Education officials should monitor teachers’ behaviours in all schools

TIMES INT'L

Dear Editor,

I always believe that the schools are a home away from home for our children; they are supposed to be safe places. However, some schools have recently been used to carry out certain activities that are harmful to our children.

Whenever I hear about the misdeeds of teachers, such as has happened at Fort Wellington Secondary School and at Saraswat Primary School, I get upset; because teachers are expected to be the students’ role models, but in the two cases mentioned above, they turned out to be their alleged abusers. These culprits are giving all teachers a bad name and diminishing the reputation of all schools. I know that there are a lot of good teachers and that they do not deserve to be categorised in the same group as the ones that I mentioned above.

I believe the schools should be monitored by officials, to ensure that the teachers are carrying out their functions effectively and are not involved in any hideous acts. Maybe the fear of being watched can help curb their negative thinking. Some schools in Georgetown are visited frequently by education officials, so the teachers are hardly in trouble. Perhaps if the Ministry of Education were to embark on monitoring efforts in the other schools, it would help to reduce cases of misdemeanour.

However, the monitoring should be done in such a way that it should not distract or hinder the students from their school work and teachers from their effective teaching. I believe everyone is aware of the attention given to the schools where the sexual assault cases took place. I hope that every effort will be made by the relevant organisations in this country to ensure that our children are not abused in any way, since this could affect them for the rest of their lives.

Yours truly,

Andrew Stuart

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