Dear Editor,

All well-thinking citizens should be outraged by the frequent reports about schools being burgled and vandalised by individuals who clearly have no regard for these institutions of learning. It is heart-rending to see how educational institutions are being pillaged and plundered by heartless miscreants hell-bent on seeking immediate gratification.

I am calling on the Government and Opposition to collaborate at the level of Parliament in terms of introducing legislation that will provide very punitive and exemplary sanctions against the perpetrators of these wicked and unconscionable acts against the nation’s youth.

Education is the key to this country’s economic survival. When schools, even at the basic school level, are relieved of important and valuable pieces of equipment, this is a serious deterrent to the learning process. Civil society as well as the movers and shakers in the corporate and political spheres need to speak with one loud voice on this vexing issue.

In the meantime, I strongly suggest that those criminals who are apprehended and proved guilty should be made to do extended community service at the schools they have plundered. Over to you, Education Minister Andrew Holness!

Lloyd B Smith

Montego Bay

St James