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Collective approach needed to curb surge in school violence – GTU
(Kaieteur News) – The Guyana Teacher’s Union (GTU) is calling for there to be a broader stakeholder approach to violence in schools. President of the GTU, Coretta McDonald on Wednesday in an invited comment told Kaieteur News that in order to tackle the surge in school violence.
“We’re deeply troubled by the recent surge in school fights that have been making their way on social media, fights and outside of schools. We saw just recently, fights Leonora Secondary, Linden Foundation, and the Essequibo Coast. We saw fights in Region six, we’re seeing fights in Georgetown, and what is most worrisome is that when these fights are happening, we are having teachers attempt to break these fights up, or to pull the fighters apart… our teachers are injured,” the GTU President said.
President of the GTU, Coretta Mc Donald
Mc Donald highlighted a recent incident where students were involved in a brawl in the streets and a teacher tried to intervene.
“The teacher was passing, and he decided to intervene, and the brother of one of the students who was involved in the fight, assaulted the teacher, and then he claimed after that he didn’t know the young man was a teacher,” the GTU President detailed.
To this end, Mc Donald said stakeholder involvement is crucial to tackling the scourge.
“The conversation has got to widen. We can no longer speak to our children at assembly, we have to widen that conversation, to bring our stakeholders to the table so that we can work and charter a course that will guide what happens in our schools.”
McDonald continued: “I think a wider stakeholder approach is what is missing and when I say stakeholder we’re talking here the union, the parents, the wider community, the police which means we’re talking about the Ministry of Home Affairs, we’re talking about the Ministry of Human Services, welfare officers and counsellors. We’re talking about the Ministry of Sports… We have to be involved to ensure that we chart a safer path for our children…” she asserted.
The GTU president emphasized that children must be able to accept rebuke without resorting to assaulting teachers. She said, the Ministry of Education has launched campaigns to address the issue but noted that their efforts need to be consistent and ongoing.
“It is very troubling, very, very troubling. When you look at some of the weapons that are being found in schools; the vaping and all kinds of things that is happening amongst our school children. It is troubling, when we look at the marijuana and all those things that we find in the possession of our children, it is saying to us that we are trodden a dangerous path, and if we don’t stop and sit around the table and arrive at measures to correct it. This is our society is going to be doomed.”
In January, the government through the Ministry of Education launched a major campaign against bullying and violence among student. The Education Minister Sonia Parag had said the efforts to curb the problem must pull together support from more than the Government and educators.
“We are taking a zero-tolerance approach to any kind of violence, whether it be student against student, student against teacher, student from one school to another school, school against school, and when I say zero tolerance, we are going to be working to drastically reduce bullying, violence, that is stemming from bullying and so on. It’s a situation where I definitely want this to become something that I will work wholeheartedly on for the next five years and that is the position of the Government as well”, she said.
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I wonder how you get those candid moments during the ceremony. Seems tough with everyone so focused.