The cycle of suffering

THE EDITOR: As humans we tend to notice cycles and patterns, especially when we’re on the outside looking in.

Often times when we’re in the cycle ourselves we become blind to it. What cycle is it am I referring to?

That of the September suffering that many frustrated parents and helpless students face year after year.

Why should it be that any percentage of the nation’s children are made to return to schools with partially functioning facilities and amenities? Worse is the fact that these failings often bar students from returning to school at all.

Has the Minister of Education considered the potential dangers and difficulties that the above situations place on students and their parents? Has any interim protocol or procedures been put in place to help ensure the safety and well-being of the students and teachers? Has anyone considered their compromised chances of academic success?

More concerning is the lack of actionable response to the public outcry. Broken promises have begun to fall on deaf ears. But the depleted energies and quieted voices of tired parents is no licence for our government ministries and agencies to weaken the response to this travesty.

Even a conservative estimate of the consequences of this cycle going unresolved is frightening. We risk disgruntled and discouraged teachers, whose best efforts have been dulled by the repeated failures of the administration to address their concerns. And lastly, we risk, through what is essentially the abandonment/neglect of children, both our and their future. Or have we forgotten who will invariably become the leaders of tomorrow?

Now, many may say that complaints can only achieve so much, so I’m imploring the teachers, educators and problem solvers of the nation to write in as I have, offering solutions while the powers that be continue (we hope) to work on what they have promised.

Maybe, just maybe, the Government will help those who help themselves.

JON BRISTOL

via e-mail

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"The cycle of suffering"

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