High frequency learning experience and school violence

Jan 22, 2015 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Education Minister Priya Manickchand in a recent speech regarding the Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) programme in the school curriculum, made reference to its seeming success. No mention is made therein of the time of the programme’s conception and inception, although, at the said meeting she alluded to the fact that the officials concerned (herself included), now needed to look with a new vision at the programme’s reception, and likely problematic areas.
The issue of school violence was then raised. Currently the schools in Guyana have become smaller arenas for settling of accounts by smaller players, but with the same basic intent — that of inflicting harm on another human. School violence is a subset of youth violence, a broader public health problem. Discussions about school violence rarely include public health’s proven prevention approaches. Public health approaches focus on preventing violence before it starts and have been shown to effectively reduce school violence
You may wonder how small children at schools are indulging in violent activities which are beyond them. Well then, stop wondering and face the reality that students these days are absolutely ruthless and they are potentially very dangerous in causing severe harm to other school students. Children are not born violent, but they become violent with the passage of time, and due to the circumstances as well, consequently the root cause of these students becoming so violent cannot be attributed to one particular reason.
I concur with both the Minister and the Chief Education Officer.
According to both the latter-mentioned, the presence of Social Workers in the school may serve by their very presence as a measure of violence reduction.
What a social injustice! Permit the Social Workers to carry out their primary function and not be used as violence deterrents. No one factor in isolation causes school violence, so stopping school violence involves using multiple prevention strategies that address the many individual, relationship, community, and societal factors that influence the likelihood of violence
The characteristics of the community surrounding schools also influence the likelihood of school violence. By making changes in communities, school violence can decrease. Some effective community level strategies include providing youth with more structured and supervised afterschool opportunities, such as mentoring programmes or recreational activities, in order to increase monitoring and healthy skill development of youth.
Both the Minister and the Chief Education Officer failed to speak or even pinpoint individual level strategies that can prevent violence before it even starts. Are these addressed in the HFLE programme of which they made reference? Strengthening young people’s abilities to effectively solve difficulties that arise and their opportunities to participate in pro-social activities can significantly reduce the risk for violence. One strategy for addressing these individual risks is universal, school-based violence prevention programmes, which have been proven to reduce rates of aggression and violent behavior among students. Youth’s experiences, knowledge, and skills can influence their likelihood of becoming involved in violence.  These programmes are delivered to all students in a school or a particular grade and focus on many areas, including emotional self-awareness, emotional control, self-esteem, positive social skills, social problem-solving, conflict resolution, and teamwork.
Some school-based programmes also help students know how to appropriately and safely intervene to stop an escalating violent episode between peers. Universal, school-based violence prevention programmes improve students’ social skills and problem-solving abilities, which can result in more positive peer and student-teacher relationships throughout the school.
Many school-based programmes and policies are also effective in helping teachers build healthy relationships, model non-violent attitudes and behaviours, and contribute to a broader positive school climate, which in turn lowers the risk for school violence.
These approaches teach educators effective ways to manage a classroom, resolve conflicts non-violently, promote positive relationships between students with diverse backgrounds, and create positive student-teacher relationships so that students feel comfortable talking with teachers about violence-related issues. Finally, by enhancing parent involvement in both academic and social aspects of their children’s school experiences – including involving parents in prevention programmes – family cohesion and communication are improved. Prevention approaches that involve the family, especially those that start early, can have substantial, long-term effects in reducing violent behaviour.
School violence can be prevented. Research shows that prevention efforts – by teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and even students – can reduce violence and improve the overall school environment. So to make our schools safer, everyone can and must pitch in – teachers, parents, students, policy makers, law enforcement officers, business managers, faith leaders, civic leaders, youth workers, and other concerned community residents.
Each of us can do something to help solve the problem. And it’s a problem we all must solve. While the home and the school are partners in the education of the child, there must be a visible difference in what the child sees and learns, for let us not forget that children learn what they see.
Yvonne Sam

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