Monitor the street idlers
A READER, Mr Kwame McCoy, in a letter we published this week, raises what he calls a "disturbing incessant trend" in the streets of Georgetown. It has to do with school children "idling during and after school for excessive hours, particularly along the streets", he says. The danger, as he points out, is that out of such a situation will come more delinquents, young people who will be an additional burden on the rest of society. We recently noted the crying need for a greater monitoring system to keep children in school when they are supposed to be in school and Mr McCoy's observations reinforce the point. Parents of skulking kids cannot escape blame but the wider society also cannot escape its responsibility to ensure the growing trend does not get out of hand. Children not in school when they are required to be in school usually turn out to be a serious menace to the rest of society. "Those children who spend numerous unproductive hours idling and indulging in nonsensical prattle will increase the alarming proportion of functional illiteracy among young people", Mr McCoy notes. What is surprising is that the "massive idlers squad that occupies Camp and Croal Streets in Georgetown" he speaks of in his letter had not been detected before by teachers and officials of the Education Ministry, daily stationed within shouting distance. It is hard to believe his report that "many of the schoolgirls are taken away by mini-buses, cars and motor bikes, while others gamble" but we have no reason to think that he invented the story. "I've seen a lot of school children consuming alcohol maliciously in their school uniforms and their colourful expletives irk the sensitivity of your ear drums", he further reports. So, what is really happening? Is it that democracy has bred so much freedom that those who are supposed to be in supervisory roles and in control of these kids who should be in school dare not prevent them from enjoying this new kind of freedom? Are they afraid to deal with these children? These happenings are not in secret and at night - the kids are on the streets in broad daylight and `doing their own thing' when they, under the law, have to be in school. And the kids have to be kept in school, or the society will regret it. Schools are about to break for the Easter holidays and the issue should be addressed seriously by all agencies responsible before the next term. The police have reported finding children in Nintendo clubs in the city when they should have been in school and have alerted the other agencies to the trend. Parents have to made aware that they have a legal responsibility to ensure their children attend school when they reach school age and the regulations have to be enforced. Mr McCoy feels a sensible remedy to this problem might be to re-institute the school welfare system. "During my days at school, if a child were to be seen by a school welfare officer out of school during its functional hours, he/she was answerable to the Head teacher and his/her parents. "The strict monitoring of school children deterred them from becoming truants and idlers and the disciplinary norms had existed", he says. Many people feel the same way and there may be other suggestions to tackle the problem. The education of the young cannot be left to chance, especially not with the evil that lurks at the street corners these days.
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