‘We cannot turn schools into fortresses’

PARENTS should keep a better eye on their children at night so as to avoid turning schools into fortresses, the Education Minister said yesterday.
Andreas Demetriou was commenting on the latest arson attack on a Nicosia primary school.
He said incidences of vandalism at schools were usually the work of students who either attended another school or the same school, and who wanted to send some sort of message.
“Society is sensitive to the needs and concerns of these youngsters,” he said.
Demetrious appealed to students to avoid such behaviour as their needs could be handled in many different ways “instead of causing damage to school buildings”.
“It is not the best way to get their message across, which they probably want to put across to all of us,” he said.
Asked whether there was specific information regarding the blaze at Aglandjia’s 5th primary school on Tuesday night, Demetrious said the issue was being handled by police.
The minister called on the general public to give some thought to such incidences of behaviour and reiterated that local schools did not want to become fortresses.
“It doesn’t suit us nor do we want such a thing [as a society],” he said.
Last year saw an unprecedented spate of violence in the island’s schools, which had teachers and other authorities wringing their hands. Teachers even staged several walkouts in protest against “the daily struggle’ to cope with violent teens.
Some schools have what are called the ‘Rapid Intervention Team, to deal with anti-social behaviour.
Set up last year, the team is comprised of experts – child psychologists, experts on teenage delinquency issues and social workers, among others – whose job is to support and advise schools on how to deal with the problems they are facing.
The team started with the schools that had experienced problems and attempted to help them understand how to deal with the issue of violence.
But teachers argue that the problem cannot only be addressed by boosting security at schools, as its causes are far more complex and go back to the roots of the family where they say children should be taught values and limits, and be given the attention they need.
Psychologists, however, argue that juvenile delinquency is a universal phenomenon that is not caused by Cyprus-specific factors, but by a combination of psychological and sociological considerations, which are played out at school and lead to low performance.