KINGSTON, Jamaica— Director at the voluntary organisation Hear The Children’s Cry (HTCC), Nigel Cooper, has repeated his call for the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination to be modified to have a compulsory and graded component that would involve parents and children.

This, he said would “demonstrate healthy parenting practices” while ensuring that the education system is used more strategically.

“We also urge that the Grade 6 curriculum be modified to ensure that after their PEP has been completed, all Grade 6 students will undertake a High School Transition Curriculum. This would include topics such as Expectations for High School, Bullying and Peer Pressure,” said Cooper, who is also a senior lecturer at the University of Technology.

“Our Grade 6 students need to be better emotionally prepared for high schools,” Cooper said.

Meanwhile, HTCC reminded that in 2008, it piloted a ‘Prevent-A-Dropout Programme’ in an inner-city all age school, with great success. It is recommending that targeted high schools adopt the model which features three main pillars:

1-Improving students’ low self-esteem

2-Positive Behaviour Modification

3-Enhancing Family Relationships.

Meanwhile, Cooper, and attorney-at-law Priscilla Duhaney, a member of Child Watch Legal, the affiliate arm of HTCC, are both urging Jamaicans to “bring back the village” in order to safeguard the nation’s children.

“In 2024 we saw children being the victims of senseless acts of violence and we condemn these acts and insist that stronger legislation be enacted in protecting children. It is also critical that the security forces and our justice system should be able to convict those responsible for these heinous acts. We need legislation with teeth that are not just about form but have substance and effect, the penalties must match the crimes,” they said in a joint statement.

“As we all know, it takes a village to raise a child but the reality is that in Jamaica, ‘the village’ has been shattered. Reports from The Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse confirm that it is not uncommon for children to be abused by persons they know and would have trusted,” they added.

HTCC wants Jamaica to “being back the village” to secure better outcomes for the nation’s children.