Dear Editor,

The youth arm of the Jamaica Labour Party, Young Jamaica, is very disappointed with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association’s (JTA) president’s clear inability to appreciate the fact that caning is outdated, grotesque, draconian, and plainly abusive to our children.

Young Jamaica is vehemently opposed to this backward way of thinking and strongly urges the JTA to begin devising a new message of discipline and respect from our children. We are of the view that the indiscipline being experienced in our schools is as a result of poor parenting and, hence, we will continue to advocate for our parents to do more in engendering a culture of respect and discipline in their children.

We are even more alarmed by the gross disrespect and wanton disregard for the rights of our children shown by the JTA President Owen Speid. His comment suggests his lack of care for the good work being done by human rights advocates to protect our children. From Speid’s comment it is clear that there are some members of our education system, who will have to begin shifting their minds away from using corporal punishment as the method of discipline, and start asking themselves what other non-violent method can be used to instil discipline in our schools.

We empathise with our teachers as the task ahead seems daunting, but must encourage them to allow their passion to be their guide as the nation will fail if our teachers fail.

Howard Chamberlain

President

Young Jamaica

youngjamaica.jlp@gmail.com