LAST year there were 3,500 suspensions in local schools and close to 1,000 cases of pupils in police reports,

Education Minister
Dr Tim Gopeesingh said yesterday.
"Now that is not acceptable in an education system," he said.
Last year Gopeesingh had reported there were more than 3,300 suspensions for the academic year 2009-2010 and approximately
11,000 cases over a six-year period.
Gopeesingh said yesterday with the current age of working parents, single parents and absent fathers "there is a breakdown of the
traditional family life".
"We now find that we have another generation in danger of being lost. In fact, have we lost one or two or three generations of the
past? It seems so," he said.
He was delivering greetings at the Presbyterian Secondary Schools' Board of Education's "Professional Development Conference"
held yesterday at the Hyatt Regency hotel, Port of Spain.
Gopeesingh noted that the denominational boards have always been "a beacon of hope" and they "have managed to ensure
throughout these decades of change the children who attend their schools have some appreciation of morality and religious
teachings".
He said the boards would have to decide whether religion or comparative religion is taught in schools, and give an answer to the
ministry.
He suggested teaching about religion, not indoctrination or comparative religion, to allow each child to understand about each
other's religion and be able to make ethical, spiritual, moral and religious decisions for themselves "when all the facts and
knowledge and information are placed before them".
He said the conference theme "Legal, ethical and emotional issues in education" was timely, noting that through the "Character,
Education and Citizenry" programme, morals and ethics would be taught in primary schools. He noted that pupils of today were
exposed to various cultures with positive and negative aspects through television and the internet.
In her address, educator and diplomat Laila Valere pointed out the dangers of pupils becoming addicted to social networking sites
such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.
She noted that recent psychological research has found that teenagers addicted to these sites tended to display more anti-social
behaviour like aggressiveness and were more prone to anxiety and narcissism. She questioned how the issue of "cyber-bullying"
was being handled and what impact social networking would have on ethical values.
She said the teaching of moral and ethical values was equally important, adding that teachers must have a stronger sense of the
moral and ethical responsibilities of their profession in today's world.
She noted that teachers must not be so loyal to a pupil or teacher because of their religion that they "overlook their unethical
behaviour and sometimes shield them from corrective action" or fail to recognise or reward an individual simply because they "do
not belong to our religion".
Valere also stressed that teachers must never be tempted to give negative labels to pupils.
"Words like duncey, dotish, stupid, chupidee, should be banned from all schools," she added.

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