Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter 
Some Jamaican teachers who went overseas to work had to deal with serious cases of indiscipline in foreign schools. - FILE
MORAL OUTRAGE has erupted following the reported incident at Immaculate High School where one girl, assisted by two co-conspirators spat in their teacher's water bottle, which their victim then drank.
Has the Jamaican education system moved on to 'new' frontiers where parents and communities turn a blind eye to indiscipline? And how did this news go down in the United Kingdom, where educators perceive the Jamaican system as more disciplined than theirs?
Discipline in British schools, say some, is not what it was.
The Sunday Gleaner spoke to one British teacher who has taught at both preparatory and high school levels in London for the last 30 years. Speaking on condition that her name not be used, she said levels of discipline has deteriorated due to a lack of respect for teachers among parents and the wider community.
"Strong leadership is essential and in the two years since our new headteacher, who does not provide strong authority came, it got worse. There needs to
be a visible presence of the
headteacher and senior staff around school and a zero-tolerance approach to indiscipline. Let children know exactly where they stand, but balance by effective counselling," she said of the inner-London high school where she has taught at for 13 years.
"There is less and less
support from the community and parents side with the child. They themselves need to be better educated and sometimes they admit that they are at loss as to how their child needs to be disciplined at home.
So how would the 'Immaculate Three's' behaviour be received at her school?
A MINOR OFFENCE
Dr. Tony Sewell, a British-Jamaican educational expert, said 'in parts of London, this would have been seen as a minor offence.'
The pioneer of the Generating Genius programme, Dr. Sewell has taught in both British and Jamaican high schools.
"My initial reaction is that, yes, a suspension is deserved but this would not be viewed as scandalous behaviour in the U.K. as discipline is generally much worse and there are serious issues of violence.
"However I was at Immaculate the other day and the girls there looked like goodie-two-shoes. I am sure that had this happened in Trench Town and not one of Jamaica's most prestigious schools no-one would have batted an eye-lid," he reasoned.
Cautioning that this was the first he had heard of the incident Dr. Sewell, said he believed two factors were at play. Firstly he said there has been an erosion of trust in society between educators on one hand and the parents who now side instinctively with their children. This air of suspicion he believes passes naturally onto their children and into the classroom.
CALIFORNIAN SPOILED
Secondly, he added, there is what he termed "a Californian spoiled uptown brat mentality", which makes privileged children feel they can behave badly with impunity. And likewise the teachers may be afraid of punishing for fear of upsetting their influential parents.
"What is happening," he concluded "is that Jamaica is entering the real world and we need to ask ourselves what kind of children we are raising. These are children who value materialism but the lost value in their growing-up is the importance of education."
The British teacher to whom The Sunday Gleaner spoke, noted that children have thrown chewing gum at her car and the tyres' of a colleague's car were slashed outside his own home, for which he suspects his pupils. She also drew The Gleaner's attention to a documentary shown this week on British television that featured a woman returning to teaching after a 30-year absence from the profession. She worked as a supply teacher in 14 high-schools over an eight-month period.
The film-maker recorded her experiences with a camera hidden in her briefcase and a hidden microphone on her person. The footage shows boys fighting, swearing, searching the Internet for pornography, using their cellular phones and one boy who she attempts to discipline replies: "I'll come to your house and blow you up."
The filmmaker's experience, said the teacher interviewed by The Gleaner was no surprise.
"These children have far few boundaries, an almost adult appreciation of what their rights are, but not what they do not have the right to do.
"I visited Cuba in 1998 and although the schools have shortages of pens and paper, they still achieve high rates of literacy - many of the lessons are oral because of a shortage of materials. There was real respect amongst the community for the teachers and in the cases of special needs children the teachers just had to approach women's groups to receive automatic assistance.
"That kind of experience is alien in UK except perhaps in rural schools," she concluded.
