by Eulana Weekes
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): The old adage says, “It takes a village to raise a child”, whilst another says, “Discipline starts at home.”
During “On the Mark” on Wednesday, May 31, the Minister of Education on the island of Nevis, Hon. Troy Liburd, advised that the Ministry of Education, teachers and parents, have to work together to raise the future generation, like in past generations.
“It is very necessary for the parents to be involved with the students. We need the 100% support of our parents to back up the teachers to back up the principal. It certainly can’t be done by the teachers and the Principal, and the Ministry alone. We need the [help] of the parents. “Discipline starts at home.” I remember when I was a youngster growing up when you went to school, and you got yourself in any mischief, you got punished in school, but the punishment in school was a mild punishment. It’s when you got home was when the real punishment started, once the parents [knew] that you were involved in anything that you should not be involved in, [be it] bad behaviour or anything like that. There are many, many stories that people could recall where they go home and get a second set of punishment[s], and the parents set a certain standard that the students know that they had to abide by. We need a lot more of this in our schools.”
The Minister of Education said though this is a modern era, where there is a change in how parents and children or teachers and students interact, discipline is still vitally necessary. He warned that students would be held accountable for their actions.
“The schools have been going the extra mile to ensure that the students have what they would call a wholesome environment, and so we want the students and the parents as much as possible to cooperate with the schools. Of course, where incidents happen, then we would have to deal with the incident; where students are responsible for infractions or violations, then we have to take those seriously. We have to deal with them, but as much as possible, we want to have our schools run in an incident-free way.”
Liburd’s advice stemmed from a recent incident at the Charlestown Secondary School, where a group of students ganged a first-form female student. The incident was captured on video circulated on social media and generated much public discourse.
According to Hon. Troy Liburd, Senior Members in the Ministry of Education met with the Principal of the Charlestown Secondary School to discuss matters surrounding the incident.
“The incident that we saw occurred shortly after the school was coming back from a programme on the netball court. So, the students would have been in the class unsupervised for a little while. It was just before lunchtime, so they would have been in the classroom unsupervised, and unfortunately, we had the incident happen. The incident is under investigation. I met with the Principal myself and the Permanent Secretary, also the Principal Education Officer. We would have met with the Principal of the school and got her feedback on what happened. Certainly, some disciplinary measures would have to be put in place to deal with the students involved, and we want the general public to know that we take these things very seriously.”
The Education Minister said the Ministry and, by extension, the Government’s top priorities are education and student safety.
Liburd said, “I want the general public to know that the Ministry of Education and, by extension, the entire Government that we take the education of our children and our young people seriously and that we have said that we want our schools to be a safe zone for young people. We want our children to go to school in an environment that they can feel safe and that they can feel protected.” – Nevis Education Minister, Hon. Troy Liburd.
