NEC students in viral fight remain suspended, says minister

Shas­tri Boodan

GML Cor­re­spon­dent

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath says the four North East­ern Col­lege (NEC) stu­dents in­volved in a fight that went vi­ral on so­cial me­dia on the open­ing day of the school term re­main sus­pend­ed.

Po­lice have al­so con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia that the school’s prin­ci­pal had in­struct­ed the boys to at­tend the San­gre Grande Sus­pen­sion Cen­tre dur­ing what was ini­tial­ly a sev­en-day sus­pen­sion.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at the se­mi-fi­nal round of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture’s (NCIC) Meena House Dance Com­pe­ti­tion at Gulf City Mall, San Fer­nan­do, yes­ter­day, Dowlath said the stu­dents, who lat­er apol­o­gised in a video post­ed on­line, have not yet been al­lowed to re­turn to school.

Dowlath al­so ad­dressed re­cent videos cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia show­ing stu­dents en­gaged in delin­quent be­hav­iour out­side of school. He said the in­ci­dents had been re­port­ed to both po­lice and school au­thor­i­ties.

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

The min­is­ter said the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion’s Na­tion­al School Code of Con­duct guides the re­sponse to such in­ci­dents, with stu­dents sub­ject­ed to dis­ci­pline, coun­selling and rein­te­gra­tion mea­sures where nec­es­sary.

Turn­ing to prepa­ra­tions for the new school term, Dowlath said all schools have re­mained open while out­stand­ing re­pairs are be­ing com­plet­ed.

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

He added that the min­istry has been work­ing with the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties and Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath through the Main­te­nance, Train­ing and Se­cu­ri­ty (MTS) Pro­gramme to com­plete out­stand­ing projects and va­ca­tion re­pairs.

“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.

Dowlath al­so said the min­istry had is­sued a cir­cu­lar to schools ad­dress­ing the high tem­per­a­tures cur­rent­ly af­fect­ing the coun­try. While mea­sures are be­ing im­ple­ment­ed to en­sure schools can op­er­ate safe­ly, he ac­knowl­edged that ex­treme heat could re­sult in ear­ly dis­missals in some cas­es.

“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. Sys­tems have been put in place for that,” he said.

Ad­dress­ing par­tic­i­pants at the NCIC event, Dowlath high­light­ed the val­ue of cul­ture and the arts in youth de­vel­op­ment.

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

He con­grat­u­lat­ed the se­mi-fi­nal­ists and praised par­ents, teach­ers and cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers for their role in nur­tur­ing young peo­ple.

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

Dowlath said the min­istry re­mains com­mit­ted to cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents to learn, cre­ate and de­vel­op their tal­ents. He en­cour­aged par­tic­i­pants 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.