BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – RECOGNIZING an urgent need for intervention, the Ministry of Education has taken steps to address issues of anger management that exist among the youths of the Federation.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Osmond Petty, while speaking exclusively with SKNVibes agreed that crime and violence stems, to some extent, from anger.
He described the problem of crime and violence as being “very multi-faceted”, explaining that the ministry has resolved to do its part in aiding those in the education system to cope with the “major social phenomenon” of angry youths.
Petty explained that the need for an anger management programme in schools became staggeringly evident “last year, when a student at Cayon was killed by another student.” This, he further explained, spurred the department along to proactively deal with the anger management issue.
“We then realized the need to help students control their anger, to let them understand there are alternatives and consequences and so on, relating to anger. So, we put together a proposal for consideration by the Organization of American States (OAS) through their annual programme with the government of St. Kitts and Nevis.
“Our feedback so far has been very positive and we are trying to finalize a proposal to obtain the necessary funding so we can start later this year, by about May,” he said.
Providing details of the programme, the Permanent Secretary explained that close to 600 high school and primary school teachers would receive anger management training, orientation and sensitization that would equip them to address relevant issues.
With the project yet to come on-stream, Petty explained that the Department of Education and the OAS are in the process of tying loose ends together.
“I would say, yes, it is guaranteed. We are just finalizing. The feedback we have gotten from the OAS is that it is definitely a programme which they are going to fund. Basically, there is an anger management booklet, which we are going to buy. There is a consultant who is going to come in to work with teachers on that booklet to sensitize teachers and guidance counselors, and also to sensitize parents and students.”
The program, according to Petty, will run for about one year. During the first few months of that period, Department officials “are going to sensitize teachers, students, guidance counselors and parents and then we are going to evaluate the programme…to see how it is being implemented”.
“We intend to have the anger management being part of the school curriculum, but we need to find what the modalities are to be associated with the programme. The idea is it will be an ongoing curricular activity, not necessary a workshop,” Petty said.
