What is the surge in school violence telling Guyana?

Nov 27, 2019 Letters

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Dear Editor,

No need for an answer–— the wave of school violence reveals an ailing culture
Bullying and school violence remains a multi-faceted issue, that not only affects public health but also a school’s ability to educate students. The continuing school violence is a national shame, but the perpetrators are not the only ones to be blamed. While bullying and violence remains the greatest threat to safety in Guyana, we cannot become so embroiled in the remediation debate that it hinders us from seeing where the truth unfolds. The word ‘school’ serves as a veneer for the real issue, causing a shift in focus. Learning institutions have morphed into some of the most violent institutions, and their occupants unchecked dastardly perpetrators.
In its wake bullying brings dramatic consequences in terms of educational acquirement, attitude towards school, mental health and probable risk of suicide. The damage caused by bullying is harmful to the bully, the bullied as well as the school and community.
On August 8 and 9, 2019 Roraima Duke Lodge was the venue of a national consultation on Crime and Violence Mitigation training in primary schools. This two day consultation was the last of five, with similar ones previously held in Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, St. Lucia and Suriname. The specific intent of the exercise was to bolster the capacity of primary school teachers and counsellors for evidence-based interventions to address crime and violence in primary schools. Given the pervasiveness of school violence, an assessment of the threats, risks, resilience and protective factors in relation to school-based gang-related violence, bullying, aggression and other forms of deviant behaviour is critical for identifying targets for preventive interventions among students. The two-day consultation in Guyana is the fifth of five. Similar ones were held in Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Suriname.
Guyana is one of five countries in CARIFORUM (a subgroup of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States established in 1992), to benefit from an initiative to enhance its education sector to respond to school-based crime and violence at the primary level, through the institutionalization of structured and coordinated after school activity clubs, titled Champions for Change Clubs The intervention is part of an overall strategy to reduce the incidence of violence in and out of school through engaging students and youth in the community in after-school programmes and building their capacity to effectively address youth crime and violence from a social perspective.
Mention should also be made of the fact that in May 2012, Maureen Bynoe, a lecturer attached to University of Guyana’s Tain Campus, made a call for the Ministry of Education to adopt a national anti-bullying strategy targeting students of all ages. The recommendation was predicated on a survey conducted by the lecturer, aimed at assessing the extent bullying has permeated schools along Central Corentyne, Berbice. The study further discovered that ethnicity was a major factor that contributed to bullying in the school system. While the previously-conducted study focused entirely on schools in the Berbice region, it would have been advantageous for the Ministry of Education to conduct a similar study, concentrating on schools across the country with major involvement from students, parents and teachers. Such a study would have provided answers to the core issue that leads to bullying, and from there an action plan could have been drafted and implemented. The bullies will be identified and necessary help instituted as bullying behaviours can be the predictors for future involvement in criminal activity.
It is imperative that parents and teachers collaborate as together they play an integral role in preventing bullying. Teachers especially need to pay more attention to students’ behaviour.
What has the government of Guyana and the respective stakeholders done thus far to eradicate this ongoing scourge, in the face of continued teacher training and rising violence even death at the hand of primary school age perpetrators? Schools have a legal obligation to provide all students with a safe learning environment; consequently it is imperative that recommendations to eliminate bullying are followed. No longer can the issue of school violence be ignored, as the problem can be exacerbated by school systems that fail to appropriately tackle violence. Parents have also brought to the fore the blatant lack of responsiveness on the part of school administration towards the complaints of children who were victims of violence or bullying. While schools are incapable of creating legislation, they can however shape policy by having an active relationship with organizations that support legislative changes.
School violence is ultimately an issue that reaches far beyond the walls of a school. Hence to stop the violence, we must look beyond the acts, and not fail to recognize the accessory facts. If we truly want to get serious about preventing violence, we need to know much more.
What messages have the adults sent, that caused the young to be so violence bent? If the saying holds true that children live what they see, then who would the true bullies be? A generation is being created which has certainly been manipulated. As the saying goes- “One usually reaps what one sows”. Who will accept the praise for what we as a nation have raised? .
We may not want the answer, for in so doing; it would make us as a people guilty and reveal an ailing culture.
Yvonne Sam.

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