Black River High Commended for Launching PBIS Programme

Director of Safety and Security in Schools at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Coleridge Minto, is commending the Black River High School, in St. Elizabeth, for its launch of the Positive Behaviour Intervention Support (PBIS) programme.

The programme, an initiative of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, aims to establish the behavioural support and social culture needed for all students in a school to achieve social, emotional and academic success.

He said the school must be congratulated for “buying” into the programme, which is aimed at lifting the standard of discipline, not only among students, but all stakeholders at the institution.

Speaking at the launch of the programme at the school on April 22, Mr. Minto said the initiative forms part of the Ministry’s safe schools policy, which was completed in 2004.

“We at the Ministry are engendering a child-friendly environment in all our institutions. The Ministry’s prime objective therefore is to implement the necessary measures to transform schools and their immediate surroundings into safe zones through a multi-layered, multi-sectoral approach, utilizing both public and private partnerships which are supported by legislation and policies, where necessary,” he said.

Mr. Minto noted that the Safety and Security unit in the Ministry has been actively engaged with several initiatives, which have resulted in a steady decline in violence in schools over the past three years.

“However, we remain concerned about the number of fights which continue to occur, particularly among students who are using not only the knife as the weapon of choice, but scissors,” he said.

Mr. Minto is again imploring school administrations to establish storage centres for items used by students in their line of study, in order to prevent these implements being used in fights at school or on the streets.

Meanwhile, he said that a proposal is now being considered to have a Safety and Security Officer in the 1,000 public schools across the island.