Certain Attitudes Will Not be Tolerated in Schools – Holness

Minister of Education, Andrew Holness, has emphasised that certain attitudes and behaviours would not be tolerated in schools, citing the Ministry’s plans to vigorously address the issue during this school term.
Speaking at the Calabar Old Boys’ Association Annual Reunion Dinner, held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, on Wednesday (September 17), the Minister advised that a set of guidelines on dealing with safety and security issues has been developed, “which we plan to deploy in schools this school year,” noting that the Ministry has also introduced several new principles to the schools.
One such rule, he pointed out, was that students and teachers should not be involved in demonstrations during school hours.
“We have sent out a bulletin to the schools to warn them, because we have to take action on this. Regardless of what the social issues are, the school must be the place that teaches our students the right way to observe the law in carrying out a social protest and we intend to work very closely with law enforcement, to ensure that our school is not a place of ‘free-for-all’ and chaos,” the Minister stressed.
In the meantime, Mr. Holness vowed to sustain the Ministry’s pursuit, of ensuring that education up to the secondary level is compulsory, noting that education is a right for every single Jamaican.
“We have to, as a nation, come to the understanding that education is like a vaccine and it only works when everyone is vaccinated. That is the only way you are going to eradicate the disease of poverty and crime,” he pointed out.
He argued that it is through education that the nation’s human resource would be enhanced. “That is how you are going to build social capital, increase productivity, reduce crime, build a cohesive society, build trust and make the society happy, and increase social well-being,” the Minister said.
“We need to ensure that every single Jamaican child is placed in an institution, where their human resource can be maximised, so that when they go to the market, they go as productive citizens; when they enter the society, they are able to participate in the society; when they have families, they can care for them; and they can understand their environment and protect it,” he added.