Dear Editor,

The following is an open letter to the prime minister and de facto minister of education, Andrew Holness:

I am the father of two teenage children and an educator for over 20 years. In quiet moments I reflect on the high level of indiscipline in our schools, particularly among our boys, and I despair.

My son wants to become a doctor, and I believe he will achieve his dream, but he sees no future in his country based on the indiscipline and violence perpetrated by boys his age.

Just recently I was walking through a major town about 9:30 pm and I saw a group of boys from a well-known high school dressed in their school uniforms smoking ganja. I asked myself where are their parents and what time will they reach home? I provided myself with the answer to my questions.

I wanted to go over and engage these boys, but I was too scared to approach them based on past experiences and advice.

Studies examining the relationship between young men and crime are not foreign to policymakers like yourselves. According to anthropologist with a focus on crime and violence, Dr Herbert Gayle, boys who are uneducated and unattached are the most likely targets for gangs hunting recruits.

Crime in Jamaica is committed by mainly uneducated young men, according to a recent study by the Inter- American Development Bank. The study, which disaggregates homicide data based on gender, posits that 90 per cent of all victims of homicide are male, and above 90 per cent of all perpetrators of homicide are male. I don’t have the data, but I am willing to bet that above 90 per cent of all disciplinary infractions in our schools are committed by boys, and less than 30 per cent of the membership of Sunday and Sabbath schools at churches are boys. This has catastrophic social and economic implications for national growth and development.

How then are we going to rescue our boys and save our society?

Put aside the politics, Sir, but I think the leader of the Opposition is correct that there has to be a revival and transformation of family life in Jamaica. Karl Samuda, who responsibility for education, is also right that we have to get the homes and communities involved in the development of the child. However, the problem I have with you politicians is that your greatest measurement of success come in promises and talking.

I am humbly recommending that a special kind of education tax be established, geared and engineered towards providing resources to train and equip parents with needed parenting skills to deal with their children. Parenting classes and centres would be established and parents would be mandated to attend these classes and make their homes available for visitations of social workers and guidance counsellors. There would be a greater link between the schools and the homes which would reap rich rewards. The ancient practice of having one guidance counsellor to sometimes 1,000 students can no longer work. A national mentorship programme could be accommodated within this context.

I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I have every confidence that if we put aside the politics we can arrive at the solution.

I pray that the Government and the Opposition can come together to advance the right laws and policies that will rescue our boys and ultimately save our society.

Andre Wellington

Christiana PO

Manchester

andrewellington344@yahoo.com