Ash Wednesday midterm break and sports day activities resulted in a number of Corporate Area schools missing out on the annual Peace Day observation Tuesday.

Not so at Dunrobin and Half-Way-Tree primary schools in St Andrew.

Dunrobin Primary Principal Sacheel Grant-Henry argued that observing Peace Day is important for the school to help improve Jamaica’s efforts to reduce crime and violence.

“It cannot be solely just academics that you want to teach children; we want to teach them to be rounded individuals. We live in an environment that is riddled with crime, and if we start by introducing the children to peace, especially being a primary-level institution, then of course we are setting a foundation for what they may become as adults,” Grant-Henry told the Jamaica Observer.

The Peace Day activities, which were headed by the Guidance Department, included an extended devotion, with students delivering performances and expressing the importance of promoting peace.

The governor general’s peace message was read by the head boy and head girl, while different items were on display to promote the message.

Additionally, students from each grade level were selected and sashed as the school’s peacemakers after teachers were asked beforehand to observe their behaviours and select a few students from each class who showed the qualities of an ideal peacemaker.

This strategy, the principal said, was important as it provided an opportunity to further promote student leadership which is an important aspect of the school’s foundation.

“For everything that we do at Dunrobin we believe that student leadership is important. So, if it is becoming the prefect, the head girl, peer counsellor, we do have student leaders and so, of course, on Peace Day we want to have student leaders as well, so the peacemaker becomes the replica of the class and the school’s embodiment of peace,” Grant-Henry said.

She also pointed out that Peace Day is not just a one-day activity for the school.

“We have what we call the Character Traits Awards, which is done every month. What happens is that the Guidance Department issues a responsibility or a particular theme each month and the teachers look out for students who embody them, and they are presented with certificates every month for upper and lower school,” the principal explained.

Meanwhile, at Half-Way-Tree Primary School, while the Peace Day activities had not started when the
Observer arrived, Guidance Counsellor Camille Brown said a service would be held to engage students in activities to reinforce how to promote peace.

The school also planned conflict resolution sessions between students and guidance counsellors throughout the month as a way to show students various tools to solve issues that may arise without turning to violence.

“One of the things that we realise is that many students do not know how to talk out their problems, or how to even acknowledge that they are having a problem, so we try to teach that conflict is not bad, it is how we handle conflicts and we give them some strategies they can use to handle conflicts,” Brown said.

She expressed concern about the country’s crime problem and emphasised the need for change to begin with the youth.

“For a country that is not at war we are very violent and aggressive and our children are going to be tomorrow’s adults, and it’s already not looking good from this vantage point. So whatever we want for the future we have to start teaching it here, and if we want to see a more peaceful Jamaica we have to start building peaceful relationships now,” she said.