Carib Scope

分类： education

  • Students explore career paths at 3E’s Fair

    Students explore career paths at 3E’s Fair

    Hundreds of secondary school students across Barbados got a first-hand look at diverse education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities last week at the 3E’s Fair, an innovative outreach event organized by the Pinelands Creative Workshop (PCW) at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

    Built as an extension of PCW’s long-running Career & Life Management (C.A.L.M.) Programme, which has supported Barbadian youth for 26 years, the event was made possible through collaborative funding and support from the Maria Holder Charitable Trust, and three government ministries: labour, environment and health. Unlike traditional career information sessions held within school walls, the 3E Fair brought dozens of industry, education and training providers together in an interactive, student-focused setting designed to demystify post-graduation pathways.

    For participating students, the fair delivered far more than generic career advice—many left with tangible skills and expanded perspectives on what their professional futures could hold. Upper Sixth student Rylan Beckles of St Michael School highlighted the practical, actionable guidance he gained at the event’s booths, noting that representatives walked attendees through core professional skills from resume building to personal branding, helping young people build the confidence they need to stand out to employers.

    Fellow St Michael School Lower Sixth student Kaitlin Balgobin echoed that praise, emphasizing that the fair created space for students to explore roles they had never previously considered. “I was literally quite able to learn about the 3 Es: education, entrepreneurship, and employment,” she said. “I think this fair was really beneficial to students because you were able to walk around and see many different booths that may be a part of your career, or careers outside of that, that could have really impacted you.”

    Siân Pniak, also a Lower Sixth student at St Michael School, noted that the event pushed back against common misconceptions that young people must lock themselves into a single career path straight out of secondary school. “I truly believe that it was a great opportunity as well for the students as we are truly the future of Barbados,” she said. Pniak pointed out that the event encouraged students to embrace flexible trajectories: students should not feel pressured to follow only one path, nor feel ashamed of starting at an entry-level role or building a business gradually. Even for students who already have a clear career goal, the fair highlighted unexpected connections between related fields, she added—for Pniak, who plans to become a sports therapist, exploring podiatry exhibits offered new, complementary insights to advance her goal.

    For fifth-form St George Secondary School student Ariel Barker-Yarde, the fair clarified critical logistics around her planned future studies at Barbados Community College, and also changed her perspective on entrepreneurship. She learned that starting a business does not require choosing between traditional employment and self-employment: “So even though you might be a nurse or a doctor, you can still be an entrepreneur.”

    Her classmate Anique Waithe added that the event offered learning opportunities that extend far beyond standard secondary school curricula. Despite not having a background in sports, she gained new insights into the role of Barbados’ Sports Council, while the medical booth taught her practical foundational knowledge of human biology and first aid. Waithe also said the event demystified entrepreneurship for young people, showing that successful businesses do not have to launch fully formed—young people can start small and scale their ventures over time. “You don’t have to start when older to start your own business. You could start from small and grow big to get better at it,” she said.

    Reane Alleyne, a Lower Sixth student at Christ Church Foundation School, highlighted the diversity of sectors represented at the fair, from dietetics to marine conservation. The environmental exhibits, in particular, introduced her to new information about local ecological issues, including endangered species native to Barbados that she had never learned about in class. “I really enjoyed learning everything, and then I also enjoyed the speeches that we had on stage. It was very informative,” she said.

    Her schoolmate Zion Kellman noted that the event challenged narrow assumptions about what career opportunities exist within different sectors. For example, he explained, food nutrition is far more than culinary arts—professionals in the field can build businesses developing specialized dietary products for people with dietary restrictions. Even marine conservation, he pointed out, includes a range of entrepreneurial and employment opportunities that many students never consider.

    For Alleyne School student Jonathan Ward, the fair combined useful learning with a fun, engaging day out with peers, highlighting the appeal of hands-on career exploration that moves beyond textbook lessons. As Barbados continues to invest in youth workforce development, organizers say the 3E Fair will remain a key annual initiative to help the next generation of Barbadian workers and leaders build fulfilling, flexible careers aligned with their interests.

  • UWI Global Campus Antigua Guild Introduces 2026/2027 Executive Team

    UWI Global Campus Antigua Guild Introduces 2026/2027 Executive Team

    The Antigua Chapter of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Global Campus Guild of Students has officially announced its new executive leadership team for the 2026/2027 academic year, marking a fresh chapter of student-centered advocacy and support for the island nation’s distance learning community.

    As the UWI system’s dedicated online learning arm, the UWI Global Campus fills a critical gap in Caribbean higher education. Designed to remove barriers to academic advancement for working adults, the campus serves a diverse student population spread across 16 Caribbean countries, enabling learners to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate degrees while remaining rooted in their jobs, families and local communities. For this non-traditional student body that balances multiple life responsibilities alongside their studies, the Guild of Students plays an indispensable role: amplifying student voices, addressing unmet needs, and building a supportive community for distance learners. The newly seated Antigua Chapter executive team has made supporting this unique student demographic its core mission.

    Profiles of the 2026/2027 Executive Team
    The new leadership slate brings together a diverse group of student leaders committed to serving Antigua’s UWI Global Campus community:
    – Makiba Ward, Chapter Chair: Tasked with steering the chapter’s overall strategic direction, coordinating cross-team work across the executive committee, and serving as the official representative for Antigua’s students at both the institutional and regional levels. Ward additionally takes on an expanded regional role, serving as Vice President for Administration, Sites and Services on the UWI Global Campus Regional Guild of Students. This dual appointment gives students from Antigua and Barbuda direct, elevated input into regional-level decision making for the campus.
    – Samantha Wallace, Vice Chapter Chair: Supports the Chair in all core responsibilities and takes ownership of overseeing daily chapter operations and ensuring long-term organizational continuity amid leadership transitions.
    – Liane Daniel, Secretary: Responsible for maintaining all official chapter records, managing internal and external communications for the organization, and ensuring transparency around the chapter’s activities.
    – Kimberly Thomas-Lawrence, Treasurer: Oversees all of the chapter’s financial activities, including budgeting, expenditure tracking, and formal financial reporting to ensure full accountability for all student funds.
    – Kellonda Burke-Lawrence, Academic Student Representative: Serves as the key liaison between Antigua students and campus and guild leadership, elevating academic concerns and driving forward initiatives designed to boost student academic success.
    – Gabrielle Dryden, Postgraduate Representative: Focuses exclusively on advocating for the unique interests and needs of postgraduate students within the Antigua chapter.
    – Anizia Vigo, Committee Liaison Officer: Acts as a bridge between the executive committee and sub-committees, streamlining information sharing and ensuring all planned student activities are executed smoothly.

    The Antigua Chapter maintains a close collaborative partnership with Coleen Letlow, Head of Site for UWI Global Campus Antigua and Barbuda. Leadership notes that Letlow’s ongoing support has been foundational to delivering a positive, accessible student experience at the local site.

    Looking ahead to the 2026/2027 academic year, the chapter’s first major public event is scheduled for November 15, 2026: a combined Honour Roll Ceremony and Executive Induction. The dual-purpose event will recognize high-achieving students who earned top marks across the first and second semesters of the 2025/2026 academic year, celebrating the hard work of learners who excel academically while balancing work, family and community commitments. Following the honoree recognitions, the ceremony will formally swear in the 2026/2027 executive team, kicking off their term of service. Under the leadership of this new team, the chapter reaffirms its commitment to lifting up student voices and delivering tangible support: “Together We Can Make It Happen.”

  • AI en onderwijs centraal tijdens regionale IPTP-bijeenkomst in Paraguay

    AI en onderwijs centraal tijdens regionale IPTP-bijeenkomst in Paraguay

    On September 24, 2026, the International Parliament for Tolerance and Peace (IPTP) concluded its regional gathering in Asunción, Paraguay, centered on one of the most pressing topics in 21st-century learning: unlocking artificial intelligence’s potential for education while ensuring equitable, widespread access to this transformative technology. Hosted in partnership with the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace (GCTP) and welcomed by Paraguay’s Honorable Chamber of Deputies, the three-day conference brought together parliamentary representatives and technology experts from across the globe to share cross-regional insights on integrating AI into learning ecosystems.

    Conference attendees heard targeted presentations and case studies from a range of contributors, including leading South Korean technology and education specialists. Delegates exchanged on-the-ground experiences from diverse national and subnational contexts, with deep dives into AI-education advancements in both South Korea and the Brazilian state of Paraná. Representing Suriname at the discussions was Asiskumar Gajadien, a sitting IPTP member and faction leader of the Progressive People’s Party (VHP), who attended the gathering at his own expense. Gajadien emphasized that AI carries unprecedented opportunity to strengthen global education systems— but only if paired with intentional investment in core enabling infrastructure.

    “Investing in AI for education means, first and foremost, investing in our children and our teachers,” Gajadien told delegates. He argued that beyond teaching students to interact with AI tools, education systems must prioritize building core critical thinking competencies, information evaluation skills, and frameworks for responsible technology use. Even as AI becomes more integrated into classrooms, Gajadien noted, teachers will remain central to guiding student learning and digital literacy development.

    The conference’s landmark outcome was the unanimous adoption of the *Asunción Declaration – Artificial Intelligence for Tolerance and Peace*, a framework guiding collaborative global action on responsible AI development. The declaration commits all signatories to advancing AI innovation and deployment that upholds human dignity, fundamental human rights, accountability, and transparency. It also reiterates the urgent need for inclusive access to AI’s benefits across all regions and socioeconomic groups, ensuring no community is left behind by the digital transition.

    Beyond core AI ethics principles, the declaration highlights AI’s role in advancing public service delivery and social development, with a specific focus on education. The document frames education that fosters critical thinking, social tolerance, and responsible citizenship as an essential tool to prepare populations for rapid change in an increasingly digital society. For Gajadien, the declaration creates a shared foundation for cross-parliamentary collaboration on navigating AI’s rise. He noted that cross-border knowledge and experience sharing allows nations to more effectively adapt to both the opportunities and challenges brought by fast-paced technological evolution.
    “Not all of our countries have access to the same resources,” Gajadien said. “That is why collaboration and mutual learning are so important. Technology will continue to change, but our starting point must always be that technology serves people, and contributes to better education, greater inclusion, tolerance, and peace.”

    Gajadien extended formal gratitude to Paraguay and the Honorable Chamber of Deputies for their hospitality as hosts, as well as to all participating experts who shared their AI and education insights with delegates. Founded to connect parliamentary leaders across borders to advance shared goals of tolerance, peace, and equitable social development, the IPTP now counts representatives from more than 100 countries among its membership.

  • Princess Margaret Secondary School Students Petition for Fairer Discipline, Water and More Chairs

    Princess Margaret Secondary School Students Petition for Fairer Discipline, Water and More Chairs

    Student activists at Princess Margaret Secondary School have launched a formal petition pushing for sweeping reforms to the school’s disciplinary policies and campus infrastructure, framing their campaign as a fight for greater student agency in decisions that shape their daily learning environment. At the core of their demands is a call for systemic change to the institution’s approach to discipline, with students arguing that current penalties are often overly harsh and applied unevenly across the student body. A key proposal in the petition requires that students be given a formal opportunity to share their side of events before any major disciplinary ruling is finalized.

    The document highlights one controversial, unconfirmed incident to illustrate their claims: a young student who was allegedly forced to wait crying outside the school entrance after arriving late to class. When observers brought the student’s emotional distress to the attention of the school principal, the administrator reportedly responded with a dismissive “And?”, according to the petition. To date, this account has not been independently verified by third-party sources.

    Beyond disciplinary reform, the petition outlines a long list of unaddressed basic infrastructure and daily facility issues that disrupt students’ educational experience. Students report consistent challenges accessing clean drinking water throughout the school day, as well as a chronic shortage of classroom seating that forces some learners to hunt for open chairs or perch on top of desks during lessons. Additional complaints include inadequate ventilation that creates overheating in classrooms, excessively long wait times in crowded cafeteria lines, overly short lunch breaks, unaddressed flooding in parts of the campus, and delayed maintenance on broken facilities.

    The petition’s formal demands include actionable changes: expanding access to safe, reliable drinking water across campus, adding sufficient classroom and communal seating, upgrading outdated facilities and improving air ventilation, conducting a full review of current lunch period arrangements, expanding after-school and extracurricular activities, and embedding formal mechanisms for greater student input in school governance.

    In a clear statement of the movement’s purpose, the petitioners emphasized that they are not pushing for an unregulated campus without structure. “We are not asking for a school without rules,” the petition reads. “We are asking for fairness, compassion, basic necessities, better conditions, and a school where students feel heard, respected, and proud to belong.” As of the publication of this report, no official comment or response from Princess Margaret Secondary School’s administration has been included in or attached to the petition.

  • PHOTOS: Irene B. Williams Secondary School Hosts First Visual Arts Show

    PHOTOS: Irene B. Williams Secondary School Hosts First Visual Arts Show

    A new annual tradition is about to kick off at Irene B. Williams Secondary School, as the campus prepares to open the doors of its very first Visual Arts Show to visitors from September 23 to 25. The three-day exhibition will turn the spotlight on the boundless creativity and original works produced by the school’s own student body, offering young artists a long-awaited public platform to share their artistic visions with the school community.
    The planning and execution of this landmark event is led by Andrew Daley, head of the institution’s Visual Arts Department. Over months of preparation, Daley has collaborated closely with fellow visual arts instructors and library skills teachers, who have contributed space, curatorial support and logistical help to bring the show from concept to reality. Organizers have made a point to highlight that the event would not have been possible without the consistent backing of school leadership. In public acknowledgements shared ahead of the opening, the planning team extended formal gratitude to Principal Mrs. Willock and the vice principal, whose guidance, resource allocation and enthusiastic encouragement cleared the way for the inaugural showcase to come to fruition.
    For students, the exhibition represents more than just a display of class projects: it is an opportunity to celebrate creative growth, build confidence in their artistic practice, and lay the groundwork for what the school hopes will become a beloved yearly tradition highlighting the importance of arts education in secondary learning.

  • AI Expert Warns UWI Five Islands Against Relying on AI Detectors to Accuse Students

    AI Expert Warns UWI Five Islands Against Relying on AI Detectors to Accuse Students

    Amid growing debate over artificial intelligence’s disruptive impact on higher education, a leading global education technology expert has issued a critical warning to faculty at the University of the West Indies Five Islands Campus: AI detection tool scores should never be treated as definitive proof that a student cheated on an assignment by using generative AI.

    Dr. Joseph South, chief innovation officer at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), shared this assessment during a recent public lecture and Q&A session hosted by the campus. When asked to outline evidence-based best practices for working with AI detection platforms, South cut through common misconceptions with a clear, uncompromising take: “They do not work. There’s no AI detector that’s been proven to work consistently.”

    South’s warning was bolstered by an anecdote from UWI Five Islands principal Professor Justin Robinson, who shared a striking example of how unreliable these tools can be. Robinson told attendees that one of his colleagues had submitted an academic paper he wrote back in 2015 — years before the release of the large language models that power today’s mainstream generative AI writing tools — to popular detection platform Turnitin. Despite the paper being entirely human-written years before current AI tools even existed, the tool assigned it an AI-generated likelihood score above 80%.

    South acknowledged that detection results can play a limited role in academic integrity processes: if a lecturer already has reasonable concerns about a student’s work, a high score can act as a first prompt for further investigation. But he emphasized that a single detector result should never be used to resolve the question of academic misconduct on its own, given the tools’ well-documented rate of false positives.

    The discussion also touched on a deeper, growing rift of mistrust between students and faculty around AI use in academia. When one lecturer asked how universities can rebuild mutual trust when instructors suspect students of over-relying on AI to complete work, and students in turn suspect that lecturers themselves use AI to prepare course materials and assignments, South highlighted a fundamental shift AI has already brought to higher education assessment.

    Generative AI makes it possible to produce polished, professional-looking final written work in a fraction of the time it once took a human to write the same assignment. This, South explained, undermines a decades-long core assumption of higher education assessment: that a finished, polished final assignment accurately reflects what a student has learned over the course of a class.

    To adapt to this new landscape, South urged post-secondary institutions to fundamentally shift how they evaluate student learning. Instead of focusing the majority of assessment weight on the final written product students turn in at the end of a project or unit, universities should prioritize measuring the incremental work students complete throughout the learning process. This includes tracking how students develop their core arguments, refine their ideas over time, and explain their reasoning step by step.

    “I think we need to shift our assessment methods to be more about the process than the product,” South said.

    Beyond assessment reform, South also called for higher education communities to host open, transparent discussions about appropriate AI use for both faculty and students. Setting clear, shared expectations for how the technology can and cannot be used across all campus roles, he argued, will help ease the growing suspicion on both sides. More importantly, this open approach will give students the space to learn through practice: to understand when AI can act as a helpful learning tool, and when they need to complete critical thinking and analysis work independently.

  • Dominica State College launches student-led Internet Governance Lab

    Dominica State College launches student-led Internet Governance Lab

    Against a backdrop of growing global focus on digital inclusion and youth engagement in technology innovation, Dominica State College (DSC) has launched a groundbreaking new initiative that puts students in the driver’s seat of addressing pressing internet connectivity challenges. Called the DSC Youth Internet Governance Lab, this project is being hosted by the college’s Innovation Hub and backed by a $20,000 grant from the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), according to an official press release from the institution.

    Unlike traditional classroom-based learning models, this initiative is entirely student-led, with a core focus on investigating connectivity issues that directly impact the DSC campus community. From persistent Wi-Fi interference and dead zones with limited coverage to unexpected wireless signal disruptions, the project targets the everyday frictions that students and staff face when accessing digital services on campus. Multidisciplinary collaboration is at the heart of the project, bringing together students from diverse academic backgrounds including Computer Science, Information Technology, Telecommunications, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Education, and Law/Paralegal Studies to approach problems from multiple perspectives.

    Over the course of the project, participating students will conduct comprehensive on-campus research, starting with full mapping of existing connectivity across all campus facilities. Their work will also cover critical areas of internet infrastructure such as IPv6 readiness, routing security, digital accessibility, and broader internet governance frameworks. The project’s design intentionally transforms routine campus technology problems into hands-on practical learning opportunities: rather than only diagnosing technical causes of connectivity gaps, students will also explore the overlapping policy, legal, and accessibility dimensions that shape how people access and use digital networks.

    The initiative will conclude in 2027 with the hosting of the DSC Youth Internet Governance Forum, where students will present their research findings and evidence-based recommendations for improving connectivity resilience in small-island contexts like Dominica. Another key deliverable from the project is an open-source Small Island Campus Connectivity and Youth Internet Governance Toolkit, a curated resource that other higher education institutions across the ARIN Caribbean region can adapt for their own local use.

    DSC officials note that the project frames students as active contributors to digital problem-solving and research, rather than passive consumers of technology. The core aim is to help participants build the foundational knowledge and technical skills required to understand, engage with, and shape the future development of the internet. For the college, this initiative aligns with its long-standing institutional mission of empowering students through innovation, knowledge, and real-world opportunity, setting a new model for student-led technology research in Caribbean higher education.

  • Halo donates to GN Trust for student-athletes scholarships in UK

    Halo donates to GN Trust for student-athletes scholarships in UK

    In a formal ceremony held at Government House on Wednesday, the Halo Foundation, led by its founder Her Excellency Lady Sandra Williams, has handed over an $18,000 contribution to Ricky Santos, president of the GN Trust, to expand access to life-changing educational and athletic opportunities for emerging young Antiguan sportspeople.

  • Prevention urged alongside school-fight discipline

    Prevention urged alongside school-fight discipline

    As the trend of staged, filmed school fights shared across social media continues to grow, a leading behavioural scientist has issued a critical warning: punitive discipline alone is not enough to curb this dangerous youth behaviour. Professor Dwayne Devonish, a researcher at the University of the West Indies, is urging education leaders to pair the Ministry of Education Transformation’s strict zero-tolerance policy with proactive early intervention, confidential student reporting systems, and targeted psychological support to tackle the root of the problem.

    His comments come in direct response to the ministry’s recent public statement condemning the spread of staged fight videos and threatening severe disciplinary action for all students involved – from the combatants to the organisers, videographers and users who upload content to social platforms. After confirming multiple instances of pre-planned, filmed altercations being shared online, ministry officials reaffirmed their hardline zero-tolerance stance, making clear that any student linked to these incidents will face formal disciplinary consequences.

    Professor Devonish argues that this emerging form of youth aggression is fundamentally different from traditional spontaneous school fights, reshaped entirely by the reach and dynamics of digital social media. “When school fights are filmed and circulated online, we’re not just dealing with a physical conflict between two students,” he explained in an interview with Barbados TODAY. “We have the physical harm, but we also have a built-in audience, the permanent recording, widespread sharing, public comments, and even social status gained from the viral content. Psychologically, that completely shifts the dynamics of the behaviour.”

    He points to the intersection of adolescent developmental stages and social media’s feedback loops as a particularly dangerous combination. Adolescents are still developing impulse control and emotional regulation, and social media platforms are structured to reward attention-grabbing content. When a staged fight video earns views, likes and comments from peers, it creates immediate social reinforcement that encourages repeat behaviour. Even minor conflicts rooted in perceived disrespect or embarrassment can be amplified by this digital system, turning a small disagreement into a pre-planned viral event.

    While Professor Devonish fully supports the ministry’s commitment to rejecting and de-normalising school violence and the recording of it, he stresses that zero tolerance does not mean zero understanding of why the behaviour occurs. Relying solely on increased school surveillance or policing of student behaviour will fall short, he argues, especially when most of the filming and sharing happens on personal student devices that schools cannot easily monitor or control.

    Instead, he advocates for a balanced approach that combines clear, enforceable rules with preventative measures. “We cannot police our way out of this problem. Strong policy and clear consequences are necessary, but prevention is just as critical. The most effective intervention happens before the first punch is ever thrown,” he said.

    To stop planned fights before they start, Professor Devonish recommends that schools create discreet, confidential reporting channels that let students safely share information about upcoming altercations without fear of being targeted or judged. “Schools can’t predict every planned fight, but they can create systems to respond fast when students come forward. If students know exactly who to contact and know their report will stay confidential, they are far more likely to speak up before violence occurs,” he explained.

    Ministry officials have noted that several initiatives to promote positive student behaviour are already in place across schools, including the Positive Vibe programme, Community Service Learning, and other character-building activities designed to boost student resilience. Officials also emphasized that the viral fight trend is not widespread, even as they reiterated that any single act of school violence remains unacceptable.

    Professor Devonish acknowledges that existing social-emotional learning programmes can be effective, but he says addressing the problem requires broader systemic action. “These programmes work to prevent violent behaviour, interrupt it when it starts, and replace it with positive alternatives. But this is a multifaceted issue, and these programmes alone can’t fix the whole problem. We need a whole-of-education, whole-country approach to make real change,” he said.

    He also issued a call to adults and parents to act responsibly on digital platforms, urging them not to share or repost staged fight videos. “Adults can amplify the harm just as much as teenagers can when they forward these clips. Beyond policy and enforcement, we have to be intentional about shaping positive behaviour, and we have to continuously collect data to check if our interventions are actually working.”

    For its part, the Ministry of Education Transformation has renewed its appeal to parents to partner with schools, noting that home-school cooperation is foundational to creating safe learning environments for all students. Officials also recognized the vast majority of Barbadian students who follow school rules and make positive contributions to their school communities.

  • Caribbean leadership’s crisis of thought on school discipline

    Caribbean leadership’s crisis of thought on school discipline

    Across global political spaces, a growing, underrecognized leadership crisis has emerged: policymakers repeatedly voice concern over systemic challenges impacting marginalized groups like youth, yet almost never prioritize evidence-based, long-term solutions that address root causes. Too often, leaders default to blame-shifting, inflammatory rhetoric, and quick, punitive fixes instead of confronting deep structural, behavioral, and environmental issues that drive social problems. This pattern, critics argue, wastes public resources and undermines long-term national progress, creating cycles of harm that are far harder to reverse.

    This crisis of leadership is on stark display in recent discussions of school violence among Caribbean Community (CARICOM) prime ministers. Rather than investigating the underlying drivers of youth misbehavior and designing targeted, sustainable policy interventions, several regional leaders have pushed a simplistic, lazy solution: suspend disruptive students and send them home to be managed exclusively by their parents. One sitting prime minister went so far as to argue that educators should not waste effort supporting uncooperative students, telling schools to directly remove problematic youth and leave families to resolve the issue on their own.

    When members of the public pushed back against this approach, framing it as intellectually vacant and harmful to vulnerable youth, the prime minister doubled down on her stance. She challenged critics to take disruptive students into their own homes, framing troubled children as unwanted burdens to be shifted between institutions rather than young people in need of targeted support. While this rhetoric has resonated with overworked, frustrated teachers struggling to manage persistent misbehavior in underresourced schools, education and youth development experts emphasize it does nothing to resolve the core problem of school violence.

    Critics point out that pushing students out of school through suspension only passes the buck to families that often lack the resources, time, or support to address behavioral challenges on their own. Many Caribbean communities have weakened social support structures, and large numbers of working parents cannot take unpaid time off work to supervise suspended children. This leaves young people unsupervised in environments rife with risk: idle, out of school, and vulnerable to recruitment by gangs and other criminal networks. Far from correcting bad behavior, suspension pushes youth further away from educational opportunities and toward the cycles of violence and crime that leaders claim to be addressing.

    This failure of policy raises critical questions: what do regional leaders actually hope to achieve by expanding mass student suspension? Do they expect unsupervised children to spontaneously reflect on their actions and reform? Do they expect low-income working parents to sacrifice much-needed income to manage children at home? Or is this push simply a dog whistle for a return to outdated, discredited corporal punishment, rooted in the false belief that physical discipline solves behavioral issues? The lack of clarity around these goals underscores the fact that the policy is a knee-jerk reaction, not a well-researched solution.

    The predictable outcome of mass suspension is that large numbers of unsupervised youth will fall prey to bad actors, commit more serious offenses, and ultimately end up in the criminal justice system. What few leaders acknowledge is that this path is far more expensive to taxpayers than investing in early intervention: the CARICOM Report on Youth Development confirms that retributive, punitive policies cost regional governments far more than proactive investment in youth potential. As Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, former Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has long argued, genuine leadership is not just about inspiring public support—it is about helping communities unlock their own strengths to drive inclusive national growth.

    A thoughtful, effective approach to school violence would recognize three core truths that current policy ignores. First, while the family is the primary agent of socialization for children, many parents lack access to the tools they need to navigate the complex challenges of raising adolescents in the 21st century. Rather than shaming parents for failing to manage youth behavior on their own, governments should invest in free, accessible parenting support: evidence-based parenting programs, community outreach, mental health counseling, and practical guidance on adolescent development, conflict resolution, digital literacy, and family communication. These resources should be framed as an investment in family and community well-being, not an indictment of parental failure.

    Second, youth behavior is shaped by far more than just family: digital media, peer groups, school culture, and community context all play major roles in driving misbehavior. Addressing school violence requires assessing all of these overlapping influences and developing coordinated cross-institutional solutions, not just placing all responsibility on parents. This means governments must step into its role as a facilitator of public good, creating policy that shapes the environments young people grow up in and provides support across every part of a child’s ecosystem.

    To deliver on this, schools need access to multidisciplinary teams of trained specialists: counselors, child psychologists, social workers, special education experts, and youth development professionals. These teams can identify the root causes of a child’s misbehavior—whether it stems from trauma, neglect, poverty, learning disabilities, peer pressure, gang recruitment, or substance use—and deliver targeted support rather than just removing the child from class. For the small share of students whose repeated behavior puts peers at risk, governments should develop well-resourced alternative education centers that continue academic instruction alongside counseling, anger management, restorative justice, and vocational training. The goal should be rehabilitation and eventual reintegration into mainstream education, not permanently discarding young people from the educational system.

    Leaders who frame school discipline as a binary battle between parents and schools are avoiding their own responsibility to solve the problem. A government committed to reducing youth violence must build a holistic intervention system that recognizes children exist within a web of overlapping influences, and that the state has both the authority and the duty to shape that ecosystem for the better. This means moving past suspension as the default response and implementing a graduated system of intervention: counseling, restorative justice practices, targeted parental engagement, and behavioral assessments come before any serious disciplinary action. Even when a child must be removed from the classroom for safety reasons, they should never be removed from education, supervision, and support. No suspension should be approved without a concrete intervention plan in place to address the root of the behavior.

    Governments must also recognize that schools cannot solve this problem alone. If children spend their after-school hours in communities where gangs and other harmful influences compete for their attention, policymakers must provide positive alternatives through structured, free after-school programs focused on sports, arts, music, homework support, vocational training, mentorship, and community engagement. Young people should have access to safe, enriching institutions that compete for their time, build a positive sense of identity, and nurture their aspirations, rather than leaving them vulnerable to criminal recruitment.

    Regional universities, including the University of the West Indies, should also receive sustained public funding to conduct long-term, rigorous research into the drivers of youth deviance, school violence, absenteeism, gang involvement, and other related challenges. Too often, academic research on these critical issues sits unread on library shelves, ignored by the very governments that fund the universities. Incorporating this independent, evidence-based expertise into the policy process ensures solutions are built on data, not anecdote and political posturing.

    Another often overlooked solution is supporting schools to redesign teaching and learning practices to better support at-risk students. Many young people act out in response to disengagement from outdated, unengaging curricula that do not meet their needs. Simply sending students home does not change behavior; creating inclusive, supportive school environments that keep youth engaged and connected to learning is the only sustainable path to reducing misbehavior.

    Decades of experience have shown that relying on retribution as a default response to public policy challenges does not deliver the promised results, even as politicians continue to mask its failures with misleading statistics. Instead of mandating one-size-fits-all suspension, policymakers should give school communities the flexibility and resources to develop their own context-specific solutions to misbehavior, since the most effective approaches often grow from local knowledge.

    Finally, governments must commit to ongoing accountability by measuring whether their interventions actually produce positive outcomes. Success should not be measured by how many students are suspended or expelled; it should be measured by whether school violence declines, student behavior improves, suspended youth successfully return to education, absenteeism drops, and fewer young people enter the criminal justice system.

    Ultimately, addressing school violence requires a fundamental shift from reactive punishment to proactive prevention, rehabilitation, and accountability. Early intervention when a child first starts struggling prevents far more harm than waiting until the only remaining option is imprisonment. The choice for regional governments is clear: invest now in supporting vulnerable, struggling youth, or pay far more later to lock up adults whose potential was abandoned by failed leadership.