Governor General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Allen, has called for commitment from all stakeholders within the education system to rid schools of violence.
“Each school must be a violence-free zone. We should not have violence in our schools, everyone must passionately commit to this effort. Parents, students, teachers, school boards, security forces, church, social workers, community leaders and the nation as a whole, should commit themselves to the fact that we must not have violence in our schools,” he stated.
He said that a school is intended to be a place for learning to read and write, reason, think, analyze, make deductions and come to educated conclusions.
The Governor was addressing students of the Savanna-la-mar Primary School in Westmoreland on Wednesday (May 16), during a visit to the parish, as part of his island-wide tour to mark Jamaica’s Golden Jubilee year. He said the objective of the tour is to visit with the various communities and organisations to celebrate their achievements and accomplishments.
While at the school, Sir Patrick, and Her Excellency, Lady Allen, inspected a guard of honour formed by the Scouts and Brownies, and were treated to performances of gold winning pieces from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) festival of the arts.
The tour, which was led by Custos Owen Sinclair, started in Petersfield in the central section of the parish, where the Governor General was given insight into the operations of the Association of Clubs, which comprises seven groups collaborating in the training of community members of all ages.
Following a tour of the training facilities, Sir Patrick lauded the level of training and mentorship being provided for young people.
The next stop on the tour was Beeston Spring in the eastern section of the parish to observe various community projects.
Sir Patrick used the occasion to encourage the residents to support and strengthen their community organisations and institutions. He said now is the time to pool knowledge and resources, and utilise skills to achieve the common objective to make Jamaica the place of choice to live, work, raise families and do business.
He insisted that there is nothing wrong with Jamaica that cannot be fixed by what is right with Jamaica.