THE impact of gangs and drugs in communities on students was one of the contributing factors to school violence.
As well as the role of school administration in managing discipline.
These were some factors raised as contributors to school violence in a virtual meeting with the Ministry of Education.
A release from the Ministry of Education on Monday stated the meeting included Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds and Minister of Youth Development and National Service (MYDNS) Foster Cummings, along with their technical teams.
The other factor included the need to better understand the psycho-social developmental needs of adolescents.
The Ministry of Education presented an overview of the current environment and strategies used to address school violence and historical data; while the MYDNS shared the positive impact of youth intervention programmes, formally under the Ministry of National Security, now under its purview.
Dr Gadsby-Dolly received a commitment from ministers Hinds and Cummings to formalise a smaller inter-ministerial team to develop a plan of action.
In addition, the team will review the MOE’s report on historical baseline data as it related to schools with problems of violence; along with an analysis of trends and patterns.
The ministry said, “The report will identify interventions currently implemented and their associated results and/or challenges.
“This document will inform the work of the inter-ministerial team in the development of specific recommendations for improvement of the current system in place to address the problem of school violence.”
Dr Gadsby-Dolly said, “We need a multi-pronged approach to not only understand why we continue to have the problem of school violence, but to reduce its occurrence significantly.” Ministers Cummings and Hinds articulated their commitment to the process, along with the technical expertise of their staff.”
The inter-ministerial team was expected to meet again on or before March 21.
