Former education minister and Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh is calling on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to apologise for referring to the nation’s delinquent children as “monsters.”
Participating in the Ministry of Education’s third installment of its national education consultation at the Magdalena Grand Resort, Lowlands, Tobago, on Monday Rowley said there were “parents who were breeding monsters and sending them to the teachers.”
His comments followed reports of an alleged gun attack being planned last Friday against teachers and students of the Chaguanas North Secondary School.
After the information was brought to the attention of the ministry and the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA), classes were dismissed early and an increased police presence was introduced inside and outside the school since Monday.
In a release yesterday, Gopeesingh said while Rowley’s intentions may be honourable, his words were not.
Instead, he urged the Prime Minister to “commit thereafter to treating with all children in the fairness, respect and dignity that they deserve as individuals and citizens and afforded such basic human rights under our constitution and social contract of civility and humanity.”
Claiming that the foundation of any progressive education system was one which catered to the overall needs of all children, regardless of their social status or any other differences, Gopeesingh recalled his attempt to “restore an education system that was failing on many levels.”
Gopeesingh said there were several factors which were hampering the reformation of the education system, such as poverty, teenage pregnancies, absentee fathers, single mothers and a general breakdown of strong family life and a value system.
However, the former minister firmly believes it can be done with the willpower, determination and commitment from all stakeholders, including the Government.
To those leading that change, Gopeesingh cautioned: “Children are first and foremost victims and often are collateral damage of our societal failures, but never the cause of them, and, therefore, should always be treated as such.”
He went on: “No positive change, therefore, can be successfully engendered when the person in charge of them, ultimately the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Keith Rowley, brands the children as monsters and promises to deal with them in terms and methods yet to be defined by him.”
Gopeesingh said that had immediately struck an ominous chord, and “Dr Rowley cannot profess to be ignorant of the frightening consequences of such a statement, nor can he not be aware of their power to cause distress and resentment among the majority of parents of this nation who are working very hard to ensure that their children do not fall through the cracks and succeed despite our widespread social problems.”