Leonardo Blair, Enterprise Reporter
BROWN
CHIEF EDUCATION Officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, Adelle Brown, says the ministry is working on a plan to allow 'violent' and 'disruptive' students who have been expelled from schools to continue their education.
They are also working to avoid further suspension or expulsion
of these students from schools, but some principals and the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) say it will be a tough sell.
DISORDERS TREATABLE
A recent report from the National Youth Service (NYS) revealed that a majority of students, labelled as violent and disruptive in the nation's school system, were found to be suffering from a variety of behaviour disorders, mental illness and learning disabilities. Accor-ding to the report, some schools were expelling these students even though the disorders were recognised and treatable.
The report explained that, of the 202 students participating in the behaviour modification pro-gramme last summer, 29 per cent of the students were diagnosed with critical to severe behavioural disorders, while another 24 per cent of them had mild to moderate behaviour disorders. Another 29 per cent of them were identified as being in need of psychiatric help and 10 per cent had learning disorders.
But yesterday, Ms. Brown told The Gleaner: "We are trying, through the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), to avoid the suspension or expulsion of some of these students. We have a small fund that we work with, and what we are trying to do now on a small scale is to refer them (students with special needs) to specialists. For those who have already been expelled, we are just developing a programme to help them finish their education."
NEED FOR EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TEST
She said the success of the Education Ministry's efforts will depend on how much principals are willing to work with it. However, some princi-pals say they have worked with the pro-gramme and have had their fill.
"The Ministry of Education needs to do something by removing those students," says Smith, who sent 35 of his students to the NYS' behaviour modification summer programme last year.
"Those 35 students were just randomly selected, you can imagine if we had sat down and began testing everyone. There are cases where teachers are afraid to go to classes because of some of these students," he said.
He pointed out that the ministry needs to create an emotional intelligence test designed to identify behaviour and learning disorders at the primary and supply them to schools to allow them to know what they are getting.
Ruel Reid, president of the Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) explained that if all efforts to intervene through behaviour modification failed, schools should not be asked to keep 'disruptive students.'
"We have always maintained that we are going to attempt at all times to see if we can modify the behaviour of students but if this continues to threaten other students or the learning process they have to be expelled," he said. He explained that in response to some of these very problems the JTA will he hosting a major behaviour management conference at the Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios from April 18 to 20.
