THE CONCERNS expressed by Principals of high and comprehensive high schools about escalating violence in schools throughout the island is frightening.
To hear them tell it, as reported in yesterday's Gleaner, teachers are being kicked and slapped, and doused with water on school premises if not in classrooms. And all manner of offensive weapons are being found on the person of students or in their schoolbags. These weapons are used both to attack or threaten both teachers and other students.
What is even more disturbing is the traditional and unproductive means which the Principals seem to think are the right ways to tackle a problem which reflects the violence, indiscipline, disrespect and coarseness that prevail in the wider society.
For a start, the Principals give the impression that violence in schools is a disease that should be kept under cover without public disclosure. We think this approach is mistaken. If the problem is allowed to fester out of public view, the nasty, cancerous sore will surely envelope the public at large in all its unpleasant manifestations.
Instead of going the traditional route of seeking from the Ministry of Education wider and harsher powers to flog or to suspend the offending and recalcitrant students, the Principals must employ more creative and up-to-date ideas.
They must seek to involve parents and communities along lines in which the education process itself can provide productive channels that can influence behaviour and change negative attitudes.
And the Minister of Education would do well to revisit the matter himself. This time, he should see the problem in all its starkness and divest himself of the view that it was either being created or being magnified by the news media.
But something needs to be done and urgently. The schools, after all, are the cradle of the nation's future.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.
