The ministers of Education, National Security, and Youth Development and National Service met on Monday to discuss violence in schools.

A statement from the Ministry of Education on Monday said a virtual meeting was attended by Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds, and Minister of Youth Development Foster Cummings, along with their technical teams.

“The virtual meeting sought to set the foundation for determining the causal factors, identifying, and reviewing current methodologies of addressing the problem and proposing interventions needed to stem the tide of the school violence,” said the statement.

“Several key factors were raised as contributors to the problem, from the need to better understand the psycho-social developmental needs of adolescents and the impact of gangs and drugs in communities on students, to the role of school administration in managing discipline.”

It said Gadsby-Dolly proposed both Hinds and Cummings should commit to formalising a smaller interministerial team to develop a plan of action.

It said the team will review her ministry’s report on historical baseline data related to schools with a history of violence, as well as analysing trends and patterns.

The report, it said, will identify current interventions and their results and challenges, and will inform the team’s recommendations for improvement.

She said, “We need a multi-pronged approach to not only understand why we continue to have the problem of school violence, but to reduce its occurrence significantly.”

The statement said Cummings and Hinds said they would commit to the process.

The ministers will meet again before March 21.

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