The Editor, Sir:

I read with awe an article in the Star about a parent barging into St. George's College and commanding all the students to remain until she recovers her son's pair of shoes that was stolen. At first I thought, what is this? This is the school where my brother spent 7 years, having left there in 1990, and I have never heard such lunacy.

While it points to the parent's conduct, what must be brought into sharper focus is the regard for the administration and the security system at the school. I know for sure up until recently, that you could not just enter the campus like that during school time, as on my return to the island with my brother to collect a transcript, there was a security officer at the school and he radioed the office before we were allowed to enter. So I think the issue has to be one where the parent felt that the school lacked the ability to deal with the matter, hence she had to take matters in her own hand.

Added to that is the silence of the administration. Is it that the Ministry of Education does not do a critical review of a new administration at schools, especially when there was resentment?

Transforming education will take far more than teacher/student ratio, benefits and good physical plant. A lot of it will rest on leadership in schools and the confidence/support of parents.

I am, etc.,

MILLICENT JAMES

Ontario, Canada

millie_ja72@yahoo.ca

Via Go-Jamaica