Schools Benefiting from Ministry’s Security Policy – Holness

MANDEVILLE – Minister of Education, Hon. Andrew Holness has said that schools that have implemented the Ministry's security initiatives have begun to reap the benefits.

"We have provided the resources, the previous administration took the bold step of placing school resource officers in schools… we advanced that process. We (have established) Deans of Discipline, we gave metal detectors to schools, we have developed a search policy, and we have seen where the schools that have embraced the policy of the Ministry of Education, that are doing well," Minister Holness stated, while addressing a function for retired teachers of the Porus High School, on May 19, at the Golf View Hotel, in Mandeville.

Speaking against the background of a number of violent incidents in schools in recent times, the Minister said the society is relying on educators to assist in ensuring that misguided students are steered in the right direction. However, he said while teachers play their part, they do so at personal peril as some parents will defend their children when they misbehave.

"But there must be an intervention to break this downward spiral of the values in our society. The Ministry under my stewardship is trying to make that intervention and it has not failed," he stated.

Mr. Holness added that over the past three years the Ministry has organised workshops on accountable management, and training for school administrators and teachers, to stamp out violent incidents. Failure to adhere to the Ministry's policy procedures will result in action taken against the leadership of the institutions, he pointed out.

"We have put in place all those things, we set the standards, we have disseminate the policy guidelines, now is the time for action," he told the gathering.

BY GARFIELD ANGUS, JIS INFORMATION OFFICER