his alleged attacker also being subsequently charged.
Up until recently ‘extra lessons’ have enjoyed some immunity to the violence which has been evident in schools, partly because the children are not together for the whole day and don’t spend much time in each other’s company outside the classroom; and partly because in a general sense, parents who go to the trouble (and expense) of sending their children to after-school lessons are likely to be interested in their education and therefore more inclined to monitor them. Be that as it may, these incidents must nevertheless be seen as an extension of the violence which goes on in schools, which in turn is a reflection of the violence in the society as a whole.
Anyone who believes that the state school system especially, with its myriad problems can be completely insulated from what goes on in the wider society is living in cloud cuckoo land. The situation will be better in the top private schools at least, because they are dealing with a much smaller selection of pupils whose parents are paying fees for them, in addition to which one assumes they have something close to a full complement of reasonably qualified teaching staff so the children are taught and/or supervised most of the time. In addition, they will enjoy a certain amount of prestige, and an institution with a good esprit de corps is always at an advantage in disciplinary terms. Finally, of course, they have the power of the ultimate sanction in their hands – expulsion. They do not have to go to the Ministry of Education (or a Board of Governors) to get a disciplinary decision ratified, and face the risk of it being overturned; a warning from a private institution to a student – and by extension, his parents – really will have some meaning.
The bottom line is that poor discipline allows for an atmosphere where a total breakdown of the norms, such as violence, becomes more likely.
The public school system, in contrast to the private one, cannot pick and choose its students; it is understaffed in terms of qualified, trained teachers, and as observed above, teachers are not the ultimate authority in the classroom. It should be added, however, this that has not stopped certain members of the profession from overstepping the boundaries of their powers every now and then, and brutalizing children in defiance of the education regulations and in defiance of the law; it has also not prevented a much larger number from failing to teach Grade Six Assessment students, in particular, in the classroom, to try and force them to attend their after-school lessons for which the parents pay.
As was pointed out in an SN editorial two weeks ago, teachers are no longer accorded the respect in the society they used to be, and that makes it harder for them to get their authority acknowledged, not just by children, but by their parents too. And while many members of the profession are deserving of such respect, as indicated above, there are some who bring it into disrepute by their behaviour. Such cases encourage certain parents to see the school as just an extension of the outside world, and treat its employees accordingly. In addition, it is difficult for young, inexperienced teachers who are not confident about their material, to win the respect of their students, and as such, to exert consistent authority over them.
In the old days, many teachers were not stunningly well paid but they had status, and by extension disciplinary control which was backed by parents; now they have neither good pay nor status, while support from most parents is absent. In this materialistic universe in which we now live, attracting better qualified recruits into the profession, and preventing the departure of those who are still there, will depend in the first instance on salaries which are at least somewhat competitive with those that are paid in the islands. As things stand, the school systems in several of our small sister Caribbean territories depend at least partly on Guyanese educators.
Even supposing, however, experienced teachers who had a grasp of their subject matter were attracted back into the local schools with the lure of better salaries, they will not stay if they have to work within a lax disciplinary framework; quite apart from anything else, students simply cannot learn in such an environment. Furthermore, apart from being stressful, it might also be hazardous for the teacher in some school contexts. Ultimately, the Ministry of Education has to give staff back their authority to enforce discipline; it cannot be done by remote control. There is a caveat, however; the ministry also has to ensure that head teachers and their staff are familiar with the rules, and punctiliously operate within them. There should only be intervention in a case where the rules have obviously been breached by a staff member. In addition, the ministry has to have special arrangements for particularly disruptive students, who have been removed from the classroom context because they are preventing their peers from learning.
While an orderly system, a disciplinary framework and the consistent enforcement of clear rules in schools, will at least militate against (although not entirely stop) school violence, it has to be acknowledged it will not necessarily prevent certain kinds of unwelcome intrusion. The appearance of possible gangs in some schools has been reported – there was a case in the Linden area which came to public attention some years ago – and with gangs come weaponry and violence. This is a situation which many urban areas in other parts of the world are familiar with, and should it take hold here, the ministry will find it very difficult to bring it under control. Certainly if there is any evidence of weapons such as knives being brought into schools, the problem must be dealt with immediately, and guidance can be had from countries which have experience of these conditions.
The one thing which cannot be allowed to develop, is for schools to become conflict zones, as a direct extension of what goes on in the community outside. Incidents such as the one which happened last week, even though it did not take place within a normal school setting, nevertheless serve as a warning to the authorities about the kind of situations which might become more common in the not-too-distant future.
