Dear Editor,

An 11-year-old boy was in a dispute with a friend and it ended up in the partial decapitation of a 14-year-old. In effect, two lives may have ended on that sad day.

It is no secret that Jamaica’s flirtations with a most violent and murderous subculture has had an indelible impact on the nation’s young and most vulnerable. Not only are they victims, they are transformed into perpetrators; not only are they murdered, they become murderers.

We must not accept this state of affairs as the new normal. It goes without saying that action is required to stem this tide, and one area in which we can possibly make significant inroads is the arena of education. The current divide which sees a majority of students (and parents) vying for spaces in more traditional institutions to the detriment of non-traditional schools has effectively contributed to a kind of “apartheid” education system, and in this system the schools which are in need of most assistance, for instance Cumberland High, find themselves effectively left in the cold.

In this atmosphere the job of educators become more difficult, especially as it relates to discipline among students. This state of affairs provides a ripe opportunity for the re-evaluation of the education ministry’s reactive policy towards discipline in schools with the removal of corporal punishment. Effective means must be devised so as to ensure that students who are exposed to a murderous and violent culture do not seek to replicate this behaviour on school campuses across the country. Apart from greater support and funding for nascent institutions, perhaps a change in the curriculum at the nation’s teaching institutions, with added emphasis on a more social work-based approach to teaching, may yield some assistance.

Noel Matherson

noelmatherson@gmail.com