Our schools: Who runs the show?

More than a week after the distressing occurrences that attended the St. Joseph High School PTA Fair, neither the Ministry of Education nor the Guyana Police Force has, as far as we are aware, had anything substantive to say on the matter even after the PTA had gone to the trouble to make its own statement, during which, incidentally, it claimed that the Force failed to honour an agreement between the two with regard to security for the Fair. We are entitled to an explanation from the police.

From the various accounts received by this newspaper there occurred, both during and after the event, instances of barefaced thuggery, including robberies and assault, both on the school premises and outside, on Woolford Avenue. It would, in our opinion, be a travesty, if, these types of occurrences having blighted schoolrelated public events previously, we allow yet another instance to pass without some meaningful official intervention.

It is the Ministry of Education that must take the lead here. Whatever role the PTA would have played, ‘School Fairs’ are held on school premises and are presumably intended as fun (and fundraising) events for school children, parents, friends and well-wishers. School Fairs are not public dances.

Given the occurrences of two weekends ago the Ministry must now address not only the St. Joseph incident but must direct its attention, generally, to issues like the programme content of Fairs, (with particular emphasis on the appropriateness of the offerings) the time frame for these events and the attendant security arrangements. In the light of what has been happening, the Ministry’s intervention must realise strong and enforceable rules that target directly the ugliness that marred the St. Joseph Fair and it must do so publicly, assertively and with the support of law enforcement.

This point is made in the light of the emphasis that has been placed on the pre-eminent role of the School’s PTA in the staging of the St. Joseph Fair, as though, somehow, the PTA and the school are ‘separate republics,’ so to speak. We find this altogether unacceptable. PTAs, as we understand it, are voluntary organizations embraced by the Ministry of Education and which allow for parents and teachers to work together at various undertakings including fund-raising for school supplies and other forms of school support. PTAs may, as well, offer recommendations (recommendations, mind you) in matters pertaining to the general welfare of schools. When it comes to matters pertaining to the substantive management of schools including curriculum delivery, school administration, the in-school welfare of children and the control and management of the premises, fixtures and fittings comprising schools, that we believe, should be the responsibility of the designated and paid school administrators, that is to say, the Head Teacher and staff. This arrange-

ment should proceed under a set of rules and procedures laid down by the Ministry of Education.

If there is, manifestly, a supporting role for PTAs in events like School Fairs, matters like the ‘good name’ of the school (in the context of the programme content of School Fairs) the safety and comfort of the attending children and their parents and the cutoff point for the programme should be sanctioned by the school itself - that is to say its designated administrators - again, based on laid down Ministry of Education regulations. Instances of less than sound judgement on the part of the organizers (like the admission of fun-seeking adults to the school premises well past 21:00 hours and who had openly bought ‘black market’ Fair Tickets directly in front of the entrance) may not have served the event well at the end of the day.

The Ministry of Education is well aware of what are perhaps described as the ‘turf wars’ that ensue between the parent contingent in some PTAs and the schools themselves, over who ‘runs things,’ so to speak. This newspaper has been told stories by senior teachers of some schools of what they say are ‘rogue’ elements in PTAs who seek to make decisions on school-related matters in a manner that cuts across the wishes of the school’s designated managers. We have seen a letter from parents purporting to be members of a PTA, directed to officialdom, literally demanding that sanctions be imposed on teachers. We believe that there is sufficient evidence of differences between parent-controlled PTAs and designated school administrators for the Ministry of Education to step in immediately and decisively.

What does all of this have to do with the debacle that attended the St. Joseph Fair? Interestingly, at 9:30 on the said Saturday night, when, we have said in a previous editorial, a School Fair ought, perhaps, to be winding down, the music was ‘thumping’ and the nocturnal revelers were assembling and the ticket touts were busy - and some teachers, parents and children, perhaps chastened by precedent, were exiting the event. Still, the crush at the gate to enter the premises suggested that the fun was only just beginning. Even that early there was good reason to worry.

It may well be that the organizers managed the event in a manner which they perceived to be in the best interest of their fund-raising efforts. Still, one has to wonder whether the transformation of a School Fair into an adult entertainment event, given some of the elements that are sometimes consistent with that type of entertainment, was the type of development that either the Ministry of Education or the administrators (the Head Teacher and teachers) of the St. Joseph High School would have approved of. And in those circumstances how surprised should we be that the event attracted the thugs and hooligans like moths to a candle flame.