Education minister advocates stronger parental involvement in tackling indiscipline
Published:Friday | August 22, 2025 | 12:12 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
With the perennial problem of indiscipline still plaguing the nation’s schools, Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon says there is a need for greater parental involvement in the crafting of disciplinary policies, especially for students at the secondary level.
Speaking at the Jamaica Teachers’ Association’s annual conference on Wednesday, Morris Dixon said the Ministry of Education may need to review the operating methods of its National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC) in regards to teaching parents how to manage their children’s behaviour.
“I have seen where, especially in our secondary schools, parents are not involved, and I always say to parents, ‘Your role doesn’t end at primary school, because when they go to high school, they need you even more as they go through the teenage years’,” said Morris-Dixon. “A lot of parents abandon their responsibility at the secondary level, and it is a problem.”
According to Morris Dixon, in discussing the behavoural challeges in the nation’s schools, many of the issues link back to the lack of parenting.
“That parenting issue is something we are going to have to address. We are going to have to re-look at our NPSC, because it has to get closer to our communities to do the work that is necessary,” said Morris Dixon, noting that some parents are not aware of what they need to do to support their children’s growth during the adolescent years.
“I had one principal say that he put parenting seminars in place for his first-form parents, and the parents said that no one had ever told them about the identity changes that teenagers are going through, and no one had ever given them tips to deal with unruly teenagers. We have to do better through our arms of the ministry, to make that connection, to work with parents,” said Morris Dixon.
“There is a lot of work that we are going to have to do in order to work with our parents, to help them to reinforce discipline, and for them to understand that when a child gets punished at school, it is time to work with the school because we are identifying a problem. It is not time to go to the school and be upset with the teachers, and that happens a lot,” she added.
A September 2022 survey by the NPSC saw approximately 92 per cent of parents expressing a disinterested attitude toward parenting, or complaining that they were frustrated with their responsibility. At that time, the NPSC expressed concern about parents passing on their appointed role to schools.
Morris Dixon also spoke to the issue of absenteeism, saying the ministry is taking steps to tackle the issue, which is oftentime blamed on the prohibitive cost of lunch and transportation.
“We have to ensure that we bring our children in to school every day, and that is a concern I have heard from the teachers, because our teachers want the students there. We have had to think about what are the impediments to that taking place, and there are two things that came up, one being the transportation cost, and the other one having to do with food and the cost of lunch,” she said.
“What we have decided to do this year is to add an additional $1 billion to our programme for school nutrition. We have our NSLIP (National School Learning and Intervention Plan) schools that we want to raise the performance of, and for all those schools, we have allocated additional funds so our students can get breakfast and lunch,” she continued.
“We also have our new rural school bus system that we are expecting will be able to help students. Too many parents and even our teachers have said that students do not come because they cannot afford the bus and taxi fare,” she added.