Since September when schools reopened for the new academic year, there have been several serious acts of hooliganism.
On the opening day of the new term, a second-form student at the Freeburg Secondary School in Georgetown used an ice pick to stab another following an argument. Later in September at the Diamond Secondary School on the East Bank, Demerara, there were two separate stabbing incidents. In the first, a 13-year-old student was stabbed by a classmate with a pair of scissors and had to be hospitalized after a squabble about a seat. In the second case, a first-former was stabbed after he accidentally ran into another. The stabbing incident took place some distance from the school.
At the Linden Foundation Secondary School at Amelia’s Ward, Mackenzie, two lower-form students were attacked and beaten by members of a gang made up of present and past students of the same school who had armed themselves with batons, machetes and pieces of wood. At St Winefriede’s Secondary School in Georgetown, a third-former was battered by a group of boys after a fight broke out over a prank involving a pair of boots. About six boys beat the victim with any objects at hand, including a metre-long piece of PVC pipe.
Some trends in school hooliganism have become evident. Most frequently, miscreants are males who tend to operate in gangs; incidents tend to be deliberately planned, occurring just after school hours and not far from the premises; victims are often very young and the assailants who arm themselves with simple weapons − such as ice picks and scissors − seem unafraid of the teachers and have no qualms about behaving aggressively in the public view.
Responding to questions posed by this newspaper on the Freeburg incident, Chief Welfare Officer Banmattie Ram said that “the situation was resolved amicably and both students are being counselled by welfare officers.” She gave the assurance that the Schools Welfare Department of the Ministry of Education was working to curb violence in schools across the country.
The Ministry of Education is well aware that incidents of hooliganism in the country’s schools have been increasing over the last decade. In the worst cases, there have been some murders. Although the majority of students are usually well behaved, there seems to be a feral minority of persistently disobedient and disruptive males. Some young, female teachers are intimidated by these bullying males and are ill-equipped to deal with these situations. About half of the teachers at the nursery and primary levels are either untrained or unqualified. Many of them are simply incapable of instilling discipline in pupils. By the time students arrive at the secondary level, some are incorrigible and it is too late to transform the deviant behaviour of delinquent males.
The Ministry of Education seems to have no real long-term strategy to deal with hooliganism. On previous occasions, the Minister of Education Shaik Baksh promised to appoint a larger number of school welfare officers “to monitor the situation.” His predecessor Henry Jeffrey thought that if the Ministry of Education’s Manual of Guidelines for the Maintenance of Order and Discipline in Schools was properly implemented, problems of indiscipline would be reduced.
Both ministers missed the point. Hooliganism is already both endemic and chronic in certain types of school − mainly community high schools − and can no longer be regarded as an isolated phenomenon. Welfare officers and manuals might be necessary but are not sufficient. If schools are to be made safer, the Ministry of Education must place a larger number of trained and qualified teachers in this country’s classrooms, starting at the lowest levels.
