By Orville Williams
Director of Education Clare Browne has declared that the Ministry of Education is prepared to retake the responsibility for school security, with one important caveat – that it is allotted adequate resources to succeed.
School security – or the perceived lack thereof – has fastly become one of the most contentious issues in the country in recent time, with a number of highly-publicised breaches of school compounds drawing the ire of parents and teachers alike.
Several educators and administrators have been decrying the unwanted spike in incidents of break-ins, physical violence, theft and vandalism, to the point where they have even embarked on protest action to ‘make their voices heard’ and demand change.
The most recent breach involved a school principal who was allegedly assaulted by a parent on a school compound. That incident drew condemnation from across the sector and is being referred to as the type of unwanted escalation that is threatening to become a recurring theme if the situation is not addressed, and fast.
Speaking of speed, the time it is taking the relevant authorities to address the issue of school security is a problem in and of itself. Many within the sector acknowledge that the situation cannot be reversed overnight, but insist that small steps can be taken with urgency to offer the school attendees some much-needed peace of mind.
According to the Director, the Ministry of Works currently has responsibility for school security and has for many years, with the exception of a short period when it fell within the remit of the Education Ministry.
Recovering that responsibility would be no problem for his ministry, Browne said, as the ultimate goal remains the safety and security of all involved in the sector. He stressed though, that the appropriate resources must be afforded to the ministry if that is to be done.
“The Ministry of Education has no difficulty, and maybe I’m talking out of turn, but so far as I’m concerned – obviously I’m not the only person in the Ministry of Education – I would think that the Ministry of Education has no difficulty in assuming the direct responsibility for school security.
“It’s one thing to say ‘take back the role of school security’, but we have to have the adequate budget to do it … it’s not necessarily whatever is allocated, because we have to make sure that whatever is allocated adequately covers the costs.
“There is a bit of a deficit, so when you take the budget, you’re taking not only assets, but you’re [also] taking the debts. Therein lies a bit of a dilemma.
“I reiterate, the Ministry of Education has no difficulty as long as we get sufficient money to cover what is required to ensure that our nation’s schools are secured, [that] our teachers feel safe, our principals feel safe, our students are safe and our parents have the peace of mind that their children are going into a healthy, safe, enriched environment – that is where we want to be,” Browne said during an appearance on the Observer AM show yesterday.
Much of the clamour stemming from the aforementioned breaches is for an increase in the number of security personnel physically stationed at schools, the most affected in particular, to ward off any potential threats.
However, the government has repeatedly spoken about the high cost of such an endeavour, and pledged to find more cost-effective measures of monitoring and prevention.
Browne told Observer that work is currently underway to implement some of those measures, with priority being given to the most vulnerable school plants.
“We’re making sure that we light up all our schools, the dark areas in schools, and we’ve done most of them. I’m told that there are about three of our priority schools that we still need to touch – the Princess Margaret School, I think Pares Secondary, and the Sir Novelle Richards Academy.
“We have [also] secured cameras because, like I’ve said, the cost of having static sentries on school plants in the silent hours would really send up the security bill. The cameras have been sourced, we have started to install [them] in some of our schools and in short order, cameras are going to be installed in all our schools, starting with the priority schools,” he said.
The Director of Education also assured that with these measures in place they are expecting improvements, as the police can intervene in quicker time where necessary.
“We have developed a [stronger] relationship with the police, so they are helping us now with constant [and] heightened surveillance of our schools, and they stand ready to respond to any call from any principal of any of our schools,” Browne added.
