Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit believes that education reform is important as the Caribbean faces a surge in violent crimes.
Speaking at a round table regional symposium on crime and violence in Trinidad on Monday, he said the education system must concentrate on students and their development rather than just passing exams.
“I think we need to have, in my respectful view, a comprehensive review of our education system in the Caribbean,” he stated. ”
“Our school systems now are focused solely on preparing students for examinations, external examination, national examinations and there is absolutely no time in the five hours or so that the students spend in the school setting for anything to do with the welfare and well-being of the children. We don’t take time to understand where they come from, where they live, their economic circumstance and to appreciate their behaviors in the classroom.”
Following the symposium, the prime minister hopes there is an “urgent review” of the regional education system.
“I believe that that would help tremendously in helping to dry up the recruitment ground for these violent behaviors,” Skerrit said. “Because we are talking about guns but we must also focus on anti-social behavior which sometimes leads to the extreme ends of using guns and other weapons to advance violent behaviors.”
According to the prime minister, the regional education system has moved from seven subjects per student at CXC and GCE to 15 and 18.
“The same five hours, it hasn’t been increased but we increased the number of subjects being offered to our students,” he stated. “Sports and physical education have taken second place. Extracurricular activities in the classroom no longer exist.”
He pointed out that while the percentage of passes in CXC and other exams are being boasted about, there is a failure to address the 20 or 30 percent of those that did not pass.
“And I think we are focusing on those who do well academically but we fail to pay attention to the mental and emotional state of our children,” he said.
Skerrit also pointed to various groups in society, who he said are abdicating their social responsibilities.
“The whole concept of it takes a village to raise a child, now it is solely up to the ministry of education to educate our children,” he stated.
“Where are our parents and guardians? Where is the clergy in its missionary work, its evangelical work? Where is the business community? The business community, we are more concerned about the dollar profits and we only talk about crime when it affects our businesses, not because our children are dying [unnecessarily].”
Skerrit believes the different groups in society must spend more time examining what their contribution is to addressing the social challenges regional countries face. He stated that reviewing the education system will help current and successive generations to follow the straight and narrow path.
“We are focusing on the problem, I think the education system will help us in a proactive and preemptive way to almost dry up the source, the recruits, the 20 and 30 and 40 percent of young people who are not academically successful and who we define as failures in society,” he stated.
The symposium was organized by the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley. Addressing the opening of the event on Monday, he said violence is “threatening to destroy our paradise in the Caribbean Sea.”
“Violence in the Caribbean is a public health emergency which threatens our lives, our economies, our national security, and by extension, every aspect of our well-being,” he remarked.
To drive home his point, he gave statistics on crime in his home country.
“In Trinidad and Tobago in the years 2011 to 2022, we have lost, and we had to grieve for, 5,439 lives lost to violent murders largely through the use of imported firearms and ammunition,” he said. “In 2011, we lost 352 lives and by 2022, the annual count was over 600, a new record already being challenged by the murder rate for 2023.”
The symposium is being held under the theme: Violence as a Public Health Issue – The Crime Challenge.
