There is a lot wrong

Aug 25, 2012 Editorial

A day does not go by without news of something untoward in Guyana. The robberies in the hinterland are now common features because the police simply cannot patrol the vast area.
Indeed, with the boom in the goldfields there should have been an increased police presence. The authorities might even consider units of the Guyana Defence Force, because they are better trained to patrol the hinterland terrain and their very presence serves as a deterrent to the criminal-minded.
It would seem, though, that the police have insisted on maintaining the status quo that had been there ever since these hinterland communities emerged. Most of the police stations have no more than two or three ranks, whose only role seems to be to deal with domestic issues at the various landings.
Whenever there is a serious crime, the nation hears that ranks have to be flown in from the city. By the time they land, the criminals who know the area simply get lost in other mining camps. We are certain that there are people who roam the interior, as is common in mining communities, and after gleaning information about successful mining camps, they pounce.
This is the result of a system that has seen a decline in morals. Parents have sacrificed their responsibilities and their children are allowed to run amok. Some believe that the absence of corporal punishment is to blame, but if the truth be told, what operates today is a lack of parental supervision. The schools have also not done much because teachers refuse to supervise.
Just two days ago some disturbing news came out of the New Opportunity Corps. This is a facility for errant children, who may not really be wayward, but who may have some mental problem. In Guyana, we refuse to pay attention to children who may have a mental problem, choosing instead to label the child as dumb, disobedient and even hostile.
In the developed world, where there is an abundance of psychiatrists, children are constantly evaluated and given the requisite medication. Of course, some of the medication has side effects that may make the child worse, but the fact is that children are evaluated and treated.
In Guyana, if one were to evaluate some of the inmates of the New Opportunity Corps—the authorities prefer to describe these children as students or residents—one may find that they have been exposed to a host of unholy influences. Some are victims of domestic abuse, and with no one to complain to, they resort to the most anti-social behaviour.
Others are victims of neglect; children who never had a stable home environment, with the result that they found comfort on the streets. At the New Opportunity Corps these children are sometimes evaluated by the matronly kind who may take a likening to a particular child. But for the greater part they are seen as recalcitrant.
The people who supervise them have no formal training, they are there to earn a living as custodians of the wards of the state, and sometimes apply harsh measures which may be unnecessary. We have not been made aware of what triggered the recent mass riots, but we do know that at least a dozen of these ‘recalcitrant children’ broke out of their dorms and released their peers.
We also now know that they are locked in at nights, perhaps to prevent the very escapes that occurred. These children returned to their ‘prison’ voluntarily. Something must have happened on their return, because others at the facility set fire to the dorm.
It would do well for Guyana to quicken its training of psychiatrists. A psychiatrist may be in a position to avert some of the crimes that now occur with amazing regularity. However, the truth is that we do not have such a facility, so the next option is to have the teachers step up. Many are close to the children and they may very well make the best evaluators.
It may be time for the Education Ministry to revamp the curriculum of the Cyril Potter College of Education. But then again, the brain drain has affected that institution to the point where it is no better than a secondary school trying to cope with adult learners.

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