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| Sandy Point High School (Photo by Erasmus Williams) |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, SEPTEMBER 5TH 2007 (CUOPM) – The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis is to amend its new Education Act to provide for the debarring of convicted sex offenders from teaching in the Federation’s schools.
Minister of State with responsibility for Information, Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty said the Cabinet has approved amendments to the 2005 Education Act, which call for convicted sex offenders to be debarred from ever holding teaching positions and outlining specifically defined roles and functions of guidance counselors and the introduction of introduction of penalties for certain offences that have been defined in the Act, but for which no penalty was specified.
“It is expected that these amendments to the Education Act will be made at the next sitting of Parliament planned for late September,” said Minister, who reiterated its commitment to further improving the education system “so that increasing numbers of students can benefit from high quality education and that the human resources necessary for our nation’s development in increasingly challenging times can be effectively nurtured.”
The success of the education system over the years since the introduction of universal secondary education in 1965 was also discussed.~~Adz:Right~~
In 2005, a new Education Act came into being as an attempt by the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Government to modernize the education system taking into account the present realities in society, while building upon the strengths of the existing system at that time.
The new Act, in particular, gave specific definition to the roles, responsibilities, rights and privileges of students, teachers, parents, school administrators and the Minister of Education and other stakeholders relating to the education of the child.
