-President Ali discloses; urges education, security stakeholders to collaborate

PRESIDENT Dr. Irfaan Ali has touted the establishment of a specialised programme to address the formation of gangs within the school system.

The Guyanese Head of State, during his address to education and security stakeholders at an award ceremony at the University of Guyana on Wednesday, said that the formation of gangs is becoming a serious issue in the region, especially at the secondary school level.

“In our secondary school system in the region, you have the development of gangs. That speaks to the issue of gangs becoming institutionalised and becoming a part of the norm, a part of normative action and normative behaviour and that is where the serious threat is,” President Ali lamented.

According to him, if the issue is not addressed soon, the intensity of gang operations will expand.

“They may start with fighting each other with stick to knives to guns to grenades; that is how it goes. That is the reality that we have to confront and this a serious challenge. It is not a passing challenge,” he stressed.

Dr. Ali said that this specialised programme will target early childhood development.

“To deal with gangs, you have to deal with it from the school system. We have to design specialised programmes; programmes that speak to changing the childhood development ecosystem,” he said before explaining that at an early age, children are exposed to violence through video games and other means.

“The problem here is the exposure to crime and fighting and guns are becoming a normative exposure. You can’t change that, that is apart of the business world but you have to deal with it,” he said.

President Ali challenged the University of Guyana and the Guyana Defence Force to work with the William J Perry Centre for Hemispheric Defence Studies to coordinate programmes to address these issues.

“A specialised programme which focuses on the building of capacity and capability of our teachers to address this issue and to build an ecosystem that fights…what is already in society,” he said.

Subsequently, he highlighted the need for security subjects to be offered at the secondary level to educate the region’s youth about the fundamentals of hemispheric security. This, he said, will be the groundwork for youths who wish to pursue careers within the security sector.

Over the years, Guyana has seen an increase in gang violence in secondary schools.

Last March, teachers and students of the Harmony Secondary School in Wismar, Linden, were attacked by members of a gang.

According to a report, the gang members who were armed with scissors, a knife and a piece of wood, injured a teacher and a student who were later hospitalised.

The gang had turned up at the school following an altercation with two students, one of whom is a member of the gang.

Prior to the gang showing up at the school, a teacher was informed of the altercation and had instructed the student to return to school with his parents. Instead, the student appeared with members of the gang.

Following the incident, teachers, parents and other students protested outside of the school.