Custos Green Leads Initiative to Equip Manchester School Libraries With the Constitution

The office of the Custos of Manchester is leading an initiative to ensure that every school library across the parish has a copy of the Jamaican Constitution, where students can freely and readily access the document.

The move is in keeping with the ‘Manchester Beliefs, Values, and Attitudes’ programme, initiated by Custos, Hon. Garfield Green, which is aimed at fostering positive values and attitudes and a sense of social responsibility among citizens of the parish.

By placing the document into the hands of students, the hope is that it will inculcate a sense of patriotism among the youth.

“We are shaping a generation that understands not only their rights but their responsibilities. We are cultivating respect for self and others, reverence for law and order, and a deep love for the Jamaica land we love,” the Custos said.

He noted that the Constitution of Jamaica is a “living covenant” which promises that every child, every citizen is endowed with dignity, freedom, and the right to dream. “It speaks to our beliefs that justice must be fair,” he pointed out.

Custos Green was addressing a ceremony to mark the official reopening of schools in the parish, held on September 12 at deCarteret College in Mandeville under the theme ‘Classrooms as Civic Spaces’.

Regional Director for the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Susan Nelson-Smith, in supporting the initiative of the Custos, noted that the Ministry has made a significant commitment to strengthening civic education in schools.

She called for the strengthening of partnership between the Ministry, parents and “our brilliant students”.

“When we all play our roles, we can truly build better schools and, by extension, more resilient and compassionate communities for all,” she contended.

Guest speaker and former President of Northern Caribbean University (NCU), Dr. Herbert Thompson, said the classroom is a place for the exchange of ideas.

“This is a place where you disagree but… you don’t have to fight to settle your differences,” he pointed out.