MEMBER of Parliament for St Catherine North Eastern Kerensia Morrison says students with behavioural problems must be inspired to a level of consciousness that will make them more aware of the consequences of their actions.

She said getting students to this level of consciousness “will be even more effective than many punitive actions or draconian rules”.

“This awareness of self, this consciousness, this cherished identity will see more confident and resilient children,” Morrison said while making her contribution to the 2022/23 State of the Constituency Debate in Parliament on Tuesday.

The MP argued that the methods used by parents to deal with children’s behavioural issues will not always work, noting that “we are dealing with children who are of a different orientation, whose upbringing and way of thinking may be unlike ours”.

“The way to enable them to achieve their best outcome is to take psychology seriously — conversation, reason, counselling, therapy must be part of the suit of the methods used,” Morrison said.

Her thoughts on students’ behavioural issues come on the heels of the recent killing of a female student of Kingston Technical High School who was stabbed to death during an altercation with her classmate on the school compound last week Thursday.

During a visit to the school on Monday, Education and Youth Minister Fayval Williams said psychosocial support would be provided for the school’s students.

Morrison stressed that indiscipline in schools has administrators “at their wits’ end and no teacher should be dealing with troubling behavioural problems.”

In the meantime, the MP noted that in addressing youth apathy, the Government will continue to include young people “as we develop our constituencies, as we grow”.

She noted that youth have to become sold on relevance and how governance issues align with their goals, arguing that “the politics is relevant when it connects the things that are of interest to you.”

“The prime minister is unto something powerful with initiatives such as coding and digitisation, climate change, green technology, alternative energy, enterprise in creating technology. These form the big conversations on the international stage and youth can coalesce around these issues,” she said.

“All we need to do more prime minister, is to tether, is to hotspot these big ideas and initiatives with youth so wherever they are, they can be connected and included — inclusivity is the language of the future,” she said.

— Alecia Smith