Dowlath: Delinquent students disciplined, reintegrated

Shas­tri Boodan

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

Stu­dents who were in­volved in delin­quent and risky ac­tiv­i­ties out­side of school have been dis­ci­plined, coun­selled and rein­te­grat­ed in­to the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath said on Sun­day.

Dowlath was speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia dur­ing the se­mi-fi­nal round of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) Meena House Dance Com­pe­ti­tion at Gulf City Mall, San Fer­nan­do.

How­ev­er, Dowlath con­firmed the four sec­ondary school stu­dents from North East­ern Col­lege who were sus­pend­ed af­ter they were in­volved in a fight on the first day of school re­main sus­pend­ed.

Then, po­lice con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia that a no­tice from the school’s prin­ci­pal di­rect­ed the boys to at­tend the San­gre Grande Sus­pen­sion Cen­tre dur­ing the sev­en days they will be away from school.

Dowlath said videos cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia show­ing stu­dents in­volved in delin­quent be­hav­iour out­side school had been brought to the at­ten­tion of the po­lice and school au­thor­i­ties.

“There have been some videos cir­cu­lat­ing about stu­dents who have been delin­quent out­side of school,” Dowlath said.

“All of those have been brought to the at­ten­tion of the po­lice, and the schools have tak­en the nec­es­sary mea­sures in terms of sus­pen­sion, coun­selling and rein­te­gra­tion in­to the school sys­tem.”

Dowlath said the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion had al­so launched its Na­tion­al School Code of Con­duct, which out­lines pro­ce­dures for deal­ing with dis­ci­pli­nary mat­ters.

“We had launched our Na­tion­al School Code of Con­duct, so all of the pro­ce­dures and dis­ci­pli­nary mat­ters have been dealt with by the school prin­ci­pals and deans. I have been as­sured by the prin­ci­pals that the stu­dents have been rein­te­grat­ed in­to the school sys­tem,” he said.

The min­is­ter al­so ad­dressed prepa­ra­tions for the new school term, say­ing all schools had re­mained open while work con­tin­ued on out­stand­ing re­pairs.

“One of the things that has hap­pened dur­ing this new term is that we have en­sured that all schools are open,” he said.

Dowlath said the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion had been work­ing with the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties and Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath through the Main­te­nance Train­ing and Se­cu­ri­ty (MTS) pro­gramme to com­plete out­stand­ing works.

“We have en­sured that all the school projects and va­ca­tion re­pairs are in the fi­nal stages of com­ple­tion to en­sure that schools will con­tin­ue to be open for stu­dents,” he said.

He al­so not­ed that the min­istry had is­sued a cir­cu­lar to schools con­cern­ing the high tem­per­a­tures be­ing ex­pe­ri­enced across the coun­try.

Dowlath said mea­sures were be­ing im­ple­ment­ed to en­sure that schools could con­tin­ue op­er­at­ing safe­ly but ac­knowl­edged that ex­treme tem­per­a­tures could re­sult in ear­ly dis­missal in some cir­cum­stances.

“We have al­so sent out a cir­cu­lar deal­ing with the hot tem­per­a­tures that we are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing right now in schools, and so mea­sures are be­ing tak­en to en­sure that the work gets done. But in some cas­es, when the tem­per­a­tures are ex­treme, we may have to have ear­ly dis­missal,” he said.

“Sys­tems have been put in place for that.”

In brief re­marks to the gath­er­ing, Dowlath said the com­pe­ti­tion demon­strat­ed the im­por­tance of cul­ture and the arts in the de­vel­op­ment of young peo­ple.

“Dance is much more than move­ment,” he said. “It is a lan­guage through which we tell our sto­ries, pre­serve our her­itage, ex­press our iden­ti­ty and build con­fi­dence.”

He con­grat­u­lat­ed the se­mi-fi­nal­ists and praised par­ents, teach­ers and cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers for in­vest­ing their time and en­er­gy in young peo­ple.

“Ed­u­ca­tion does not take place on­ly in the class­room,” he said. “The arts, cul­ture, sport and com­mu­ni­ty are al­so pow­er­ful class­rooms for de­vel­op­ing well-round­ed cit­i­zens.”

Dowlath said the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion was com­mit­ted to build­ing an ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem in which every child had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to learn, cre­ate and de­vel­op their tal­ents.

He urged the young per­form­ers to en­joy the com­pe­ti­tion, sup­port one an­oth­er and give their best.

“Com­pe­ti­tion is im­por­tant, but so too are the friend­ships, dis­ci­pline, con­fi­dence and mem­o­ries you de­vel­op along the way,” he said.