Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt
The Ministry of Education (MoE) is dealing with reports of school violence and students being caught using drugs at school on a case-by-case basis and according to a discipline matrix that guides the treatment of such behaviour, Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said yesterday.
Speaking to Guardian Media via phone, Gadsby-Dolly said, “There is a discipline matrix that guides the MoE’s treatment with infractions... These matters are dealt with on a case-by-case basis depending on the gravity of the action and the disciplinary history of the student. These are unfortunately not new circumstances. In my Budget speech I spoke to this and to what the MoE is doing to mitigate.”
On October 11, during her contributions to the 2023 Budget debate in Parliament, Gadsby-Dolly said it might be time for a discussion on mandatory national service for repeat delinquent offenders in the nation’s school system.
Speaking then, she said there are too many children who are “violent, disrespectful, addicted to drugs and marijuana, gang members, completely uninterested in education, and out of parental control.”
She said soon, the Military-Led Academic Training Programme (MiLAT) will be open to girls, who, according to her, have been as guilty of bad behaviour as have boys.
Two weeks after her speech, two students of the Ste Madeleine Secondary School were arrested after being caught with drugs on the compound.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education (MoE) is reminding parents and teachers that agriculture should not be overlooked.
This is the premise of one of the ministry’s latest competition initiatives—Innovation Entrepreneurship Agro-processing Technology (IEAT).
The competition is aimed at educating primary school pupils on the importance of food security by teaching them how to grow their own food.
The prize-giving ceremony was held yesterday in commemoration of World Food day, recognised annually on October 16.
Speaking to Guardian Media following the prize-giving ceremony in Couva, Gadsby-Dolly emphasised the importance of having school gardens and said she hopes to extend the competition to the secondary school level as well.
Gadsby-Dolly said, “This competition is geared at kitchen gardens at our schools. As you may know, as part of our culture transformation policy, all schools are mandated to have a kitchen garden now and so we are very happy to celebrate this competition... We would love to extend to the secondary level. I think all of our children need to have this opportunity.”
Some 55 primary schools participated in the competition.