Minister of Education and Youth Fayval Williams has urged the nation’s teachers to remain resolute in the face of lewd, crude, and highly unacceptable behaviours from some students.

In a statement today (June 8), Williams said: “I know it must be severely demotivating for our teachers who have to deal with the rising menace of violent attacks on them by some students who are demonstrating serious signs of anti-social and other types of maladjustments.”

She continued: “I know it must be disheartening to see videos on social media with students exhibiting behaviours that are totally inconsistent with what they are being taught within the precincts of the classroom. I urge our teachers not to lose faith and the positive motivation for nation building which caused most of you to enter the education sector.”

In encouraging teachers to draw on their reserves at this time, Williams said: “We are in a fight against powerful influences in our society that are leading our children astray. Some of these influencers glorify vice as virtue, and prop-up disrespect as something to celebrate. We cannot allow these forces to nullify the good deeds of education stakeholders who are working to see the children of this country thrive and realise their full potential.”

The minister added that there are no quick fixes to the many longstanding problems of student misbehaviour, which have been exacerbated since the COVID-19 pandemic, where the majority of the country’s students were unable to access face-to-face learning for close to two years.

She reiterated her call for parents to give greater supervision to their children at this time and to utilise the services of various Government agencies that offer assistance to children and parents in need of help.