Amid the growing level of violence in schools, the Ministry of Education is moving to institutionalise a dean of discipline programme in public secondary schools across the island.

The dean of discipline will implement the Ministry of Education Behaviour Management Strategy for Schools and will also have the power to search. The dean of discipline is expected to allow teachers, who grapple with indiscipline in the classrooms daily, to focus on academics.

Pay scale

"We have given the instructions (to) start the process of institutionalising the dean of discipline. That means that we go through the Ministry of Finance for them to look at the job description and give it a pay scale ...," Andrew Holness, Minister of Education, told reporters on Tuesday, following the Kingston Bookshop's Teachers' Luncheon.

Holness told the gathering at the Terra Nova Hotel in St Andrew that the programme would be phased into schools. The programme is expected to begin next year.

The education minister, however, said schools that do not already have a dean of discipline could go ahead in September and appoint one.

Behaviour management strategy

The behaviour management strategy for schools will state how to manage classrooms, how to empower students, build self-esteem, among other things. Students will also have a permanent record, which will log their behaviour during their school years.

Meanwhile, three educators were honoured by Kingston Bookshop for their sterling contribution to education. They are Ruel Reid, principal of Jamaica College; Dahlia Repole, principal of Excelsior Community College; and Keith Noel, former principal of St Jago High School.