Dear Editor,

Have our secondary institutions become an “endz” or are they still a place of erudition?

I ask this question because more and more there is growing despair among many teachers that several students are not displaying a ready attitude towards learning as was the case in prior years. The surge of violent attacks in the Jamaican school system has driven dread into educators.

High schools in Kingston are leading in this phenomenon, but what can the teachers do? Parents are uneasy, considering daily if when they send their children to school they will return home safely or any at all. The fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Kingston Technical High School student Michion Campbell has proved that there is a minute amount of morality left in high schools across Jamaica.

It is disheartening that the Jamaica Constabulary Force has to be involved as students make it the norm to be armed. While many parents deny the fact that their child/children may be involved in a gang, society cannot turn a blind eye to the dire reality.

What is the purpose of deans of discipline and security guards? Do students have any regard for rules nowadays? There seems to be no control. In a recent news item published by the Jamaica Observer concerning violence at Paul Bogle High School in St Thomas, a school representative said, “The lives of people’s children are at risk.” Teachers are tired of being “batterbruised” by students, yet they are still required to show up at classes.

The behaviour of students is unbecoming when they are disruptive and disrespectful towards teachers and their peers on a daily basis. Students have lost respect, even for school administrators. Back in the early 2000s students had respect and were afraid of going to or even seeing their principals. It is obvious that students just do not care anymore.

As a vendor in Half-Way-Tree said, “A God alone can save dem pickney yer.” This has been the cry of many Jamaicans for a long time. The wound has festered and we often call on divine intervention, but can prayer alone really save this generation from themselves?

Paul Gardener

Shortwood Teachers’ College

Writer’s Guild Club

gardenerp3@gmail.com