NEXT to the ever-increasing number of violent clashes among students facing the national education sector, school administrators say the issue of sex in Jamaican schools is one that is fast becoming too big to handle.
Consequently, influential bodies like the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS) believe there is a need for greater emphasis on values-based education as the problem is now overshadowing the education process.

"The bottom line is that we need to start emphasising core values in our education system because this is largely an issue about morals and values," argued JAPSS president Nadine Molloy in a phone interview last week. "We need to start changing the way we think and influence our children, and until we do that, problems like the issue of sex in schools will continue."

Students gathered at the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre in St Andrew

Sex in schools, added Molloy, who is also principal of Buff Bay High in Portland, is happening across Jamaica. "As administrators, we are very concerned," she said. "Our guidance departments are being overworked. And I don't think a single policy will be enough to effect change."

Principal of Denbigh High in Clarendon, Joan Wint, said the role of the home in the upbringing of children needs to be revisited.

"My thoughts on the matter go back to the role of the family, values and respect for authority," Wint told the Sunday Observer in a recent interview. "The home has been broken, and as a result we are having these problems spilling over into the schools. New habits are being formed among the schoolchildren, and so we have to go back to spreading basic family values. Society has robbed teachers of the moral authority to be leaders."

In recent months, reports of shocking sexual activity on school compounds across the island have made headlines. Even more frightening is the large number of video clippings, featuring uniform-clad students performing graphic high-risk sexual acts that have been making the rounds via the Internet and cellphone cameras.

Molloy believes the influx of technological devices and their availability to school-age children are doing more harm than good.

"We are bombarding our children with a lot of pornographic material in Jamaica. We have allowed our children to have access to these things without thinking of the long-term effects. Now we are at our wits' end trying to solve the problem," Molloy said.

"At the same time, society keeps telling children that they have rights without also stressing the responsibilities," she added. "So many of them, therefore, think they can do whatever they like. By allowing our children to behave like this, we are promoting anarchy."

During a recent interview with numerous high school students gathered at the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre in St Andrew, the Sunday Observer learnt that activities such as kissing, fondling, oral sex and even intercourse are common on school premises - before, after, and even during school hours. Some of the popular 'link-up spots', we learnt, include bathrooms, classrooms and dark corners on the school compounds.

"Some of them even do it in the open, too. A lot of feeling up go on at my school ah day time," one 16-year-old female told the Sunday Observer. She admitted to kissing a boy once during school hours at her school, located in the Mountain View area of Kingston.

However, not all the students we spoke with said they were involved in such activities. Others made it clear that they are often pressured by their peers to get involved or suffer ridicule. One male student, who attends a renowned Corporate Area co-ed institution, said the overwhelming pressure is getting in the way of his education.

"Many of my friends do it at school because if they don't their bredren call them idiot or say that they are gay. So that's why they get involved. But I don't care, I just try to ignore them and do my work. But it's not always easy," he told the Sunday Observer, as several of his schoolmates nodded in agreement.

Lack of proper guidance and parenting are major contributing factors to such errant behaviour among high school children, argues Children's Advocate Mary Clarke.

"Our children need guidance, starting at the home, especially nowadays with the prevalence of obscenity on the television," said Clarke. "But while the schools and the [education ministry] work on policies to combat the issue, it's a call on the entire society to play a part. Each sector has an important role to play in how we raise and guide our children."

Clarke said she was happy that Education Minister Andrew Holness was very active on the issue. "He recently invited us to a meeting to discuss some of the new policies and guidelines to be implemented shortly," she told the Sunday Observer. "But the schools, though some of them are overwhelmed, have to play their part. We need to see a system of mandatory reporting of these issues put in place. We need to examine what exactly are the parameters we are setting for our children."

Molloy, on the other hand, stressed the importance of fostering partnerships among teachers, parents, other stakeholders and society at large.

"Everybody points fingers at the school. It's supposed to be a partnership, and we need to start behaving like partners in Jamaica because the teachers alone cannot do it," she said.

In the meantime, bodies of student leaders have also been mobilising in a bid to help curb the problems of violence and sex in schools. Just two weeks ago, the National Head Prefects' Association was established to develop exemplary and effective student leadership within the national school system. Among its executive members are Dean Smith, head boy, Kingston College; David Kerr, head boy, Wolmer's Boys; Carlos Gordon, school captain, Jamaica College; and Lon Parke, head boy, Calabar High.

The body's mission, the Sunday Observer learnt, includes fostering of the spiritual, physical, mental and social development of the Jamaican student population.

Speaking with the Sunday Observer last week, Smith said student leaders from rural institutions will be appointed to the board as time progresses.

"We hope that out of the association, good student leadership will be developed to help make a difference in the lives of students and to contribute to the betterment of Jamaica as we move into the future," Smith said.

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