MONTEGO BAY, St James

Local educators in collaboration with the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) will intensify their drive to send the proverbial rod of correction into retirement following last Friday’s launch of the Child-Friendly schools initiative and alternative method of discipline in schools campaigns.

The launch which was staged at the Ritz-Carlton Rosehall resort, saw educators from across the island meeting to signal another step in the changing paradigm that has seen some, but not all schools moving towards the creation of more student-friendly environments.

“One of the characteristics of a child-friendly school is that children are appropriately disciplined and not subjected to corporal punishment. No child should be subjected to any form of violence in their home, community or school… We know this is an uphill battle with the widely practiced and largely accepted use of corporal punishment at every level of Jamaican society,” said Robert Fuderich, UNICEF’s representative in Jamaica.

Pointing to a manual consolidating global best practices for developing national capacities to implement Child Friend School models.

According to Fuderich, the manual, copies of which were distributed to some of the educators, will equip local officials and educational practitioners with practical guidance on how to design, construct, maintain, operate and manage child-friendly schools in various conditions.

According to the manual, child-friendly schools are characterised by appropriate standards of access, learning achievement, student health, nutrition, sanitation, teacher training and methodology as well as alternative disciplinary methods.

Come next month, he said, key stakeholders in the industry will be introduced to the model a workshop to be hosted in Ocho Rios by UNICEF and the education ministry.

Education Minister Andrew Holness, who delivered the main address at the launch, told educators that a critical issue to be addressed en route to realising the objectives of the campaign concerned the resolution of the conflict between the traditional and contemporary views of education.

In this regard, he said, the ministry’s modus operandi would be to inform and engage the stakeholders.

“Enforcement is expensive and it is short term,” he said. ” I want those people who hold to the traditional view to understand that the traditional view is dying because people are not participating. they are developing a sub-culture that will guide the society if we don’t respond,” he said.

Despite the contemporary trending away from corporal punishment as a method of discipline, some educators have retained a strap for special occasions.

According to Dave Scott, principal of the Howard Cooke Primary school, corporal punishment is practised within his school to a very limited extent.

“It is only in very extreme circumstances, and everything is done according to book,” he said.

Holness pointed out, however, that the way forward in education would have to be premised on an acknowledgement of the reality that students had different learning styles and objectives.

“What education has done on Jamaica is kill creativity. it does not prepare our students to meet their full potential and fulfill the vast expanse of careers,” he said.