Anti-violence campaign launched

The Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training has officially launched an Anti-Violence Campaign aimed at facing, head on, issues of violence in our schools.

Speaking to the media yesterday on the sidelines of the launch, which was held at the Princess Margaret Secondary School, Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Santia Bradshaw said that as part of that effort, her ministry intends to appoint a cadre of Peace Ambassadors from every schools across Barbados to help promote positive behaviours among their peers.

“There is too much of the negative circulated on the social media and being talked about… I think that we have a responsibility to highlight those efforts more than we have been doing, and to find forums to allow young people to be able to speak out about what they are doing and how they would like to see their society and certainly their school environment change as well,” the Acting Prime Minister stated.

The campaign launched yesterday in conjunction with UNICEF, Bradshaw said, is but one way her ministry is showing it is serious about trying to combat the issues young people are facing. She made the point while noting that the incidence of violence in our schools and society at large is on the increase and as such, the goal is to get persons to start to talk things out as opposed to reacting and being violent.

“We have chosen the Princess Margaret Secondary School because the first Peace Ambassador that was named by the ministry is a young lady by the name of Ayra Newton, whose video on Facebook was circulated showing that she was at the forefront of being bullied and she did something that we consider to be totally remarkable, where she walked away. As a result of that, we chose Princess Margaret School to signal the launch of this campaign and we will be going to other schools,” she said.

Delivering the feature address earlier, the Acting PM said that her ministry is not simply launching a campaign in the schools, but will be drilling down to address the problems facing students. She gave the assurance as she said they are of the firm belief and committed to stopping violence across the educational system. Equally, she said, they will be hard at work ensuring that the message goes far and wide that violence will not be tolerated.

“Most teachers deal with some form of student conflict daily, teaching our students how to deal with conflict should be a component of any peacemaking strategy and to this end the ministry has developed this Anti-Violence Campaign under the theme ‘Peace Begins with Me, Talk it Out, Violence Solves Nothing’. ‘Peace Begins with Me’ – because if it doesn’t start with you, then we’re not going to be able to find the solutions to solve the problem facing this nation,” she stated.

Bradshaw added that yesterday was dubbed National Pledge Day and all students across the island were expected to recite the Peace Pledge, signalling their commitment to create peaceful environments on and off the school compounds. She noted that each student will also be given a Peace Wristband which as a public display that they strive to be peacemakers and peacekeepers.

She said in an effort to fully involve students in the rollout of the campaign, there will be public service announcements (PSAs) featuring students, who she said are the best medium to reach their peers. It was further indicated that the PSAs will be aired via the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation and social media, explaining that it is imperative that they incorporate social media as the youth are utilising it like never before.

Also noting that music is a powerful medium that can be used to reach the youth, she said they were partnering with Soca artistes Philip 7, Faith, Mole and Peter Ram. The foursome, she said, collaborated on campaign jingle which encourages dialogue between teachers and teachers; teachers and students as well as students with students. (JRT)