ROSE HALL, St James — Even as she encouraged parents to do more to curb their children’s behavioural issues, Education Minister Fayval Williams says work continues on Government initiatives that will provide support to parents.

“Last year, for the first time in the education sector, we were able to make connections with over 100,000 parents teaching them a range of topics — for example, what is good parenting, how to be effective parents, how to talk to your children about sensitive topics, all of those things,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“We are repeating all those topics again this year and we hope over time, our parents will begin to absorb all that we are bringing to them and we begin to see changes in behaviour in our schools,” she continued.

The minister’s responses came on Wednesday following her participation in the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics (WFCP) Leadership Summit held at Hilton Rose Hall in Rose Hall, St James. Safety and security in schools was among the topics explored during the event.

Williams explained that parents are their children’s first teachers and therefore, it is imperative that they are involved in efforts to address unacceptable student behaviour in schools. Commenting on a recent incident in which a 12-year-old boy was charged with assault after viciously beating a nine-year-old, the minister stressed that this type of behaviour would not be tolerated.

“Just this week we started our promotion around bullying in schools to help children understand that what is teasing to you is something very negative to me, and it’s impacting me emotionally in a way that maybe you the teaser are not even anticipating,” she said.

“We are in a different world and so from the Ministry of Education’s perspective we have to have that apparatus in place to increase awareness about not just crime and violence in general but increase awareness around the negative impact of bullying in schools. We are seeing that rear its ugly head,” Williams added.

She said conflict resolution and interpersonal skills are also taught in family education and civics programmes is schools.

Within the broader effort to keep students safe, the education minister also spoke of the need to ensure they make it to and from school daily and they come to no harm once under the supervision of educators.

“We know that safety and security issues are going to be with us and therefore, we have dedicated resources to ensure that, in our schools, we are not only there [to help] when something happens but to be there to increase awareness around the things that we need to do to promote safety and security. In our schools, in our high schools in particular, we have deans of discipline who are supposed to be in the environment, anticipating and responding to things that happen,” she said.

“Long gone are the days when parents would send their children to school in a community setting and you know that the child can walk to school and back,” Williams conceded.