Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Al­most a year af­ter po­lice of­fi­cers were de­ployed in se­lect­ed schools to ad­dress in­dis­ci­pline, La Ro­maine Sec­ondary School is re­port­ing a marked im­prove­ment in stu­dent be­hav­iour, along­side stronger aca­d­e­m­ic and co-cur­ric­u­lar per­for­mance.

Prin­ci­pal Ra­jesh Sir­jue, de­liv­er­ing the prin­ci­pal’s re­port at the school’s grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny, said La Ro­maine Sec­ondary was the first in­sti­tu­tion to re­ceive two School-Ori­ent­ed Po­lice Of­fi­cers (SOPO), an ini­tia­tive in­tro­duced by Gov­ern­ment to im­prove dis­ci­pline and safe­ty in schools.

He said the pres­ence of the of­fi­cers has helped curb in­dis­ci­pline on the com­pound while al­so pro­vid­ing stu­dents with guid­ance and sup­port be­yond tra­di­tion­al dis­ci­pli­nary mea­sures.

“[The of­fi­cers] have made a mas­sive im­pact on this com­pound. They have not on­ly as­sist­ed with help­ing with dis­ci­pline on the com­pound, curb­ing some of the in­ci­dences, but they al­so serve to guide the stu­dents,” Sir­jue said.

He not­ed that the orig­i­nal of­fi­cers as­signed were lat­er re­placed by PC Bowrin and WPC Thomp­son, both of whom, he said, have con­tin­ued to make a pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tion to the school en­vi­ron­ment.

“Many of the stu­dents who go to them, es­pe­cial­ly to WPC Thomp­son, treat her as though she is their sur­ro­gate moth­er,” he added.

Sir­jue re­port­ed an over­all re­duc­tion in dis­ci­pli­nary in­ci­dents, while al­so high­light­ing im­proved aca­d­e­m­ic out­comes, in­clud­ing an in­crease in stu­dents earn­ing full cer­tifi­cates.

He al­so point­ed to a 100 per cent pass rate in Caribbean Vo­ca­tion­al Qual­i­fi­ca­tion (CVQ) sub­jects, in­clud­ing Com­mer­cial Food Prepa­ra­tion, Gen­er­al Cos­me­tol­ogy and Elec­tri­cal In­stal­la­tion.

In ex­tracur­ric­u­lar ac­tiv­i­ties, Sir­jue said the school placed first in its cat­e­go­ry in the Vic­to­ria Ed­u­ca­tion Dis­trict In­ter-School De­bate, while the LAROSSO Steel­pan Or­ches­tra placed fifth in the Sec­ondary Schools’ Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tion.

Fea­ture speak­er and Min­is­ter of Works and In­fra­struc­ture Jear­lean John urged stu­dents to re­main dis­ci­plined and fo­cused as they tran­si­tion in­to fur­ther ed­u­ca­tion or the work­force.

“Give your­self an­oth­er five fo­cused years, and en­er­gy. Some­thing that com­pounds to get in­to your qual­i­fi­ca­tion, your trade, a busi­ness, a craft. Five years of be­ing un­fash­ion­ably dis­ci­plined,” John said.

She cau­tioned stu­dents against dis­trac­tions, en­cour­ag­ing them to pri­ori­tise long-term goals over short-term grat­i­fi­ca­tion.

“You don’t have to know where the nicest par­ty is. Fo­cus on your fu­ture be­cause it ar­rives very quick­ly,” she said.

She added: “What you have to do, you have to show up with your whole self and with your best self.”

Mo­ti­va­tion­al speak­er Er­rol Fa­bi­en al­so ad­dressed the grad­u­ates, urg­ing them to val­ue them­selves, avoid drug use, and re­main fo­cused on pos­i­tive life choic­es.

More than 90 stu­dents grad­u­at­ed dur­ing the 2026 cer­e­mo­ny, with 16 re­ceiv­ing spe­cial awards for out­stand­ing aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance across var­i­ous sub­ject ar­eas.