MONTEGO BAY, St James — National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang has pointed to the need for strong leadership at schools, particularly those experiencing difficulty with discipline, to improve performance.

Chang, who is also deputy prime minister, made the comments to journalists Friday on the sidelines of a retreat dealing with violence in schools.

The event, titled Inter-ministerial School Support Retreat on a Multi-Agency Response to Violence in Schools, was held at Iberostar hotel in St James.

Chang aimed his comments specifically at the chair of school boards, stating that they have a critical role to play in administration.

“As we go forward, especially in the very difficult schools, we have to look carefully at the leadership in schools which demonstrates challenges,” Dr Chang said.

“So the chairman, the principal, and the critical supporting staff
— guidance counsellors, school resource officers, which we are going to have to introduce on a broader scale
— will have to be examined. Leadership is crucial to overcome the challenge in schools,” he added.

Chang argued that maybe not enough attention have been paid to school chairmen because the emphasis has always been the role of the principal. “But that principal needs a good chairman to make a school function well,” he said.

He made reference to two primary schools in his St James North Western constituency where, he said, harmonious relationships between the principal and chair have resulted in improvement of the schools’ performance.

“I looked at my two schools; I said [at] one the chairman and principal worked [together] and that school is now among the best performing schools.

The other [school] only the got a new principal recently, which is beginning to make a big difference,” he said.

Recently, two students from Grange Hill High School in Westmoreland were shot, one fatally, on their way home from school.

That followed the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old male student at Irwin High School in St James. A 15-year-old male student has since been charged in connection with the murder.

Dr Chang told stakeholders at the retreat that the Ministry of National Security is committed to working with the Ministry of Education and other ministries to resolve the problem of violence in schools.