RESET VALUES

WESTERN BUREAU:

Speaking against the background of the recent abduction and sexual assault of a 10-year-old student in Clarendon, Jamaica Teachers’ Association President La Sonja Harrison is calling on school administrators to endeavour to instil stronger ethical values in the current generation of students as part of efforts to build a better Jamaica.

Harrison, who was the guest speaker at Friday’s 10th staging of the Jill Stewart MoBay City Run (JSMCR) scholarship presentation at the S Hotel in Montego Bay, St James, said the ongoing infrastructural restoration of schools post-Hurricane Melissa will be pointless if the students who eventually graduate from the physical classroom do not receive moral training.

“This remains a Christian country, one that reinvokes our covenant with the Eternal Father on every occasion that we sing as well as recite the national anthem and pledge, respectively,” she said. “This is so, in spite of the myriad of moral dilemmas in which we find ourselves over the last decades, and even more recently, with the tragic abduction, and rape, of a 10-year-old student from her school gate.”

Harrison urged school principals to place greater emphasis on character development, values and attitudes, arguing that schools have a responsibility to help shape young people who can contribute positively to society.

“I am asking principals, please inject some funds into character development, values, and attitudes, to include ethical empowerment initiatives, while fostering a learning environment where godly principles are not spoken, but lived,” she said. “Only God can truly purify the heart, because out of it flows the issues of life, and from it, the mouth speaks.”

She added that education, working in partnership with the home and church, should help to shape citizens who value and contribute positively to society and with whom others can live without fear.

Last Tuesday, the 10-year-old girl was on her way to school when she exited a taxi near the entrance to the Mineral Heights housing scheme in Clarendon.

She was reportedly approached by a man who reportedly persuaded her to enter a vehicle.

She was taken to a neighbouring community, where she was sexually assaulted in bushes before she was returned to the vicinity of her school.

The child informed her teachers of what had happened, following which she was taken to the hospital.

Harrison, meanwhile, told Friday’s function that young Jamaicans must develop a greater appreciation for the opportunities available to them and make the best of their circumstances, regardless of their station in life.

She also expressed concern about a slogan, ‘I don’t know, I just work here’, which she said some young people are wearing on shirts and keyrings.

“ … You must get rid of that messaging because it is your business to know,” said Harrison.

“Wherever it is you work, you are part of that establishment, and until your destiny changes, you need to embody and become the best representative of that establishment,” she said

Friday’s scholarship presentation saw the JSMCR presenting scholarship funds of $17 million being presented to seven high schools and seven tertiary institutions in western Jamaica. Some 6,000 students at these institutions will benefit from the scholarships.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com