Unions, educators must come together to aid crime fight
A call has been for teachers’ unions in Barbados and school principals to come together, to ensure that less school leavers fall through the cracks, resulting in less persons available to engage in criminal activity.
The call has come from coordinator of the September 3rd Foundation, David Comissiong, who recently issued some anti-violence remarks, ahead of activities to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the Campus Trendz tragedy, which saw six young ladies losing their lives in a fire in the City, due to a lawless act of violence.
Lending his voice on the topic of the upsurge in gun violence in Barbados, Comissiong declared, “It seems as if we cannot really look to the political class for leadership. And if we can’t look to the political class, then who do we look to? Well, we have to look to ourselves.”
“I believe that one of the areas that we could very fruitfully look to is the whole area of education. The whole area of schools. I want to single out the schools, because, we have our young people in formal educational institutions for twelve years of their lives, from the age of four to sixteen, it is compulsory for every young Barbadian to be in an educational programme, so you have twelve years in which to make a difference,” he commented.
“We have them for twelve years, (but) we are not really making the best of those twelve years, because far too many of them are coming out after twelve years, lost, alienated, dysfunctional. So something is wrong,” Comissiong maintained.
“So I would like to say to Ms. Maryann Redman (President of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union), Mr. Pedro Shepherd (President of the Barbados Union of Teachers), I would like to say to Mr. Vere Parris, Principal of Combermere School and the head of BAPPS, the Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools, I would like to say to all the teachers who teach in the schools of Barbados, I would like to say to Mr. Shone (Gibbs), the head of the (Barbados National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations), I would like to say to all of them, come together and as a collective, let us see how we can make that compulsory period of school attendance, let us see how we can make those twelve years as impactful and as constructive as possible, in shaping our Barbadian young people,” Comissiong said in issuing his call.
He also stressed that there needs to be a better link between the schools and the home for better outcomes and he noted that Parent Teacher Associations as well as Old Scholar Associations should work harder with school authorities to ensure that each child matters and has a fair chance, to better address the “crisis” Barbados is finding itself in, in relation to gun violence and crime. (RSM)