Campbell's Commentary WHICH IS RIGHT. TO READ AND WRITE OR TO FIGHT…?

By Aubrey Campbell

NEW YORK, NY. Wednesday, March 04, 2020 -- Hello folks. Another week and a new month, to boot! I want to engage you for a few minutes on a matter of concern that if not checked now, could be the ‘coronavirus’ of Jamaica.

Folks, I speak of the violence that has shown up on a number of school campuses across the island in recent months, the kind that have stakeholders and the government, scratching their heads in wonderment.

Let me be clear. Jamaica’s education system is broken and has been so for quite some time now! How to fix it, is anybody’s guess, a dilemma not helped by recent developments involving the then Minister of Education and others.

What I do know is that since Ruel Reid and company got swept up in the seemingly endless wave of corruption, things have gotten from bad to worse in the education sector. And even more, confounding is the fact that prime minister Andrew Holness is in no hurry to name a replacement minister, instead he has asked the tried and tired Karl Samuda to step in and fill the breach, until such time!

After showing much promise as a headmaster at Jamaica College, Reid was seconded to the Senate and ‘given’ the education portfolio. He was ‘given’ the portfolio, so now, if he is found to have committed a crime, he should do the time! And only time will tell, because in, Jamaica, the wheels of justice turn excruciatingly slow and we know what happens when justice is delayed…!

It is hard not to see the correlation between the head and the body, to the extent that teachers are leaving the classroom in droves. Get this, since last September, some 300 teachers have left the classroom for assignments elsewhere including better offers overseas, China being one such destination!

To say that teachers are scared is an understatement! A recent Social Media (SM) post showing teachers in classrooms with some self-defense apparatus affixed to their hips while putting up notes on the chalkboard, should not be taken lightly!

I’m not exaggerating when I say that since school opened last September, teachers have been killed, injured or forced to flee for their safety, from gangs of students and parents who have lost their GPS.

I remember once upon a time, not so long ago, Deacon Ronnie Thwaites, then minister of education, likened students in some schools to ‘leggo beasts’ and he almost lost his job. In my home city of Montego Bay, the principal was forced to back off his jacket so as not to be wrestled to the ground by an irate parent, who stormed the compound, demanding to know why her son was suspended. And about a month ago, another parent stormed the same Cornwall College campus and went straight to a classroom to accost a boy who was said to be bullying her son. And when the dean of discipline intervened, he was given a beatdown for the world to see via SM.

So, where was the security?

Initially, that was my reaction as well, but as budgets are cut and subventions dwindle to a trickle, security on campuses has become a casualty!

And so too have the voices of reason from the Diaspora and especially the USA Diaspora, which boasts one of the model sectors, the education sector which has since morphed into a task force!

Are you with me?

It bothers me that for a ‘stakeholder’ group that had the eyes and ears of the government, including the minister, there is yet a statement from the leaders on the violence plaguing our schools! Mind you, these are the same persons that control the biggest and most powerful union representing the Jamaican alumni associations, headquartered in New York City, of all places!

Why the silence?

Teachers being killed, injured, threatened and forced to walk out the classroom and off the job to protest the lack of security, and not even as much as a sneeze from our leaders in the Diaspora, the same leaders who write and publish the Diaspora Voice!

Dr. Karen Dunkley needs to step in here, right this minute!

Let me be clear. If things have been written and speeches given, I have not seen or heard!

The education task force for which the Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations (UJAA)/USA, Inc, is a benefactor, need to say something. When New Yorkers dress up in their Saturday best, a weekend in, a weekend out, in support of their alma mater, or their friend’s school, they are indirectly investing in the educational infrastructure, back-a-yard!

So, if you are going to jump, jump, jump to it - the defense of Leo Gilling that is, who said to hell with bidding processes and government procurement protocols, and that there is nothing wrong with being ‘given’ millions of dollars, all because of his association with Ruel Reid and friends, and turn around and turn your backs on teachers who are supposed to be at the epicenter of your endeavor, then I have a BIG problem with that picture!

Thank goodness, all is not lost. At least not yet! There are persons in the Diaspora, looking on, taking notes and ready for action.

Herbert A. Nelson Jr, Chair, Crime & Security Committee Group, attached to the Institute for the Caribbean Studies, in Washington, DC., has been meeting and making presentations on how to safeguard the welfare of children in Jamaica, using available technology.

He was kind enough to share his story with me on The Power Hour, two Saturdays ago. Since the last a quarter of 2018, Herb, an educated man – then again, I should not say that because there are those who because they are educated, take us and people like myself for fools - has been consulting with the Ministries of National Security and Education, and to this day, the School Safety SoS application, is still sitting in the AppStore, waiting for a download, while teachers are fleeing in droves, for fear of their lives and livelihood!

And by coincidence, Leo, the would-be Commissioner of the City of Miramar, Florida, got his millions and UJAA (USA), Inc., is dazed and confused and in self-quarantine, infected by the coronavirus of corruption!

Heaven help us!

You have the floor!