Gadsby-Dolly: Violent students are being watched

EDUCATION Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly warned that Government would not tolerate any acts of violence from any out-of-control students within the school system.

She hinted the time may have come for such students to be placed in a form of mandatory national service to turn them from their wicked ways and re-direct their focus from destruction to nation-building.

Gadbsy-Dolly also slammed the Opposition UNC for leaving the PNM a gift of poorly constructed schools or schools that were never built, when it demitted office.

She said it was hypocrotical for the UNC to now claim that the education sector has collapsed.

Gadsby-Dolly made those statements in her contribution to the budget debate in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

She told MPs, "Leadership of the education sector is a very, very complex, fraught-with-challenge task."

Gadsby-Dolly opined that the UNC did not understand that it required multi-tasking, and there was no luxury to deal with one issue at a time.

She cited school indiscipline and violence as an example, after reminding MPs that the ministry was dealing with 106 (80 primary and 26 secondary) underpeforming schools.

Gadsby-Dolly said, "The power of social media makes it impossible to ignore the fact that we have a problem with our young people."

While the majority of students are disciplined and doing what they are supposed to be doing, Gadsby-Dolly said, "We have too many students who are violent, disrespectful, addicted to drugs and marijuana, gang members, completely uninterested in education and out of parental control."

She lamented that some parents seemed powerless to restrain their children.

"If a child has no fear for a parent, they will have no care for a teacher. We are seeing that playing out more and more."

Gadsby-Dolly said, "We are taking careful note of students who are continually disruptive, violent, disrespectful and out of control."

She added, "There are provisions (in law) for the minister of education to deal with it and we will take advantage of all such provisions."

Government MPs thumped their desks as Gadsby-Dolly declared, "I put parents and students on notice."

Gadsby-Dolly said dedicated social workers and guidance counsellors were employed at the 106 schools, to help students who were at risk of engaging in indiscipline.

The police, she continued, actively patrols the areas outside of 17 such schools to prevent students from engaging in deviant behaviour.

Gadsby-Dolly said the ministry was asking the police and the Defence Force to send some of its members into schools and engage students in youth mentorship programmes.

She added that information about students who had been expelled or were at risk of explusion is sent to the National Security, Social Development and Youth Development Ministries.

She said that was done so those ministries could help the students and their families.

Gadsby-Dolly said, "Formerly, there was a multitude of young men (engaged in violence). Our young ladies are getting involved in that same behaviour."

She welcomed Youth Development Minister Foster Cummings recently' speaking about the introduction of a component of the Military-Led Academic Training Programme (MILAT) for girls.

Gadsby-Dolly put a bold proposal on the table.

"The time may have come for Trinidad and Tobago to enter into national discussion about students who are misbehaving at school, despite the best efforts of the ministry to change their behavior, to be entered into mandatory national service, so they can be given the support they need to be developed into productive citizens."

Gadsby Dolly said boasts of the UNC building 100 schools between 2010 and 2015 were false.

"They awarded 100 contracts but the schools were never built."

She added that the UNC never identified funding to complete any schools which were being built while they were in office.

"So it fell to us (PNM) in 2015 to find funding to finish the schools."

Gadsby-Dolly said Government has spent $1 billion to finish 20 schools which the UNC left incomplete.

She also said the UNC's disinterest in education was reflected by its non-involvement in the ministry's development of a 2023-2027 education policy.

"This is not a job for the faint of heart."

Gadsby-Dolly opined that was why the UNC chose to "remain in the shadows."

Government MPs thumped their desks when Gadsby-Dolly said, "The education sector has not collapsed. The Government has not collapsed."

She said that was reflected in improvements in SEA and CSEC results in recent years.

Gadsby-Dolly also rejected Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar's claim that Government was begging the business community to support education.

She told UNC MPs the private sector was helping Government to improve the education sector because it understood that it was where its future workers would come from.