Dear Editor,
Another case of school related violence has been made public because of ‘viral videos’. The Ministry of Education has given its usual response to treat the case urgently. This incident comes days after the families of Jamal Reid and Mark Harrypaul had to protest to get justice – justice which the Ministry of Education alone cannot deliver. 2024 Guyana and as oil flows, the violence continues. Each case of violence treated individually, investigation, offers of counseling, transfer of students, punishment, and then things continue until another video surfaces and Ministry does a public statement. No sense of what happens when there are no videos and no other public statements about how the Ministry of Education is dealing with violence which is not videoed.
The Ministry of Education continues to believe that teachers can beat children if the parents say it is okay. A policy which indicates that the policy makers have not healed from Guyana’s proud culture of beating children to make sure everybody turns out to be good adults and so on. A healing approach would be to have appropriate community interventions to heal parents and teachers who think it is okay to beat children as a form of good upbringing. The Ministry, it seems, is terrified of a reality where violence does not have to be used as part of discipline.
How then can the Ministry of Education investigate or implement any policy on violence in and around schools? And why does the Ministry of Education appear to be working alone, with casual references to head-table meetings with parents when more than one video surfaces? No teacher or Headteacher or parent alone can address the violence which is part of our history, and our culture. Any serious approach to addressing violence must include healing in the communities, minibuses and families in which the children live and learn the violence. This requires serious and meaningful collaboration with all the groups and organisations who want to heal from the violence in Guyana, a collaboration which is accountable and inclusive and which is open to the possible transformations in Guyana beyond concrete buildings.
Sincerely,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
