Project targets school violence in Guyana
Dr. Henry Jeffery, Education
Minister
by Norman 'Gus' Thomas
Caribbean Net News Special Regional Correspondent
Monday, December 27, 2004
GEORGETOWN, Guyana: December 26th,
2004....Guyana's Ministry of Education is working overtime to bring an end to
violence in the country's schools by students via a pilot project. The
move was made public by Ed Caesar, the country's Chief Education Officer.
Minister with responsibility for Education Dr. Henry Jeffery, while addressing a
recent press conference, acknowledged the problem of school violence and said
the ministry was addressing the issue as well as indiscipline in schools.
According to Caesar the pilot project which is already in place in two schools,
is to determine whether the measures taken thus far are effective.
The Education Chief also advocated that
parents as well as members of the community also have important roles to play
in inculcating the right attitudes in children stressing that, violence in
schools is a major concern not only in Guyana, but across the Caribbean.
Recently, teachers at the Glanville Primary School in Antigua was forced into
protest action to draw education officials attention to the problems, including
attacks from inmates at a near-by detention center for delinquent juveniles. On
St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Island (USVI), some 80 teachers at the
Adelletia Cancryn School were also forced to march on Government House to
protest while in Trinidad, a school teacher was raped in a village named Penal.
Dr. Jeffery stressed the importance of the manner in which the region's schools
are managed, pointing out that if children are exposed to a disciplined school
environment from an early age, it would help to raise the consciousness of
discipline in students. He also pointed out that during this year, there would
be a greater effort made in Guyana to have more community involvement in the
education sector, and encouraged this practice across the region.
In speaking of the strides being made in the teaching profession in Guyana
regarding curriculum reform and renewal, Dr. Jeffery said Spanish is now a
subject on the timetable of primary schools and trainee teachers at the Cyril
Potter College of Education (CPCE) are exposed to a specific number of hours on
teaching the language. It was also pointed out
that while the instructional teaching programme for Spanish needs human
resources, teachers graduating from CPCE can teach the subject at the primary
level. Teaching Spanish in primary schools here was driven by the
Caribbean Community (CARICOM). It was also
revealed that one of the main challenges the ministry faced this year was the
compromising of the Caribbean School Certificate Examination (CSEC), however Dr.
Jeffrey said that efforts in collaboration with the Caribbean Examination
Council (CXC), and upgrading the ministry's secretariat were under way to
minimize the chance of a recurrence.
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