Stricter monitoring of students needed – Region 10 officials

Regional Officials of Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) are calling for the stricter monitoring of school-aged children, while they attend out-of-school events, such as sports and Mashramani-related activities. It has been reported that some students in the region who attend such events, engage in the consumption of alcohol and other unsavoury activities. As such, Councillors within the Regional Democratic Council have made calls for the re-implementation of stricter policies to curb the delinquent behaviour.

It is believed that the relaxing of some older policies, such as dress codes associated with attending these events and the failure to report to school prior to the activities, may be contributing factors associated with students’ delinquent behaviour. Loitering after such events has also been highlighted as a main concern by Councillors. These issues formed part of the discourse during the most recent statutory meeting of the Council. Councillor Sandra Adams reminded that according to the law, persons are prohibited from selling alcohol and cigarettes to a child 18 years, she therefore called for some of the older policies to be re-established in schools.

“Looking back at the years of what had a smooth flow of activities, Councillor Callender would have alluded to the school taking you to sports, the school taking you back to the school’s location and they would have arranged for transportation to pick you up from there in your uniforms. The only thing you could have wear out of the ordinary was a white ribbon and a white socks and a white boots… These are things we have been trying to implement back in the system. The day the schools would have been able to come to sports without the uniform is where the chaos began,” she noted, as she pointed out that today’s students are allowed to attend events in formal clothing.

“There is no law that prevents us from saying to the schools, ‘let the children wear their uniform’, and if we want to bring back some form of order, we got to go back to what worked – uniform worked, because they know they could be identified on the road,” Adams continued.

She added that while some students may still behave disorderly while in uniform, the return of the school uniform dress code may eliminate the majority of such issues. She also pointed to the fact that students are attending such events with “cutup jeans” and revealing clothing, which are considered unfit for school-related events. Adams added that the reinforcement of certain policies would be a joint effort between the Education and Welfare Departments coupled with Parent Teachers Association bodies. She called on the Council to have the Police involved, following school events, as well as to have them included in anti- drug talks in schools, as well as the return of the Guidance period, noting that this may also assist with decreasing the level of pornography in schools.

Meanwhile, Education Committee Chairman Denise Belgrave noted that it is policy, that for any school-related activity, students are supposed to attend school at the regular time and have their names marked before proceeding to the activity.