Saint Lucia’s Education Ministry has requested that the Ministry of Finance increase the allocation for school security.
However, Education Minister Shawn Edward recalled telling school principals that a pitch for more security funding means conceding in other areas.
“So, whereas the Ministry has a responsibility to send supplies to schools on a weekly basis, we cannot get from the Ministry of Finance an increased allocation for security and continue to get all the resources we would have been demanding over the years in other areas,” Edward told reporters.
The Minister spoke amid a police probe into a chopping incident on Monday at the Ciceron Secondary.
Two students sustained injuries.
Edward condemned student indiscipline on the school grounds or when students head home.
“There is absolutely no place for indiscipline in the school system,” the Education Minister told reporters.
He spoke on the margins of a National Principals Association (NPA) conference.
“I am on record as saying that we will provide all the necessary psychosocial support to our students because the reality is, whether we want to be emotional about it or not, the reality is children are coming from homes that are broken,” Edward said.
He explained that as a result, the youngsters do not have the proper orientation.
In this regard, The Minister explained that the deficiency would invariably manifest in deviant behaviours.
“We will try and provide the support. We will be stern with students when we have to, but by the same token, I am saying when children transgress the laws in ways that are totally unacceptable, I have no difficulty as Minister of Education ensuring that they face the brunt of the law,” he asserted.
“But, we will work with them. We will continue working with the the Saint Lucia Teachers Union,” Edward told reporters.
He noted that there was concern not only for student safety but the safety of teachers and principals.
Is this man serious, so reduce supplies to school because you need to beef up security. Ridiculous… So either way out children will suffer. Meanwhile $41 million to reward consultants. Change the constitution so all parliamentarians can be Ministers of Government! This government is really taking the piss!
BTW what happened to the report from the Consultant on School Security Ausbert Regis. Was anything implemented from his report? Did his report say increase allocation for school security? I could have proposed that for free? So we pay a man $100k+ to tell us nothing! But we know what these “consultancies” really are… A reward for political support! Still waiting on the one for elderly care from the Ex PS in the Ministry of Health!
This government is a reactive group of clowns. They have no plans, priorities or objectives. They react only when something happens. Times have changed, the criminals are changing yet the government does not change their strategy to keep up with the times.
With all the activities, schools are left without security at the very least. They wait until something bad happens as in the last school incident so they can react. If the last incident at the school never happened then the discussion and all the nonsense conversation from minister of education would never surface.
This conversation will last until the people forget about the incident. Everything will get back to normal.
SLU will never win the crime war. It is about to get even worse as it occupies new grounds such as our school environment. All of this is as a result of our leaders – incompetence. It does not appear that they care about security or unaware of the value of security all over the country. SLU is the only country I am aware with little or no security. Everything is default. Things will get worse in SLU – sad state of affair.
How about firing the Consultant and use that money to finance school security. See you didn’t even have to pay me for this advice.
The minister for Education needs to resign and so does the minister for security. These individuals who lead these too departments are clueless, inexperience and is not technically sound to move these departments forward. One step forward two step backward. I recalled vividly way back in 2003, that the educational structure is the backbone for the future development of this country, however from what witnessing correctly (2003) the country is not investing in its education resourcefully, intelligently and in a productive manner. So said so done. Now we are in 2024, 2 decades later, the educational sector, is only Turing out 2% successful academics and the rest are reverting to criminals. Judge me wrong because the age group that are killing themselves out are validation of my suggestion since back them. If the laws are structured properly no need to go this length and breath of cutting resources. For ions now this island formula are just reactive and not proactive. If the policies and law are not in Favour to shape the future what will you expect of the school drop outs and unsuccessful ones? If the government of the day is turning a blind eye the key component to progress a country, and that departments are neglectful to the core what do you expect to come out of it. Hense we are not shorting our labor force with 70+ homicide yearly, we are giving 15 years tax exemption to a particular sector, while other bark day in day out lack of finances, the country only focus 90% of its budget of investment only to one sector, while we begged other for 2 cents to keep others afloat, take loans to feed its people. I ask a few kids after a game of cricket about our 2 nobel winners you know what they said, mister them did their time you check it, today is ours we have to survive. MOE is just a white elephant. The form 1s to 5 and the reapers which sits at CCSS prays on people girl child. Now when we harbor thieves, rapist, bullies etc in the confinement of the school they automatically getting a certificate to go do as they please. i can go on and on…!
Ok here is the issue. Yes there is consensus that the schools need security. However, this proposal is tantamount to putting a plaster on a festering wound that has already putrified with margots swirling all over it. I suggest you look for money to initiate programs and policies that teach the young to make better life choices…beefing up security without addressing the problems in society is simply sweeping the rubbish under the carpet hoping it goes away….you need to deal with the causes….kids don’t just become violent when they come out of the womb…they don’t become violent and unmanageable over night…you need to tackle the situation from the root. Find money to create an agency that will work with all schools to identify troubled children and implement a plan to divert that child’s attention to meaningful pursuits. By Increasing security you are creating a culture that borders on a prison environment….children must come to school in an environment where it is a school. Not a prison where security is roaming about looking over every corner to secure the surroundings…What will it be next? giving the security staff guns to protect themselves and students? you poor thinkers are making the same mistake over and over again….for froggy jacks’ sake….where are the men and women who have an ounce of smarts in that grey matter of theirs whom most of them would claim their floating sky god gave them….I can’t seem to understand how a god made some people so foolish and unable to use their heads to come up with better policies….no wonder most believe in the pie in the sky god….but now it makes sense….perhaps god did make some people foolish enough to believe in him and worship him and if not…threaten then to burning in an eternal roast… believe it or not, your heaven and hell is right where you live….you present situation, your present circumstances….and these are affected by choices made….at the moment Saint Lucia is in hell… simply because those in authority aren’t making the right or best choices, a family who lost a son is in hell simply because they (family and son) did not make the right choices…. heaven and hell is right before your very eyes….you make the choice….chose to make it better….but to do so we need to get the right people who see things holistically….not backward, superstitious, myopic visioned, spastic brained thinkers….
Looking back, the 15-2 win or whatever win, seems to play out the devil operating in disguised. Apparently the SLP didn’t expect to win, but they won. They won and still celebrating their victory, so basically the formation of the Parliamentarians/Ministers are people who they selected with zero experiences in management, some passes through university, no experience and believe they can make the change, you right they are doing so by allowing criminals to venture into our schools, soon it will be in hospitals or clinics. It also shows, like people was deciding what ministry they wanted and the fool for the leadership can’t think for himself because he got swell headed to become the PM something he never dreamt off. Future bleaks for youth in this island, my advice for the youths go and work on the farms or boats and leave, save your money and seek betterment, opportunities is vast. I am planning to move as well. GDP is growing with a island unable to feed itself. These clowns…
The SLTU has had that on the agenda with the Minister of Education since in the days of Robert Lewis. Every time some incident happens at a school the Minister talks about beefed up security. A week later the matter is dead until the next incident. A Reactionary country, we don’t see the need to put strategies in place to prevent, we can only talk shop when it happens and then it is dead. We don’t even try to remedy the situation.
There is enough wastage in the Ministry of Education and in this government by extension, that the choice shouldn’t be security or supplies. The minister should have thought a little longer before he made that statement. Most of the problems we are experiencing are as a result of a poor education system and successive administrations with the wrong priorities.
Everything is more cash, more cash and not get rid of what’s not working first.