Petrina Francis, Education Reporter
ASPECTS OF the Safe Schools Programme will be extended to juvenile correctional facilities across the island, according to the national coordinator of the programme, Monica Dystant.
The Safe Schools Programme, based in the Ministry of National Security, was introduced in public schools in September 2004 to reduce the incidence of violence in institutions.
The programme is to be piloted in the Rio Cobre Juvenile Correctional Centre in St. Catherine next academic year and will then be extended to other facilities.
Ms. Dystant said on Wednesday that the structure of the programme would change to meet the needs of the juveniles whom, she added, would be taught skills in anger management, mediation, life and vocational skills.
"It is a community outreach strategy to see how best we can reach these students who might have found themselves in these correctional facilities," she told The Gleaner. "(We aim to) bring them back (and) give them the required skills that they might not have got while they were in school."
PROGRAMME ACHIEVING AIM
Speaking after the launch of the findings of the Safe Schools' Survey, held at GraceKennedy's head offices, Ms. Dystant said her department had submitted a proposal to UNICEF to seek funding for the extension of the programme.
Currently, there are some 331 males under the age of 18 in the local juvenile remand and correctional centres.
Meanwhile, a survey, conducted during the first year of the programme among teachers, guidance counsellors and students has revealed that the it has been generally accepted by stakeholders.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Norman Heywood, who is in charge of the police component of the programme, said 100 per cent of the principals and teachers surveyed accepted the programme and believed it was achieving its objectives.
Forty-six per cent of teachers and students said the school resource officers visited schools often but that they would like the school resource officers (SROs) to be on the school compound more frequently and to ensure that students and teachers are safe.
Ninety per cent of teachers and students were comfortable with SROs on the school compound.
The survey was sponsored by GraceKennedy.
