Assistant Commissioner of Police Delworth Heath proposed yesterday that cadet forces be mandatory in Jamaican schools, saying that it was one way to help build discipline among young people and help in the fight against crime.

In a speech at an Up Park Camp ceremony to present officers of the Jamaica Combined Cadet Force with certificates for completion of a range of training courses, Heath noted that calls for mandatory military-style training in schools date back nearly 40 years.

Even in 1970, he said “there was concern that we were heading down a ditch”.

“. Some (of us) are asking ourselves today why is it we have not heeded the call because today, indeed we are facing a serious problem,” Heath said.

Later, the training officer of the JCCF, Lieutenant Colonel T McCurdy, told the Observer that National Security Minister Peter Phillips had been approached about making the cadet service mandatory, but the idea was not fully embraced. The counter suggestion was to expand the corps, which now has about 3,500 members in schools across the island.

“It was suggested by the minister to increase the number of the cadet force, looking at a figure of 10,000,” McCurdy told the Observer. “We are saying increase the JCCF input and establish more in each school.”

A uniformed group structured along the lines of the Jamaica Defence Force, the cadet force trains young people in a range of disciplines.

But McCurdy suggested that its relationship with the military, in an environment where there is public antipathy to the security forces, has, to some degree, stigmatised the cadet corps in the eyes of people and limited its development in schools.

The growth of the cadet force, he suggested, was also undermined by the ideological quarrels of the 1970s, especially when young people were sent by the People’s National Party government of the day to Cuba under the Brigadista programme. They were to be trained in construction skills, but ostensibly received military-type training.

“. In the political arena, it was believed people got more than academic training … suggesting [that they were given] military training, as the Cubans do,” McCurdy said. “People see going into uniform as something worse. There is this stigma and so they sort of keep away.”

He suggested, however, that a beefed-up cadet corps, operating in schools, could be oriented to provide training in a wider range of disciplines than is currently the case.

“Why can’t we have a cadet school focused on training in music, or AIDS education?,” he asked. “We can use the cadet unit as an agent of socialisation.”

In his speech, the police force’s Heath pointed to the high number of young people involved in crime and said that many of Jamaica’s social institutions were failing to instil proper values in young people.

He believed that the cadet corps, expanded and properly invigorated, could help lead the way back.

The young officers who were trained in disciplines such as first aid and supervisory management, he said, should use their knowledge to “lead and influence, to bring about changes in the people”.

Added Heath: “There will be those who say this kind of training is needed in particular problem schools, but in truth indiscipline occurs across the board.

“Look at the incident of the [upper class] youths caught drag racing, endangering public thoroughfare. It became a big issue. There was a feeling that you can’t talk to them.”