Gareth Manning and Mark Titus, Sunday Gleaner Writers

THE HIGH rate of illiteracy is making the fight against crime in Clarendon more difficult than it ought to be, police told The Sunday Gleaner at a Gleaner Editors' Forum in the parish recently.

There are many youngsters, especially teenage boys, who are functionally illiterate, forum participants say, in spite of the many schools to which Clarendon is home.

The parish has the highest concentration of schools - 102. "We have realised that many of the persons committing these gun crimes range from 14 to 25 years old, and what we found was that most of these guys are illiterate and unable to reason. So, they seek after and join gangs to be in possession of a weapon," explained Dathan Henry, superintendent of the Clarendon police.

Clarendon has seven dangerous gangs contributing to its crime problem.

"What do you do with a 21-year-old young man who is illiterate, is unskilled, has two children and a girlfriend? What do you do with him? So, criminality is one of the only ways open to him," argued Mayor of May Pen Milton Brown.

"Illiteracy is one of the prime sources of food to crime," he added.

Street children

Illiteracy is probably most common among Clarendon's 175 street and working children who have poor attendance records at school. Most are between the ages of 11 and 17 years old. The street children study of 2002 reported that most of them worked in the vicinity of the May Pen Market and along the coast in Race Course and Rocky Point.

Marlon (not his real name) was one of those boys. The Sunday Gleaner met him last year on a trip to the Rocky Point fishing district, an area notorious for its robust gun- and-drugs trade.

At 13 years old, Marlon could not read or write, although he was attending an all-age school. He was only attending school for three days of the week - Monday to Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were spent on the fishing beach selling juices to hot, thirsty fisher folk.

"Mi parents dem no response fi mi," he told us then. His words were few, but very profound. He was one of 14 children for his mother. The man he said is his father has never claimed paternity. With neither of his parents taking responsibility for him, he lives with his grandmother.

"I know that in Clarendon right now, based on the level of poverty, many of the youngsters who should be in school are not in school, therefore, you will find the level of illiteracy will increase," Vinroy Harrison, principal of Central High School, told the Editors' Forum. Central High is a non-traditional secondary institution located in May Pen, not too far from one of the problematic communities in the parish known as Sevens.

Youngsters peddling

"You will find many of these youngsters on the road peddling," Harrison reported. He declined to state on record the number of students attending Central High who are functionally illiterate, but emphasised that the school had been working hard to get its slower children literate and numerate.

"[You] must understand that most of the students who are going to certain schools are below that level. They are not ready to take on that sort of a thing in terms of education," he says.

The parish's problem with literacy is concentrated in its constantly growing informal settlements.

Social-intervention programmes are clearly needed, but there are some people, like William Sha-goury, chairman of the Clarendon Crime Prevention Committee, who doubt they can work effectively in Clarendon's real trouble spots.

"You can't get in there, so how you going to put in social-intervention programmes? You can only get social-intervention programmes where there are structured areas," he argued.

Parish council programmes

However, the town's mayor was more positive. Brown said there were some communities that can now be reached and the parish council had begun to roll out programmes in those areas.

Halse Hall, on the outskirts of the capital town, is one of the areas where 13 young men have been selected for remedial programmes.

"We have been able to get them to attend Mineral Heights Primary School and do computer lessons (and reading lessons)," Brown disclosed, adding that the response has been good.

"Nobody's giving up," Super-intendent Henry states. " I just want all the necessary agencies to give us their support in dealing with some of these social problems."

Clarendon gangs

Lion Paw and Red Square gangs, operating out of Farm and Effortville.

Web Lane and Top Cross gangs.

Heathen Gang, in Mocho.

Gang of Nine, operating out of Water Lane in the southern region of the parish.

100-man Gang in York Town.