Educators searching for strategies to rescue sector from crime in St James
Published:Monday | February 12, 2024 | 12:06 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Education, crime-fighting and restorative justice experts from St James will present pertinent data on education and crime and how the crime epidemic is affecting education, with a magnified focus on the communities of Tucker and Granville, as well as from a broader western perspective.
Those data will be shared during Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College (SSTC) Research Day, scheduled for February 28 and aimed at equipping the teacher-training institution to better prepare its students with appropriate delivery methods when dealing with their students affected by crime.
Kerry-Ann Kerr-Williams, research officer at the college, explained that Research Day is primarily about allowing the institution to examine crime-related issues that affect education, as well as using education as a strategy to reduce crime in western Jamaica.
“The Research Day aims to create a safe space for all education stakeholders to share issues, formulate solutions, and set the tone for the way forward,” said Kerr-Williams, who is also coordinating this year’s activities, to be held inside the Dr Simon Clarke Auditorium at the college compound.
She noted that Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College, which is located in St James, is locked between two potentially explosive communities, Granville and Tucker, both of which have a reputation for fomenting violence, therefore highlighting the need to examine and explore the impact of crime on the education section.
Those solutions that the college is depending on, Kerr-Williams stated, will be informed by Larren Peart, researcher and chief executive officer of Bluedot Insights, and will also include presentations from the head of the St James Police Division, Senior Superintendent Vernon Ellis, and other key stakeholders from the Restorative Justice Unit of the Ministry of Justice, as well as school administrators from St James High School, Salt Spring Primary and Infant School, Cornwall College and Mt Salem Primary and Infant School.
Speaking from an educator’s standpoint, Kerr-Williams said Research Day, which is a critical partnership between the Ministry of Education and Youth, Bluedot Insights, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, and Restorative Justice Unit, will also be used “as an opportunity to build a research culture not only at Sam Sharpe, but in and around the environs of the college”.
She posited that a survey conducted last year among eight institutions revealed the need for a robust research culture.
According to the SSTC’s researcher, its Research Day activity will primarily target educators at the teachers’ colleges and other institutions at varying levels, who are like-minded individuals with a vested interest in education, to look at the issues at hand and see what intervention measures different institutions are using to find practical solutions that can be implemented to save lives.
Kerr-Williams lamented that while crime is seen as an age-old issue, educators should not embrace the practice of brushing it aside or under the carpet.
“As educators, we can’t turn a blind eye, and we still regard educators as change agents with the capacity to make a difference in society. And so, when we look at the statistics available, we see that there’s so much crime – there is violence in the schools, and it is coming from the communities,” Kerr-Williams argued.
Further, the SSTC Research Day coordinator added that the upcoming event is of great importance, pointing out that educators and other staff members of schools in these communities, and the wider society, need support and guidance because they are being negatively impacted by criminal activities.