Welfare officers should be able to counsel not just threaten

Mar 10, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
The Ministry of Education through the Schools’ Welfare Department has been touting its truancy campaign. I am not sure that there is significant impact on truancy nationwide.
I live in Region Four and there are certain areas which the Department of Education is aware that need to be visited by the welfare officers. Often, or should I say rarely, when a campaign is carried out it is done around the bus parks where children play truant, dressed in their school uniforms.
The Ministry of Education needs to engage the assistance of the police to apprehend school children in uniform after a certain time, especially in the mornings.

They should be taken to the station and contact made with the schools. The matter will be taken up from there. It is my honest view that with the present crop of welfare officers who are young and inexperienced, hardly any impact will be made on this matter.
Welfare matters should be looked at on two fronts: children who are kept away by parents for various reasons, and those who left for school but deliberately arrive late or not at all.
The welfare personnel should visit the homes/villages of the first group and the police should be asked to assist with the latter.

I remember once raising the issue about the police assisting in getting school children off the road after certain hours and was told by senior welfare personnel that such a move by the police would be illegal.
However, it is still my contention that the Ministry of Education adopts measures so that the police can assist in this grave task.
For those who think otherwise, they should travel along the roads between 8:30 and 10:00 o’clock in the mornings to observe the number of children who are still on the road and are making no effort to board a bus.

It is still my belief that persons appointed as welfare officers must have a wealth of experience in education matters and should be able to counsel not just threaten.
The Ministry of Education is short sighted in this respect. Recently retired head teachers would have been the most appropriate individuals on whom the Ministry of Education would have spent less time and money to train.
Then again, it is the general view that regardless of how good the recommendations, if they do not come from certain quarters, they will not be considered.
Concerned Citizen

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