PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Independent Schools’ Association (JISA) Rev Wesley Boynes is charging church-affiliated private educational institutions to steer schools back to the foundational values of the nation and cast away the “dark forces” seeking to inculcate strange cultures, such as expanded forms of gender identity.

“There is so much turbulence in the sector. As I speak at this very moment there are very dark forces at work in our lovely country trying to engineer major shifts in our traditional and foundational values, customs, and norms in the name of modernisation and achieving the status of First World,” he told a prayer breakfast hosted by the St Andrew Preparatory School on Tuesday.

He noted that these foundational values, which normally give shape and context to our conduct as a people, “seem to be under great attack and are being pushed through the door, little by little”, noting that these values include accountability to God; traditional family structures; leadership in the home; manhood; gender identity issues; respect for women; how we live with our neighbours; civic responsibility, including keeping the surroundings clean; as well as decorum and humility in politics and other spheres of leadership.

“As a country, we seem to be adopting the values and cultures of so-called First World nations, which don’t make sense. You just turn on the news and we can see for ourselves that these nations are, in fact, collapsing and imploding because of the practice of these same strange values and behaviours which have been thrust upon Jamaicans,” he said.

Making reference to the prophet Isaiah in the Bible, who warned of a time when deep darkness would cover the Earth, Rev Boynes said, “It seems like that time is now when in some of the so-called developed countries it is even politically incorrect to describe yourself as a woman.”

“In California, they have now passed some laws there, where a child at five years, a young, young child, can divorce his or her parents, if as a little boy you [approach] your parents and say I am a girl and they refuse to accept that you’re a girl, that child now has a right to divorce his or her parents. And as they say, anytime America sneezes, what happens?” he said, hinting of the possibility that this could find its way into Jamaican laws.

“As president of the Independent Schools’ Association I see that the darkness is attacking our education system in an attempt to introduce strange values, qualities, and habits to our children,” he said and referred to what he described as a strange textbook that found its way into the school at which he was chairman of the Parent-Teachers Association. He said the book’s definition of family structures was not aligned with what he had learnt in the Bible

Rev Boynes stressed that faith-based educational institutions are ideally positioned and structured and have a very critical role and responsibility to play in “arresting this alarming shifting and sliding of our core values”.

The JISA president, however, said he has clearly observed that “an alarming amount” of church schools are not so focused on ensuring that the operations of the institutions and the output of those schools reflect the values of the respective host churches in a satisfactory manner.

“There seems to be a widening gap or a drift away from the foundational values of the church and many church-connected educational institutions, and I can speak to that because I go around the country [speaking with educators]. This leaves me very, very concerned,” he said.

He reminded that the original vision behind faith-based educational institutions was much more than about passingexams for Primary Exit Profile or Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exams. “It was about producing God-fearing students of pristine values and character.”

Rev Boynes said the 93-year-old St Andrew Prep School, “as one of the foundational educational institutions which participated in the birthing of our nation”, has a responsibility to promote the foundational values of Jamaica.

“This status gives you the right to speak into any negative changes and development in the nation because you were here for the birthing of this nation. I would like to encourage you to elevate your awareness of the role that you play as a school.

“I would like to encourage the members of the church bodies connected to the school and the parents and the teachers to rise together, be vigilant, and speak as one. You are guardians of the original foundational values of Jamaica,” he said.

Playing on the theme of the prayer breakfast, ‘Together We Rise’, Rev Boynes further encouraged the school to rise up together and revisit the original mission of the school and to “rise up together and protect the values, the culture, and the spiritual traditions of the school. You have a voice, do not give in to the strange foreign cultures”.

He also encouraged parents to rise up together and support the efforts of the school to ensure that the leadership and teachers are well compensated.

“There are over 657 registered private schools in Jamaica, plus you have hundreds of others that are provisionally registered and a few more who have just applied for registration…So it’s about 1,500 or so in all. I only know of three schools in Jamaica that charge the full school fee — the fee that covers the budget entirely. All the other schools have to do all sort of different things to the cover that gap. So that’s why parents should support schools with all that they got,” he said.