Letter of the Day | Commit to protect rights of all children

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The next two weeks will be marked by frenzied preparation for ‘back to school’. Bookstores will be crammed with parents scrambling to purchase textbooks, and dressmakers will work under pressure to complete last-minute uniform orders – and we should truly celebrate all of it!

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child explicitly states that every child has the right to a quality education. Yes, there are areas of weakness in Jamaica’s education system that we must continue to work assiduously to address, but the Jamaican child, by and large, has access to schooling.

Sadly, too many children across the world are being denied this and other fundamental rights because of the vicious wars being waged. In Gaza, Israeli Defence Forces have deliberately and strategically bombed schools robbing children of the hope of an education and by extension, a future. Moreover, almost all children in war-torn regions are beset by starvation because of man-made famines that have ensued. In Sudan an estimated 3.2 million malnourished children teeter between life and death. How can any child displaced, maimed, hungry and traumatised even be expected to engage in learning?

As we excitedly prepare for our students to return to school in September, let us not forget the children whose dreams of an education lie buried beneath dust and rubble.The obliteration of children’s rights, especially to an education, should alarm us all. We must use every platform available to us to raise awareness about their plight. This is especially true for our leaders, including Jamaica’s representative to the United Nations, Brian Lawrence, who must be unequivocal in expressing Jamaica’s commitment to protecting the rights of all children and work constructively with our global partners to ensure that these rights are upheld.

MARIA MUTIDJO

Principal