The Cokesview Primary School in Westmoreland does not have a chronic violence problem. Sure, there are the occasional fights and displays of aggressiveness among its students, but nothing akin to the horrific, headline-making reports of shooting and stabbing at other schools.

Still, school principal Joyce Green is not taking any chances.

“Prevention is better than cure. We do our best to spread the message of peace here, because we do not want things to get out of hand,” she told the Observer West.

To this end, Green, who became principal of the school in 2002, has ensured that the theme of peace pervades the institution through the mural on the wall of the main building, the captions on other buildings, and the carefully arranged counselling areas designed to put students at ease.

It is impressive as is, but Green – ambitious of taking the school even closer to the ideal learning environment – plans, with the help of the Sandals Whitehouse Resort, to construct a water fountain in the schoolyard.

According to Green, the fountain will symbolise peace.

“Water has to do with peace and although we don’t see the money yet, we envision a beautiful fountain. It will be like a park, and carry the message effectively,” she said.

Her plan is part of a larger ambition to pull out all the stops enroute to ensuring that the 230 students enrolled at Cokesview Primary achieve optimum literacy and numeracy skills.

A reading specialist with more than three decades of experience in the education sector, Green was born in Longroad, Portland on April 27, 1949. She attended Manchioneal All-Age School, and on leaving that institution, went to Happy Grove High School. She then worked as a pre-trained teacher at Bell Castle and Duckenfield primary schools.

It was during her tenure as a pre-trained teacher that she met and married the Reverend Stenneth George Green. She subsequently went to Church Teachers’ College, where she gained her professional status as a teacher. She went on to become a master teacher.

As a result of his various postings, she worked in several classrooms across the island, before settling for more than a decade at Little London High School in Westmoreland. Her husband (now deceased) served as pastor for the New Testament Church of God and as the District Overseer for the Little London District of Churches in that parish.

On leaving Little London, where she served as a resource teacher and reading specialist, she took up the post of principal at Cokesview in 2002. Today, she is fully established in her profession, with several credentials from various educational institutions.

They include a certificate in education from the University of the West Indies, as well as a diploma in management from the Canadian-based Mount St Vincent University. She is also accredited by the Institute of Dyslexia in Indianopolis, whose help she has enlisted to assist in the training of Jamaican teachers to recognise, and tackle some of the difficulties that dyslexia, a reading disorder, poses for students.

“Douglas Arnold, the president of the Savanna-La-Mar Rotary, and myself managed to get them to come to Jamaica in January for a two-day dyslexia workshop for almost 70 teachers,” she said.

Green is also collaborating with the American university’s Peace Learning Centre, with a view to enhancing the matter of conflict resolution at the school.