WHILE on a mission of mercy to Cane Grove with a team from Chronicle, comments from some persons in the community sent us to investigate what relatives considered death induced by battery, but which neighbours and the suspect claim was a case of an unfortunate incident.
The post mortem results indicate death by natural causes, although the jury is out on that one, because the injuries on the woman’s body are in no way compatible with a fall, and a violent attack could very well have precipitated the heart attack from which she died. 

However, with tragic regularity, cases of outright murder following years of spousal abuse surface, and, sadly, the situation seem to have become such an endemic phenomenon in the society that each instance of a life taken in violence seems to be quickly forgotten. 

And who takes cognizance that the lives squandered were precious to their loved ones – children, parents, siblings, friends, et al?  Children are often the victims and the aftermath oftentimes produces delinquents – which is an evolutionary cycle of violence and problem-prone relationships.

Many times young men are accosted by members of the security services, sometimes ensuing in violent confrontations, and most times it turns out that the young men in question were perpetrators of violent crimes, sometimes leading to the demise of their victims, yet their family members encourage their criminal forays because these ventures often provide the families of the perpetrators with unimaginable riches.

There are many overnight millionaires living in this society whose ill-gotten riches were obtained from someone else’s hard work, and if they have to kill their victims in the process, then so be it.

But when they are caught, many persons in the society become very vocal in their defence – until they themselves become victims to these predators. 

In the nation’s schools, violent behaviour is escalating, and most often the decent children bear the brunt.  But the real tragedy is that this behaviour is a duplication of attitudes and actions witnessed in home environments.

Many females in the society, including many teenage girls, have so little self-esteem that they allow themselves to be treated with great disrespect by their male counterparts, which can escalate into myriad problems, including teenage pregnancy and contraction of sexually transmitted diseases.

Moral degeneracy has become so entrenched in the society that persons who refuse to participate in lewd and abominable conduct and conversation are seen as abnormal and not part of the team. 

Unless communities begin to address these problems holistically, with everyone, especially the educational and religious authorities, as well as village elders and other authoritative figures playing an integral role in child development and the wellbeing of members of their communities, this scourge will perpetuate itself until persons and communities self-destruct.

Those who practice the standards of yesteryear are being mocked at today, but those standards were once the trademark of the Guyanese psyche.

I would like to repeat part of a previous article as follows, which is very relevant to this article:  One day I began reading an autobiography entitled “A Goodly Heritage,” written by Elma Seymour, wife of A.J. Seymour, renowned Guyanese writer, and I will take the privilege of quoting some passages from this enlightening chronicle: 

(In the absence of their mother) “Aunt Car was truly a second mother to us, and papa left many of our problems in her hands. She was always helpful and kind.  Besides, we all had to be very polite, well-mannered, and obedient; and no loose-talking or (loose) jesting was allowed in our home.”

“Aunt Car was always one for encouraging the members of the family, especially those who were married and had started to raise a family, to establish the “Family Altar,” where prayers and Bible reading were said daily every morning.” 

“It was a blessing for these children when the Schools’ Medical Service came into being and the school was visited regularly by a team of nurses headed by Dr. C.C. Nicholson, Schools Medical Officer.  Their teeth were also examined for caries and their general health assessed.”

“On the advice and concern mainly of the writer, a breakfast centre was started mainly for malnourished children.  But before the centre was built by the Education Department, Miss Gertie Wood, social worker, who carried on a soup kitchen in the Kitty market, was asked to supply the needy and malnourished children with meals from a donation solicited from the late Mr. R.G. Humphrey…I remember him saying, ‘If the children are hungry I must help to feed them’.

Mr. Cyril Farnum, Chairman of the Kitty Local Authority, also contributed from Council funds towards the meals.  A cheque was sent every month to pay for the meals supplied.

“The soup kitchen was built on the school’s compound and headed by Miss Edna French, the Domestic Science Teacher, and the children were able to enjoy a hot meal cooked right there on the premises and served to the children between the hours of 11 a.m. and 11.30 a.m.

“The children who could afford it paid a penny a day, and the deserving others were given free meals as the School Feeding Programme was subsidized by the Education Department.”

“The primary schools system in those days was administered by a governing body for primary schools, and priests and ministers of the various denominational schools were appointed to monitor the administration of the schools.  For example, at Carmel R.C., while I was there, Fr. McCaffrey was the priest who visited the school once or twice per month to sign the payroll and the attendance register of teachers, look into any problem facing the headteacher, and sign in the logbook the date of his visit and any remarks he might have to make concerning the discipline of pupils or staff.”

This was during the first PPP Government, when C.V. Nunes was the Minister of Education.

The products of this system were decent, well-behaved law-abiding adults, who believed in the basic principles of honour, respect for their fellow humans, and compassion for the less fortunate in society.

The system  involved training in decorum, deportment, and good manners, with the requisite and necessary inputs to achieving equitable intellectual, social and physical development, which started from the home, and which was strategically supported by a strong network involving the educational system and the community.

One Monday I received a call informing me that the headmistress of a primary school in Berbice had been summoned by a magistrate to attend court.

This perturbed me, as I have known this headmistress from childhood, and she was an exemplary and studious child, who always aspired to, and achieved, academic heights, and who have received lucrative offers of employment in the entrepreneurial world, but who loves to teach and refuses to abandon her profession of choice.  She balances her family life with her profession and, together with her husband, has brought up high-achieving, well-behaved children.

I immediately called her, and she related a story to me that made me realize how far down the ladder we have descended in social behaviour from the days when Mrs. Elma Seymour taught school.

She said that after school had been dismissed at 14:30 hours, she was conducting a staff meeting in a room adjacent to where some students were copying their homework, when she heard a commotion.

Upon inve
stigation, she discovered that a parent had entered the classroom and slapped a child with whom her child had a dispute.

The headmistress contends that, irrespective of any consideration, no adult has a right to accost and/or assault any child in or out of the school premises.  She says that if a parent has a complaint there is a procedure in place to address such issues, which has to be adhered to at all costs, because the consequences are very detrimental to both children, and the morale and morals of the entire school population.

She is particularly concerned that educational institutions are supposed to be protected environments for both parents and teachers, but often members of the public just march into schools and assault both teachers and students at will.

She expressed her concern over the growing indiscipline of some students, whose behaviour is spiraling alarmingly out of control, with severe negative impact on security and the morale of teachers and the students who are genuinely trying to achieve goals within what is quickly becoming widespread lawlessness in school populations.

She contends that instead of a practice where families “pray together” in order to “stay together”, they instead drink together and fight together, and she thinks that the only solution to this rapid decay in the moral fabric of society is that a holistic approach be taken, as in the days of yore, where there is total involvement of societal sectors to upgrade and enhance social behavioural norms.

Adults in families are often to be blamed for the moral turpitude of the children under their care, and if inculcating false values into children is an instance of abuse then many adults are guilty of both abuse and the misdemeanour that the children under their care commit.

For instance, many children are encouraged to covet and steal the possessions by the adults in their lives.

One woman, who for some inexplicable reason has taken a dislike to a neighbour, encourages the neighbourhood children to enter the woman’s yard during her absences and steal and destroy her property.  She also constantly abuses and threatens, and has even physically assaulted, the woman, who largely ignores her, then encourages her grandchildren to support her lies when she makes false allegations against the woman to the police.

The headmistress thinks that the Guyana National Service should be re-established in a more structured way, where children with severe disciplinary problems should be sent to obtain their education under paramilitary conditions, which may serve to restore their sense of social responsibility

However, she says teachers are constrained from punishing children because of widespread concerns about abuse, and quoted a recent incident where a very dedicated teacher gave an errant student a few lashes and was severely persecuted by students, their parents, and officialdom.

According to her, discipline has to be left completely to the parents as teachers are allowed no latitude, despite the most provoking behaviour from troublemaking students, who even walk with weapons and threaten other students over trifling incidents.

Parents, on the other hand, can withhold privileges within the home environment, but without a simultaneous programme where the school is allowed some leeway, even with monitoring from officials from the Education Department, the problems of society will continue to deteriorate into more violence.

At a recently-held joint venture between the Ministry of Education and The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Minister of Education, Hon. Shaik  Baksh said that though incidents of violence in school are not widespread, his Ministry views every such act as a matter of serious concern.

Baksh pointed out that when these incidents are reported, prompt action is taken to address the situation. The Minister was addressing scores of parents, headteachers, students and other stakeholders in society at the one-day open forum titled  “Promoting Safe, Acceptable Behaviours and Positive Values in Schools” , at the Guyana International Conference Centre, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.  He affirmed that the Ministry of Education remains resolute in making the school a safe and conducive place for learning.

The Minister explained that his Ministry is moving aggressively to address the problems here through a partnership approach to avoid Guyana descending to the level of some of its sister CARICOM states.

Minister Baksh stressed that contrary to media reports, violence in school is not a widespread problem here, noting that often the information presented as news is furthest from the truth and is rooted in hearsay rather than solid statistics.

He pointed out that a recent survey conducted in schools countrywide over a six-month period has indicated that violent behaviour was recorded in 26 schools, with 62 cases, and involved 117 students.

These figures, the Minister noted, represent less than three percent of the schools in the country and 0.05 per cent of the total student population.

Most of the high profile cases, the Minister reported, have occurred in Georgetown, and closer attention will be paid to the schools where these incidents occur the most.

He declared that every incident in the school system is of serious concern, and that his Ministry has been treating the problem with the attention it deserves.