With Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar set to have crucial face-to-face talks on crime tomorrow, former principal Justin Paul has suggested the former shift system which operated at junior secondary schools for several years may be a major cause of the serious problem facing the country today.
Paul, one of the recipients of Chaconia Medal Gold for long and meritorious service to T&T, is a former principal of San Fernando Technical Institute, Permanent Secretary in the Ministries of Education and Works and Transport and once served as director of Technical Vocational Education and Training. He said in a brief interview after receiving his award at Queen’s Hall yesterday evening that he established YTEPP and on-the-job training across the country.
While he did not think the education system was failing the nation, Paul said the crime problem may be the result of students coming out of the disbanded junior secondary school system, which operated a shift system which allowed thousands of students to be away from classes for half the day when many of them engaged in non-school activities.
“That was part of my concern. Half-day school may have encouraged some of that activity to cause us to now have a number of young people involved in crime,” he said, adding that the situation may be changing as schools now run for a full seven hours.
Another recipient of the Chaconia Medal Gold, former THA Assemblyman William Mc Kenzie said he was happy to have received the award which he accepted in honour of his late mother who always made sure he was accountable for his actions. He was the lone PNM member of the THA for several years when it was controlled by the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) led by Arthur NP Robinson.
Keith Campbell, a forester who died during battling a bush fire in St Ann’s, was awarded the Humming Bird Medal Bronze posthumously for gallantry. His brother Kenrick said that it was “a good, but bad that it happen in this way.” He however thanked the Government for the award, adding that his brother would have appreciated it. He said his brother was “a hard worker and he loved doing what he did.”
Calypsonian Scrunter (Irwin Johnson Scrunter) expressed his joy and receiving an award by hugging Prime Minister Rowley. He later expressed concern that the local music industry was dying because of piracy which was causing artistes to suffer financial losses. He called for the law to be enforced to ensure music pirates were prosecuted.