ROSE HALL, St James — Education Minister Ronald Thwaites has made it clear that there is no room in the teaching profession for reckless parents.

“Careless fathers and loose mothers have no place in the teaching profession. This is not Ronnie teaching the Sunday sermon or the Sabbath sermon on a Wednesday. It is the clear statement of utilitarian and practical value in the society. People of the JTA (Jamaica Teachers’ Association), unless we fix our family lives, we are not going to achieve the standards of development that we want in this country,” the education minister told JTA delegates in St James last week.

At the same time, he also stressed that the time has come for the membership of the JTA to advise parents to inculcate good behaviour into their unruly children instead of unleashing them on teachers in the classrooms.

“…And the second thing we have to do, JTA, the Ministry of Education takes on the challenge with you, [so] it is time that your association join with us in saying, not angrily but resolutely to the society, ‘look here, manage your children’. Do not send ‘leggo beasts’ to our schools and expect us to make the difference,” Thwaites said.

He was addressing the 51st Annual Conference of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association at Hilton Rose Hall Resorts and Spa.

“We shouldn’t have to be spending so much money on behaviour modification,” the minister said.

He added: “In Singapore, 91 per cent of all of the time allotted to teaching and learning is in fact on the transmission of knowledge and the receptiveness of knowledge-teaching and learning. The United Nations world average is 85 per cent of the allotted time being spent really and truly on that. Our statistics in Jamaica indicates that it is 61 percent here. We have to catch up,” Thwaites said.

Thwaites’s ‘leggo beasts’ comment has, meanwhile, not found favour with the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party.

Spokesperson on education and youth Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, who yesterday asked Thwaites to withdraw the comment, chastised the minister for classifying some children as ‘leggo beasts’ and pitting himself and the JTA against parents.

According to Senator Johnson Smith: “Labelling troubled children ‘leggo beasts’ does not contribute to the need for a collaborative and transformational approach to the building of a good education system.

“It speaks to a further condemnation of children with antisocial behaviour from difficult circumstances to being ostracised, and adds to the cycle of negative behaviour and experiences they suffer. Parents who have troubled children need help and the minister of education must recognise the role of the school system, his ministry and himself as key tools in the resocialisation of troubled children,” she said.