Kenneth Russell | Role of key personnel in prevention of school violence

Schools should be safe protective spaces – an escape from the world and all its challenges while learning about the world and its challenges. I join all well-thinking Jamaicans in condemning the violence which plagues our schools, including the recent upsurge which caused physical and psychological hurt to too many children and their families. My deepest condolences to the families of Raneil Plummer of Irwin High School and Carson Barrett of Grange Hill High School who died tragically in recent days at school or travelling from school.

My colleague, Damion Crawford recently asked Fayval Williams, minister of education and youth, to implement a set of recommendations to address violence in schools. The recommendations can have potential effect on personnel, institutional arrangements, parents and other stakeholders.

I will discuss three of Crawford’s recommendations related to teachers, guidance counsellors and deans of discipline. No effort to reduce violence in schools and among students broadly can succeed without strong involvement of school personnel. These personnel need to be adequate in number and capacity, understand their roles, and be effectively coordinated and supervised. Most critically, implementation must be done systematically and not in a piece-meal, projectised way.

A critical player in the functioning of schools is form teachers. They play a key role in ensuring the various components of the learner experience are effectively coordinated and have a more intense relationship with students. Their roles have become focused on class administration. While necessary for the success of the students, it is not a sufficient use of this role.

Crawford’s suggestion is that the ministry should rethink the role of form teachers and better incentivise them to assume responsibility for the well-being of students. I think this reimagined role could shift their focus to ensuring the overall student experience is holistic, including linking children to special assistance or support services they need. They would ensure a comprehensive development programme for the assigned class(es) is implemented.

The form teachers would work closely with guidance counsellors, deans of discipline and other school personnel providing academic and social support to students. To make this attractive, the role must be designated for senior teachers with significantly reduced teaching responsibility. This change should be implemented almost immediately, with minimal additional cost.

STRONGER CAPACITY

The improved coordination role of the form teacher must be supplemented by the stronger capacity of school personnel, especially teachers. The need for all teachers to have deep understanding and mastery of skills in supporting and addressing child development and behavioural issues cannot be over-emphasised. Too often, teachers are insufficiently prepared to meet the challenges of their profession. Multiple initiatives have provided short courses or one-off workshops on behaviour management, disciplinary practices or teaching strategies to modify behaviour. However, very few teachers complete meaningful child development and behaviour modification courses as part of their studies, and even fewer get meaningful in-service training. What is required is ongoing professional development coupled with communities of practice to help support effective implementation. Linked to a system of teacher supervision and continuous professional development that is coordinated with promotion and remuneration, the results would be transformative.

Some teachers, especially with the introduction of deans of discipline, do not see themselves as central to addressing behavioural issues. Yet, the practices in the classroom, what is taught and how teaching is done, can integrate the values, attitudes and mindsets required to help shape the citizens our country desires. No subject, better yet, no aspect of teaching and learning, should be without a deliberate effort to influence the mindset of the learner and positively shape behaviour.

The third recommendation that relates to school personnel is the call for increasing the number of deans of discipline and guidance counsellors. Currently, there are 1,200 guidance counsellors and 139 deans of discipline serving almost 800,000 students in our 1,175 primary, preparatory and high schools. The ministry’s reported ratio is of one guidance counsellor to every 500 students but, as is expected in our very inequitable education system, the ratio is much higher among the schools that need the service the most. It is also twice the globally recommended ratio of one guidance counsellor to 250 students.

TOO HIGH

Even in the very best of times, the ratio is too high. The pervasive nature of violence in our society is reflected in the UNICEF data showing that 80 per cent of children experience violent physical or psychological punishment, 65 per cent report being bullied at schools, and four of every five children (80 per cent) say they see violence at home or in their communities. On its own, this is sufficient basis for increased counselling support. Add to this the effect of the pandemic on children’s mental health and the myriad other factors stressing children and their families and the inadequacy of the number of guidance counsellors is even more evident.

More guidance counsellors are not just needed, they must be provided with urgency. This should be supplemented with additional social workers and more timely access to the services of psychologists and psychiatrists.

The numbers of deans of discipline are simply too low. While an increase is the obvious fix, one could also conceive of a scenario in which they are not fixed to specific schools but cover multiple schools. In this re-imagined approach, they possess deep expertise in positive behaviour management, support schools in areas such as capacity building and implementation of safe school strategies, risk assessment and monitoring and engaging in management of specific cases.

These strategies together contribute to multiple points of reinforcement comprising an effectively coordinated effort of school personnel who understand their roles and are working together to address behavioural issues. When combined with other strategies, such as ensuring school personnel are readily accessible to children and all school personnel entrusted with authority to disrupt suspicious behaviour, these school personnel-focused strategies will make a difference individually while also contributing to the whole-school approach needed to seize the opportunity which this crisis presents.

Kenneth Russell is an international education expert. He is the PNP candidate for member of parliament, South East St Ann and the deputy shadow minister, education and community development.