APPROXIMATELY 300 students with behaviour problems are to benefit from the National Youth Service’s (NYS) annual Success Camps, which this year will be held at the Garvey Maceo Comprehensive High School in Clarendon.

The camps, which aim to socialise students who demonstrate anti-social behaviour, will run from July 10 to 31 and August 10 to 30. Students from 36 schools across the island are expected to attend.

NYS Executive Director, Reverend Adinhair Jones, told JIS News that each camp would accommodate up to 150 students, and would target students between the ages of 15 and 18 years, who have been recommended by their principals, parents or guardians.

When the students arrive at the camps, Rev Jones said, they would undergo a period of assessment, to include psychometric testing, in order to ascertain the extent of their behaviour problems. They would also be assessed for any learning disorders, which may influence their negative attitudes and behaviour.

Jones noted that the camps would be managed by trained psychologists, behavioural specialists and counsellors, who would be able to deal with issues relating to behaviour modification such as anger management, dispute resolution and mediation, among others.

At the end of the camps, Jones said, students would be expected to display an improvement in their behaviour and attitude, as well as develop greater awareness of themselves.

“We expect that students will come out with greater awareness of themselves, that they will return to school in September with the aim to achieve particular outcomes such as regular school attendance, improved behaviour and academic performance,” he remarked.

Notwithstanding this, Jones noted that principals and parents must remain realistic in their expectations of their students and children, as changes would not occur “overnight” but over a period of time and with the appropriate intervention.

“We want principals and parents to be guided by the assessment that we do so that the expectations of the students are realistic. Some students have learning problems and so they are not going to be able to perform at a certain level unless they are treated for their learning disorders,” he said.

Jones said students who completed the programme would continue to receive support and guidance, in order to encourage further improvement.

Against this background, he said the NYS would be working with the schools to implement a number of strategies aimed at assisting students, particularly those from volatile communities.

“We bank heavily on the quality within the student to embrace the change first of all and then the elements of support to come from the school, the mentoring programme that we set up, as well as the workshops, and a lot is going to depend on the environment beyond the home,” he noted.

The NYS Success Camps were first introduced in 2002 at Nutshell, in Trelawny, and focused primarily on truants.

“That particular intervention was aimed at truants, that is, students who were about to be taken off the official register at school and even if they were attending school they were not attending classes regularly; they were not performing at the requisite level and they were exhibiting largely what we regard as conduct disorders within the school environment,” Jones explained.

As a result of the success of that initiative, Jones said that the programme was again reintroduced in 2005 with more than 230 students benefiting.

He noted that last year’s camps were successful as a number of students improved on their school attendance, displayed an improved attitude and behaviour as well as achieved higher academic records. With this track record, Jones added that the NYS was looking forward to having continued success with the programme.

“Initially there was resistance but eventually persons started to align themselves to the discipline and to the structure that we had set and we have remarkable stories about persons who have gone through transformation as a result of the programme,” Jones said.

The programme is being funded by the Education Transformation Team, a unit within the Ministry of Education and Youth, at a cost of $28 million.