Mayaro MP backs PM on school discipline

Ma­yaro MP Nicholas Mor­ris has thrown his sup­port be­hind Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s stance on school in­dis­ci­pline, ar­gu­ing that par­ents and the home must play a cen­tral role in ad­dress­ing vi­o­lence and bad be­hav­iour among stu­dents.

In a state­ment, Mor­ris, who is al­so a Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter, said Per­sad-Bisses­sar was right to take a firm po­si­tion on in­dis­ci­pline as the Gov­ern­ment seeks to pro­tect the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem.

“The Prime Min­is­ter is right! Schools must be the in­sti­tu­tions where we build the fu­ture of our na­tion by nur­tur­ing our great­est re­source, our hu­man cap­i­tal, through ed­u­ca­tion, dis­ci­pline, hard work and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty,” Mor­ris said.

His com­ments come amid on­go­ing de­bate over the Prime Min­is­ter’s re­cent warn­ing that stu­dents who en­gage in vi­o­lence, bul­ly­ing and oth­er forms of in­dis­ci­pline could be sent home from school.

Mor­ris de­fend­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s cre­den­tials on ed­u­ca­tion, point­ing to her pre­vi­ous tenure as Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter and her ad­min­is­tra­tion’s lap­top pro­gramme. He said she had al­so helped ex­pand ed­u­ca­tion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties to rur­al com­mu­ni­ties, in­clud­ing Biche in his Ma­yaro con­stituen­cy.

He al­so took aim at for­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ters who have crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment’s ap­proach, ac­cus­ing them of dis­play­ing “dou­ble stan­dard hypocrisy” and lack­ing the po­lit­i­cal will to build schools while they held of­fice.

Mor­ris ar­gued that stu­dents who are fo­cused on their ed­u­ca­tion should not have their progress dis­rupt­ed by oth­ers who choose vi­o­lence and in­dis­ci­pline.

“The class­room must be a place that fa­cil­i­tates the cre­ation of lead­ers, na­tion builders and those who can push our so­ci­ety for­ward,” he said.

He al­so re­ject­ed crit­i­cism that re­mov­ing dis­rup­tive stu­dents from schools would sim­ply shift the prob­lem in­to their homes.

“It is alarm­ing that some are say­ing ‘don't push the prob­lem from school to home’ but the fact is the so­lu­tion starts at HOME!” Mor­ris said.

He ar­gued that par­ents and fam­i­lies have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to in­stil “morals, dis­ci­pline, ethics and val­ues” in chil­dren.

Mor­ris said the Gov­ern­ment’s ap­proach ul­ti­mate­ly pro­tects stu­dents who at­tend school to learn, in­sist­ing Per­sad-Bisses­sar “is right to stand for those ded­i­cat­ed stu­dents.”