I want to go school!
Published:Sunday | August 22, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
Come September morning, approximately 260,000 primary-level students are expected to start the new school year. Barring a much-needed intervention, Richard James* may not be one of them.
The nine-year-old, who should start grade four next month, has been reduced to tears because he knows he may not get the education that is lawfully due to him.
Under Jamaican law, failing to secure the education of a child between the ages of four and 16 is a crime. However, many parents and guardians go unpunished for such crimes as the State often fails to intervene and bring charges against them.
"School is my life ... . I'm so upset with not going back to school and I've been crying over that," the lad told The Sunday Gleaner. Richard has not been to school since April of this year. He was forced to miss the last couple months of grade three because his parents separated earlier this year.
If the situation doesn't improve, Richard is in grave danger of becoming part of the statistics that trouble the Office of the Children's Advocate.
Fundamental right
In her 2008-2009 annual report, Children's Advocate Mary Clarke highlighted that her office was concerned about "the fact that children of school age are still to be seen playing, begging and selling on the streets and in commercial areas on school days".
Clarke said that this ought not to be so because education is one fundamental right that all children should be guaranteed once they are living in Jamaica.
Many poor parents struggle to find the finances required to keep their children in school. Section 28 Subsection (2) of the Child Care and Protection Act (CCPA) provides an avenue for financially challenged parents/guardians to appeal to the minister for financial assistance to send their child to school.
"Where a person having the custody, charge or care of a child is financially unable to provide the child with any article required for the purposes of the child's education at a school at which the child is registered, that person shall apply to the minister, in the prescribed manner, for assistance."
Janet Jones, Richard's mother, is aware of the provisions of the CCPA. But she also knows that it takes cash to care. The 34-year-old mom told The Sunday Gleaner that since he was pulled from school she had tried her hand at a slightly different brand of homeschooling since they were still without a permanent address.
Understanding
Meanwhile, it is evident that the youngster has grasped the gravity of the situation. Richard understands that despite his burning desire to go back to school, he will not be able to if his mother does not get a job or the money needed to buy his uniform and the remainder of his textbooks for school.
That, the little lad said, makes him feel "very bad".
Jones undertook the painful task of telling her son that despite getting a scholarship to a preparatory school in St Andrew, he still might not be able to start school in September. "She told me that I cannot go back to school because things are not going to work out," said Richard, who revealed that his favourite subjects are language arts, mathematics, and social studies.
After the break-up
Before the separation of his parents, Richard attended a prep school in Ocho Rios, St Ann. After the break-up, his mother took him and his five-year-old brother to Manchester where they stayed for a little while before coming to Kingston - further away from the family business that was their livelihood. Since then, the small family unit has been bouncing from pillar to post as they are now of no fixed address.
One of the last places they stayed was with a female friend, but they had to pack their bags and leave because her friend's son, who was away, returned to the dwelling. Now, Jones said, they share a space with a caretaker and are forced to wake up early and leave because he does not own the place.
Things are tough. But Jones is trying to get help. The mother of two believes her children are bright and does not want to see the potential they have displayed go to waste. "They are very brilliant, especially the nine-year-old one," she said shortly before bragging that he spelt 46 of 50 words correctly at a recent summer school programme staged by the Corporate Area-based Jamaica Youth for Christ.
The Reverend Herro Blair Jr, national director of the Jamaica Youth For Christ, told The Sunday Gleaner that churches and organisations such as his would "love to assist families", so donations from the public are welcome.
*Name changed,