Ronald Thwaites | On restoring order

This society is careening towards the precipice of irretrievable social disorder. Why did the Tivoli student dare to take on a teacher in that fracas? Where was he, and countless others, taught that such conduct could be appropriate? I think I know. It is because he felt ‘dissed’. Yes, disrespected. ‘How it a go on the street if you mek ooman class yu?’ The same is probably true of the teacher. ‘The renk yute had to be put in his place, so mi haffi lick him and pawn the desk.’ Personal and professional pride required no less. Real or imagined disrespect is the trigger for most violent behaviour.

I wonder how much influence that youth’s father has on him. Has he had the experience of Sunday or Sabbath school? Has he been exposed to any of the uniformed groups? What was his primary-school experience? Can he read well? Does the curriculum at his school relates to his life? What do we make of the police superintendent in west Kingston reporting multiple violent and disruptive incidents in several inner-city schools, as well as his inability to even arrange a corrective session at Tivoli High?

Oh, you are impatient with those questions? We had better not be. Unless we realise that this incident is not an isolated one and that youth violence is a learned malady, neither the ‘fight back’ riposte of the undistinguished leader of the teachers nor the fascist promise by a minister (who speaks with the authority of the whole government!) to weaken the Charter of Rights, will curb our problems of crime and disorder.

(Sorry Delroy, your latest effort to sanitise your colleague’s assault on human rights fails miserably. It should be an offence against the Legal Profession Act to so palpably demean the Constitution. Does the Cabinet condone such Trumpism (sic)? And Mr Policeman Bailey, of course you are right that victims’ rights are of priority over a criminal’s rights. But neither you nor us politicians are the ones to determine guilt and impose punishment, which is what happens when you lock up people indefinitely without a court determining criminal responsibility.)

Instead of disrespecting fundamental freedoms, and in order to show respect for victims, arrange for all gun and murder trials to begin no later than three months after arrest. Why can’t we make that happen?

“They cry respect.” That was the title of a cogent analysis of the disorder-vulnerable youth some years ago. The respect they seek doesn’t mean condoning wrongs. It means listening and correcting the oppressive circumstances of most of our people. I think this was what Minister Homer Davis’ comment about dialogue with “gangsters” was meant to convey.

OPPRESSION AND SCHOOLING

Consigning thousands of students to underperforming schools is an act of oppression. It is an offence against God and man. We are about to do that again in a few months. It need not happen. I plead for three remedies. First, double the per capita subvention to schools with low-achieving intake; $19,000 per head won’t cut it. In the present circumstances, equality does not equal equity.

Next, please don’t waste this summer. Any student with below-grade-level scores in literacy or numeracy, and those with social and behavioural challenges, need to be engaged in a full remedial programme during all of July and half of August. Nothing less will do. Pay teachers extra to try to do what has already been paid for to be done during term time!

Third, in the challenged schools, make provision for every student to be fed and engaged in one or more structured extracurricular programme. This is how to spend the $3 billion which the Patterson Commission recommends must be devoted annually to start redressing systemic problems and the COVID-19 deficit.

ORDERED SCHOOL SYSTEM

Professor Densil Williams’ forthrightness and practical wisdom should earn him a much more influential place in Jamaican policymaking. He is right that funding education adequately for the next two decades should be the supreme priority of the nation. He is correct, too, in insisting that reducing subventions to tertiary education in order to supplement underfunded early-childhood intervention is a misguided recommendation. Highly and appropriately trained teachers and caregivers for our little ones require a robust tertiary experience.

But Prof Williams needs to better confront his main point of agreement with the Patterson Commission: to wit, that the present spend is significantly wasteful and derives insufficient value. Check things at the UWI too, Prof! My contention is that even when more money is available, there will be little improvement until both the remuneration and accountability (not one, but both) of teachers are corrected.

Neither Williams nor Patterson have gauged the political cost of that task. Reforming the Education Regulations will likely be far more contentious than even the teaching services bill.

The entire country is waiting to be mobilised towards the task of transforming education. But it can only be undertaken if there is jointure between the two political parties. Is that likely when, months after the Patterson Report, there is yet to be any cross-party discussion on its recommendations?

But there are positive signs. Both the Ecumenical Churches Committee and The University of the West Indies are stirring to begin dialogue on thorough-going transformation and planning to treat the Patterson Report as a starting-point. By taking the initiative, the revealing point is emerging that the catalyst and energy for profound change in the society will likely come, not from Parliament or the political class, but from what is loosely called civil society. Look what we come to!

MIA AMOR

And as a related postscript. What a joy and pride it was to listen to Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s speech at the Summit of the Americas. She carries the spirit, the ethic and the ideology of Michael Manley. Her apt borrowing of the Bob Marley motif captivated even Anthony Blinken. She is truly the Caribbean leader of this age.

Rev Ronald G. Thwaites is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.