KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Faculties in Jamaica will observe “Peace Day 2024” on Tuesday amid considerations of elevated violence at faculties right here. Final October, Training Minister Fayval Williams stated that the island is going through an epidemic of violence amongst our youngsters.
“And that’s only a arduous, chilly reality,” she informed reporters. Williams stated the plan would cut back faculty violence by 50 p.c by November 2023.
“This can be a mammoth activity that can’t simply be left to the 1,198 steerage counselors, our 139 deans of self-discipline, or the 41 senior lecturers who act as deans of self-discipline, or the 257 faculty assets officers, which is one other approach of claiming cops, who we’ve got in our faculties,” she stated.
A United Nations Kids’s Fund (UNICEF) 2018 scenario evaluation confirmed that roughly 80 p.c, or roughly 300,000, of Jamaica’s youngsters expertise some type of physiological or bodily violence administered as self-discipline.
The examine additionally discovered that roughly 65 p.c of scholars are bullied at college and that 79 p.c witness violence within the dwelling or group.
“Too typically we see battle conditions that would have been resolved in a different way if our college students take a distinct strategy,” stated the Director of the Security and Safety Unit within the Ministry, Richard Troupe, noting that the Peace Day aligns with the Ministry’s ‘Jus Medz It’ marketing campaign, which goals to finish violence in faculties.
The Ministry of Training and Youth is becoming a member of Peace and Love in Society (PALS) Jamaica in observing the occasion beneath the theme “Let Peace Run Issues!’”.
“If we are able to create a extra peaceable faculty group, if we are able to create a state of peace amongst our college students, it’ll affect straight [in reducing] the extent of violent incidents in our faculties,” Troupe stated.
The Ministry of Training and Youth inspired all early childhood, main, and secondary faculties to mark Peace Day. They known as on deans of self-discipline, steerage counselors, well being and household life lecturers, and college nurses to concentrate on peace-building actions.
Directors at private and non-private faculties are inspired to include the Peace Day message that the PALS secretariat has distributed within the day’s actions.
Normal supervisor of PALS Jamaica, Janilee Abrikian. in her message for Peace Day, stated peace should lengthen past the house and faculties and into communities and the nation.
“It means working collectively to construct a society based mostly on justice and equality, and supporting one another and lifting one another,” she stated, urging the general public to point out their assist for the initiative by sporting blue on March 5.
Associated
