Church, slavery and a head girl
THE role of the Church in Jamaican education is often praised — for very good reasons. When slavery ended in Jamaica and the wider British Empire in the 1830s, it was the Christian denominations which led the way in seeking to ensure that at least some children of the newly freed people got formal education even if in most cases it was only the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
It took a relatively long time for the British colonial masters to take an active participatory role in the education of the descendants of slaves. Indeed, the literature appears to suggest that the colonial government did not become actively involved until after the Morant Bay Uprising in the 1860s.
Back then, and continuing to this day, Christian denominations such as the Methodists, Moravians, Anglicans, Baptists, and Roman Catholics have been dominant in Jamaican education. In more recent decades, others such as the Seventh-day Adventists have also played a strong role.
It explains the strong influence of representatives of various denominations on school boards and in the leadership of some schools.
All of that backdrop, we suspect, may also partly explain what has gone so badly wrong at St Hilda’s Diocesan High School in St Ann. There, we are told, the head girl was relieved of her duties allegedly because of the belief by school leaders that she was a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Following an investigation, Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry has said that the child’s constitutionally protected rights were violated, and that she was the victim of “raw discrimination”.
Note the words of the public defender: “This child was not treated in a humane manner, and no allowance (was) given by the principal to the child’s age-appropriate reaction to the emotional hurt heaped on her, she having done nothing to incur the humiliation and embarrassment caused by the principal’s action founded in raw discriminatory practice.”
Ms Harrison Henry has demanded that the child be reinstated. Further, she has asked for a guarantee from the board, the principal, and the school that no further acts of discrimination or retribution will be taken against the victimised child on her reappointment as head girl.
Yet, there has been so much negativity over the period of public controversy, that we suspect that even after all of Ms Harrison Henry’s demands are met, there will still be very serious issues involving the child, school leadership and wider school community.
Obviously, the Ministry of Education must keep a very close watch.
Which brings us to the larger question of the extent to which the ministry actually has control over schools and their affairs.
Only a few months ago, for example, there was controversy following reports of a bizarre requirement by one high school that parents agree to have their child removed in the event of perceived non-performance. Then there are the recurring reports of children being sent home or locked out of schools because of breaches of the dress code. This, despite instructions from successive ministers of education and officers of the ministry that such actions by school leaders are wrong.
It’s all well and good for school boards and school leaders to enjoy some autonomy. But it seems to us that, in all cases, such autonomy should be subject to the well-established rights of children and the dictates of the Jamaican Constitution.