The Guyana Teachers Union yesterday condemned a physical attack on a trainee teacher by a male third form student in the city and called for stringent security measures, including able-bodied security personnel in schools on a 24-hour basis.
President of the GTU Colin Bynoe, at a press briefing on the issue yesterday at the union’s Woolford Avenue headquarters, said, “The time has come where somebody has to draw the line somewhere. It is time for this nonsense to stop. No teacher must go through that trauma again in this country.” He added that perpetrators must face the law.
According to reports, the female trainee teacher, of the New Campbellville Secondary School on Sheriff Street, was repeatedly assaulted by a third form male student. The attack was launched, reports said, after the young man was scolded by teacher, who, according to sources, is very young and petite in stature. The male student became enraged that he was scolded and “plunged on the miss and beat her like an eel,” said a source. The teacher was subsequently taken to the hospital and a formal report was made to the police.
When contacted yesterday, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand informed that she had received a report of the incident via email. At the time, she said she had not yet read its contents and would make these details available later in the day. However efforts to contact her last evening proved futile. Earlier, Manickchand had said that based on her information there were two versions of what took place: one was that the teacher “beat” the child who retaliated and the second was that no provocation prompted the attack.
“When anyone of us, takes charge of a classroom that teacher is the authority and the child must listen. No child must take their eyes and pass the teacher. From our account of the entire incident we did not appreciate what some of the child care and welfare people did,” the GTU president said. “We will share at the right time and the right forum at the time that the incident occurred and what they went in there and forced and voiced upon some children is most disgusting,” he added.
“We sometimes don’t appreciate the way our ministry deals with these matters,” he said, although he did not go into detail. However, he said he would expound on the matter at a later date.
Returning to the security issue, the union head said most of the present guards are “far from able” physically to deter anyone wishing to enter school premises unlawfully. While Bynoe acknowledged that lack of finances was the reason given for security not being on premises 24 hours and noted the employment of very old and sometimes frail security personnel, he said the nation’s educators and students should not be held ransom. He called on the officials responsible to address the issue as violence in schools continues to grow.
