Education Ministry Employs Multipronged Approach to Deal with Violence in Schools

Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, said the Ministry has employed a multipronged approach to deal with violence in schools.

Making her contribution to the 2024/25 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on May 8, the Minister said this includes the Safety and Security Policy that is designed to prevent violence.

“It clearly spells out how to implement physical security measures such as searches of students’ school bags; organising training programmes for school personnel to recognise warning signs and intervene effectively; counselling at-risk individuals; developing crisis and emergency plans; assigning roles for students, parents, and the community; and addressing and resolving conflicts in a constructive manner,” Mrs. Williams noted.

Currently, School Resource Officers are assigned to a group of schools, and although no longer physically operating from educational institutions, they continue to provide valuable support to schools.

The Ministry has also provided behavioural support services to schools, such as counselling services, to include fully funded counselling from external clinicians; parental engagement and training programmes; restorative justice practice training programme; and student leadership development.

Mrs. Williams noted that for the period January 2022 to January 2023, a total of 55 critical incident reports regarding violence in schools were submitted to the Ministry.

She said it is instructive to note that the 55 critical incidents occurred at 50 different schools, 15 primary and 35 high schools, adding that five of the schools had two critical incidents each.

These incidents range from gang violence, physical assault, robbery, break-ins at the school, school bus accidents, alleged sexual grooming, drowning, vandalism, stabbing, attempted abduction, brawls, physical altercations between a principal and a parent, fire and alleged sexual assault.

The Minister noted that while 50 schools represent approximately five per cent of the total number of primary and secondary schools in the education sector, these incidents of school violence and assaults on school property are too frequent for a small society such as Jamaica.

“I want to say to Jamaicans, that if you think it is the sole responsibility of the principal, the teachers and the Ministry to solve school violence, I humbly ask you to think again. Yes, the education sector has a big role to play, but it is the treatment that our children receive at home and in their communities that will determine their state of mind when they arrive at school,” she said.

“It is the very loud music and selectors screaming at the top of their voices until the wee hours of the morning during a school night in many communities that determine if our children arrive at school fully rested or simply exhausted from lack of sleep and just want to put their heads on the desk. It is the lewd lyrics being broadcast in some of the public passenger vehicles that our students have to travel in to get to school that will determine if they arrive at school in a calm spirit or sexually charged,” Mrs. Williams added.

Added to this, Mrs. Williams argued that the access to weapons and drugs and the fact that many children are witnessing violent acts in their homes and within their communities, “it is not difficult to understand that it does not take much to spark school violence”.

“So, I reiterate that the responsibility lies with all of us, as Jamaicans. We all have a part to play in eradicating incidents of school violence. Given that there are 190 school days in the school year, 55 critical incidents at our schools equate to a critical incident happening somewhere in the education sector every 3.5 school days. This is utter madness,” the Minister said.

Mrs. Williams also noted that data for this school year are showing that 79 different schools reported, adding that in recent times, there have been more fights involving students off school premises.

“In those videos, we are not seeing adults intervening. Instead, we see students encouraging and egging on the fight while they do videos. For the fights that happen on school premises, I know that the principals, deans of discipline, senior teachers and other adults rush to intervene, which reduces the severity of the fight,” she said.

The Minister emphasised that violence is unacceptable, on or off school premises.