Dear Editor,
It is my belief that a country’s education system can get nowhere without a proper plan for dealing with the indiscipline of learners. Indiscipline is running amok in our school system at present. It can have a whole host of ripple effects on a school system: violence in schools, poor academic performance, teachers being in harm’s way, and a breakdown of the morale of a school. The community then begins to look down on that institution, and before you know it, hooligans are being churned out into the society, where many good, honest and hard-working people live. And that breeds a recipe for disaster.
Being in the system and observing the rise of this behaviour among teenagers, I can say that indiscipline is no longer just a problem in the community highs or ordinary secondary schools; there are now instances of it in many senior secondary schools. It’s just a matter of time, Editor. The Ministry of Education’s answer to this behaviour is the Manual of Guidelines on Maintenance of Order and Discipline in Schools. That has been the ministry’s bible for teachers and other supervisors to use to discipline children in schools. Has it worked? How effective and rational, not forgetting commensurate, are the actual measures of discipline to the rule being broken by the learner? Surely, with the reports recently in the media, this document has done nothing to serve its purpose. With a surge of very young out-of-high-school teachers crowding the system, school misfits see no problem in attacking and showing disrespect towards teachers today.
The next tool the Ministry has been using (to some extent since there is a vast shortage) is the office of the Schools Welfare Officer. These are limited across Guyana and have not been visiting schools as they should. If they were effective in dealing with the problem students, then why is indiscipline still on the rise? Suspension, expulsions and chats with parents surely have not made any dent whatsoever. Furthermore, as it relates to the editorial of the Stabroek News (Nov 24), the poster on the SN website who chided the editor for using the word ‘hooligan’ to describe the defaulters in schools ought to be ashamed of themselves. It is these persons who fail to see the real problem and who have clouds over their eyes. This is not a time for vindicating children’s rights. Yes, we know children have a plethora of rights, but with rights come responsibilities. Many schoolchildren today are not responsible. Many are just looking for someone to blame for learners’ poor behaviour. Excuses! Excuses! Many parents are trying doggone hard to bring up good children, but a parent can only affect a child’s behaviour to some extent. Children must learn to take responsibility for their own actions at some point.
Therefore, I ask the same question, the editor (Nov 24) asked: What immediate plan does the Ministry of Education have to deal with the rise of indisciplined behaviour in our public education system?
One thing is for sure, outside intervention is necessary in these times because so much is demanded of the class teacher; surely they cannot oversee the entire process of disciplining a learner for misconduct on the school plant. Neither the manual nor the welfare officers have worked. So what are we left with? It is widely believed that the police force must set up a few offices in schools. It may be a huge but mandatory leap but one which is imminent. It might be our only solution down the road. If some learners are creating havoc in the school system and are throwing the entire delivery of the curriculum off track, and if all other trusted measures have been tried but have failed; if corporal punishment is still in our laws but is hardly used out of fear, intimidation, or just plain ignorance, then we can only turn to our law enforcement officials for help. If an education system seems to be churning out hooligans and ‘wanna-be’ criminals, then who best to deal with them than those entrusted to serve and protect the nation, especially our teachers?
The government with the relevant ministries, school managers and parents must confront and deal with this as a national issue before it deals with us by becoming a national social disaster.
Yours faithfully,
Leon J Suseran
