EDUCATION Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly insists her ministry has acted firmly against bullies, with a recent tripling in the number of expulsions from schools, and also against the causes of bullying.
Speaking against the Opposition's private motion moved by Princes Town MP Barry Padarath on November 22, she said Trinidad and Tobago was praised at international conferences for its work in education. She said people should not sell the country short or portray it as heading to hell in a hand-basket.
Gadsby-Dolly claimed that bullies were "a very small minority," in the school system albeit a loud minority. "The majority of our children are doing good things."
She hoped for more attention on "the vast majority" of pupils doing good rather than a focus on wrongdoers whose ranks could thereby swell.
The minister listed typical traits of bullies.
They include coming from backgrounds of low academic performance, broken homes, dysfunctional families, suffering trauma, carrying deep anger and being non-involved in extracurricular activities. She said the ministry has been collecting data on what is happening and when.
The number of pupils needing help from her ministry's Student Support Services Division has risen exponentially, "That is why we must deal with the root causes."
Gadsby-Dolly said post-covid, in 2022, her ministry hired 80 more school social workers and 40 more guidance counsellors, to help in some 106 schools of focus. "(We are) not hiding head in sand!"
Earlier, Minister in the Ministry of Education Lisa Morris-Julian told the House the total complement, in all schools, was 227 social workers and 282 guidance officers, roughly 500 professionals in all.
Gadsby-Dolly said, "We face the situation – identified the schools that have the problems and have been putting resources to help."
She said the Student Support Services Division has 800 staff members. "That is bigger than some ministries!"
Saying the ministry was dealing with root causes of bullying, she said they were reducing the number of bullies and providing bullies more help to change their behaviour.
After a 2022 meeting of the ministry with agencies like the TT Unified Teachers Association, the National Parent Teachers Association, the Children's Authority and the police, the student discipline matrix was revised to identify bullying as a major infarction.
Gadsby-Dolly said expelled pupils were not just left to their own devices, but the ministry had agreements with the state's Milat (military-led academic training programe) and Servol by which these youths can get help in behavioural transformation.
"You can't keep them in the mainstream system if, despite everything, they are not conforming because there are other children to be considered."
She said errant pupils are first treated by an expulsion warning system involving home visits by social workers, and pupils having to sign a contract of good behaviour.
"We don't want to throw them out but must maintain a safe school environment." Rejecting Padarath's motion, G
