Disinterest in education cited as factor in student loitering and truancy

 

First Vice President of the Association of Principals and Vice Principals, Linton Weir, believes loitering and truancy among students has intensified in the last few years, pointing to a lack of interest in formal education as one of several causal factors. 

 

Mr. Ware says inadequate parenting and the shift system were the other contributing factors. 

 

His comments follow Monday's operation in Spanish Town, led by the St. Catherine North Police, to address loitering by students in the town. 

 

Speaking Tuesday on the Morning Agenda on Power 106, Mr. Weir, principal of Old Harbour High School, commended the police for the initiative dubbed Operation Learn Not Loiter, which he said will greatly assist school administrators in getting students off the streets. 

 

But he said there are a number of variables that must be addressed, including the removal of approximately 27 schools from the shift system and parents providing better supervision for their children.  

 

Additionally, Mr. Weir argued that children have long been taught that the vehicle out of poverty is education, and while that message remains, "our children are seeing differently now because they recognise that there are other things that are providing them with resources outside of education". 

 

"Quite a number of our students are not interested in school. And that is why you find quite a number of them on the streets loitering, not paying attention to the curriculum, not paying attention to school. It is going to be very, very important for us to put all the pieces together so that our young people can aggressively move back and take up their position in institutions," he stressed.  

 

In the meantime, sociologist Glenn Tucker has urged the authorities to examine the social backgrounds of children found loitering during school hours. 

 

Mr. Tucker said some students are faced with an unwritten rule that they need to contribute to the welfare of their homes.

 

"And when this is so, it manifests itself in a variety of different ways. So there are children who who need to understand that the parents are not concerned about how you come by it, but you have to contribute to rent, you have to contribute to the mother's birthday, you have to find a number of other monies to make up for certain things. And because of that, you will need to be out in the square sometimes. And the casual onlooker is going to say you're just careless, you're just chatting. But that is not really, not fully the case," he pointed out.