PM tells parents to do their part before children end up in court

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has warned par­ents that they must take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for dis­ci­plin­ing and guid­ing their chil­dren be­fore they grow in­to adults who run afoul of the law.

In a mes­sage mark­ing the start of the new aca­d­e­m­ic year, Per­sad-Bisses­sar told par­ents not to leave their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties to teach­ers, say­ing dis­ci­pline, re­spect and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty must first be taught at home.

“Do not dump your parental re­spon­si­bil­i­ties on­to teach­ers, that is your job, you made your chil­dren, it is not the teach­ers’ or any­one else’s re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to mind them,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar urged par­ents to en­sure their chil­dren are prop­er­ly cared for and pre­pared for school, while mon­i­tor­ing their be­hav­iour, aca­d­e­m­ic progress and what they are learn­ing.

She al­so called on par­ents to lis­ten to their chil­dren’s con­cerns and work close­ly with teach­ers.

The Prime Min­is­ter warned that par­ents who fail to do their part could face more se­ri­ous con­se­quences lat­er.

“Do your part now with your chil­dren so that in years to come when they be­come adults, you won’t have to be at the cour­t­house in your old age try­ing to se­cure bail to get them re­leased from in­car­cer­a­tion,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so had a mes­sage for teach­ers and prin­ci­pals, urg­ing them to take a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach to dis­re­spect­ful and mis­be­hav­ing stu­dents and par­ents.

She said ed­u­ca­tors should not be ex­pect­ed to tol­er­ate abuse, in­tim­i­da­tion or ha­rass­ment and urged them to con­tact the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice if they are threat­ened or abused.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so warned stu­dents that fail­ing to take their ed­u­ca­tion se­ri­ous­ly could leave them fac­ing a dif­fi­cult fu­ture.

She urged stu­dents to at­tend class­es, re­spect their teach­ers and staff, re­main dis­ci­plined and take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for their progress.

“Life is tough with­out an ed­u­ca­tion, it will grind you down un­til you end up just sur­viv­ing day to day and not ac­tu­al­ly liv­ing a sat­is­fy­ing whole­some life,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She said a good ed­u­ca­tion gives peo­ple op­tions to nav­i­gate dif­fi­cul­ties and over­come chal­lenges.