Human Trafficking to be Taught in Secondary Schools

The National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons (NATFATIP) has officially handed over the Trafficking in Person (TIP) curriculum to the Ministry of Education (MoE).

The curriculum module, which is designed for secondary school students, grades seven to nine, seeks to promote greater awareness among students and teachers of TIP as a global crime. It is also intended to help students and teachers understand how they can assist in identifying and preventing human trafficking and help in reducing students’ vulnerability to human trafficking.

Minister of Justice, Senator the Hon. Mark Golding, said that the curriculum is an important element of NATFATIP’s work plan that is being implemented. He was speaking at the handing over ceremony held today (November 21), at the Ministry of Education’s National Heroes Circle offices.

“This aspect of the strategy is to ensure that the children in our schools become aware of human trafficking so that they can identify it and report it when they see it,” Senator Golding said.

He noted that the infusion of human trafficking into the curriculum for secondary schools will ensure that over the next few years, every child who comes through the formal education system, will be aware of the issue of human trafficking. “This will substantially decrease their vulnerability,” Minister Golding pointed out.

He cited information from the International Labour Organization (ILO), which shows that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year, 550,000 of which are children in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“What this indicates is that the region is particularly vulnerable to the scourge of human trafficking,” he noted.

Minister Golding is encouraging students to share what is learnt with their parents and friends.

“You will be provided with a wealth of information which will make you safer and allow you to make smarter decisions and help you to fight against human trafficking by identifying it and reporting it, and become an agent of change for your own protection and for the protection of your friends and family,” he said.

Education Minister, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, in welcoming the curriculum said it is important that schools do more than prepare students to pass examinations.

“The element of socialisation and in some cases re-socialisation is often counter-cultural, but the values and attitudes that we prize as a society… are essential to be infused into the school curriculum,” he said.

Assistant Chief Educator in the Ministry’s Core-Curriculum Unit, Dr. Clover Hamilton Flowers, also expressed approval “that a dimension of student development is being addressed that is not confined to just the cognitive, but also the social. Given the nature of this phenomenon, we must recognise that it can contribute to the development of critical thinkers.”

The Core-Curriculum Unit is currently developing the new National Standards Curriculum, of which the human trafficking curriculum will be aligned.

Human Trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery involving victims who are typically forced, defrauded or coerced into various forms of exploitation.

The NATFATIP’s was formed in 2005 to prevent and suppress trafficking in persons, prosecute offenders as well as to protect and provide assistance to victims.