MoE launches urgent review of school discipline policies

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has launched a com­pre­hen­sive and ur­gent re­view of both the Na­tion­al School Code of Con­duct and the Na­tion­al School Dis­ci­pline Ma­trix, in di­rect re­sponse to the es­ca­lat­ing lev­els of stu­dent in­dis­ci­pline in schools across the coun­try.

“This is not a rou­tine ex­er­cise. It is a crit­i­cal re­assess­ment aimed at in­tro­duc­ing stricter, more rel­e­vant, and en­force­able mea­sures to strength­en ex­ist­ing pol­i­cy frame­works,” the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion said in a press re­lease is­sued on Fri­day 6 June 2025. “The re­vised dis­ci­pli­nary struc­ture will em­bed greater clar­i­ty, con­sis­ten­cy, and con­se­quence. It will be firm, fair, and fit for pur­pose—de­signed not on­ly to de­ter mis­con­duct but to re­in­force ac­count­abil­i­ty and re­spect across all ed­u­ca­tion­al in­sti­tu­tions.”

The Min­istry’s an­nounce­ment forms part of a broad­er na­tion­al re­sponse to the rise in stu­dent ag­gres­sion, mis­con­duct, and vi­o­lence. Speak­ing at the post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar SC called for im­me­di­ate, col­lec­tive ac­tion to re­store dis­ci­pline in schools. She reaf­firmed that schools must re­main safe spaces for learn­ing—not places of fear, dis­rup­tion, or harm.

In keep­ing with this na­tion­al pri­or­i­ty, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Michael Dowlath and Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der vis­it­ed South East Port of Spain Sec­ondary School, fol­low­ing a re­cent in­ci­dent in­volv­ing stu­dent in­dis­ci­pline. The min­is­ters met with the school’s prin­ci­pal and staff to hear con­cerns di­rect­ly, as­sess the cur­rent school cli­mate, and ex­plore mea­sures to re-es­tab­lish or­der.

“Acts of vi­o­lence among stu­dents are en­tire­ly un­ac­cept­able. Schools must re­main safe spaces for all. Any be­hav­iour that threat­ens this en­vi­ron­ment will be treat­ed with the ut­most se­ri­ous­ness,” Min­is­ter Dowlath said dur­ing the vis­it. The en­gage­ment al­so in­clud­ed a walk­through of the school’s fa­cil­i­ties and op­er­a­tions. Teach­ers were en­cour­aged to share can­did feed­back with both min­istries to sup­port the de­vel­op­ment of prac­ti­cal, sus­tain­able re­spons­es.

In its state­ment, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion al­so called on fam­i­lies to take an ac­tive role. “The re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for dis­ci­pline and pos­i­tive be­hav­iour be­gins at home. We urge par­ents and guardians to work in part­ner­ship with schools and au­thor­i­ties to in­stil core val­ues—re­spect, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, and self-dis­ci­pline—with­in the home and com­mu­ni­ty.”

The Min­istry reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to work­ing along­side teach­ers, school lead­ers, stu­dents, par­ents, and com­mu­ni­ty stake­hold­ers to cre­ate school en­vi­ron­ments that are se­cure, struc­tured, and con­ducive to learn­ing and per­son­al growth.