Who Will Punish State Child Abuse and Neglect?

-
Recently, the Jamaican minister, Portia Simpson Miller, addressed the issues of child abuse and neglectful parents. She added that the state was going to do in its power to hold negligent parents accountable. No one can argue with her on this point, as all well thinking Jamaicans will concur that we must do more to eradicate child abuse as a scourge affecting the society. However, one issue which was not mentioned by the Prime Minister and which was probably an oversight is the State’s neglect of its children. There are many places of safety or children’s homes which are under-funded. In fact too many of these institutions lack the required financial resources to impact the lives of their wards in a meaningful way. This is also a form of abuse. The continued shortfall in budgetary support from the state lends itself to child abuse as in many instances these children are not adequately supervised due to the lack of personnel. As a result their development and full potential are hijacked by the state’s unwillingness to adequately allocate the resources necessary. We also need to increase funding to all the agencies of the state with deals with children’s rights such as the Child Development Agency (CDA) in order to scaffold the rights and interests of our children.
A second form of state neglect comes in the form of Jamaica’s education system. There are different categories of schools as perceived by the general public. There are schools of first choice and then they are schools of last resort. These schools of last resorts are under-funded and spread across Jamaica. In fact for the most part these schools are left on their own. The students who attend such schools fare worse off than their counterparts not because they are not qualified teachers there but due mainly because of the politics involved in Jamaica’s education system. This negative political cultural practice is carried out by both major political parties’ and rewards mediocrity and political allegiance to the detriment of national and sustainable development.
Who will hold the government accountable for its neglect of the nation’s children? The magnitude of Jamaica’s child abuse cases are recorded in the report from the Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR). According to the According to the Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) between January to September of 2013 there were 8,527 reports of child abuse which is most alarmingly. Until we become serious about addressing the issues of child abuse and parental neglect we will continue to move from crisis to crisis. The time has come for us to become proactive.   

Wayne Campbell
waykam@yahoo.com
Twitter:@WayneCamo

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Promoting Literacy For A World In Transition

-
Image
Oftentimes we speak about literacy yet, the practicality regarding targeted interventions to support literacy in many educational institutions is hijacked in the politics of education. In the long term both the students and indeed the society suffer the consequences. Literacy ignities creativity and desire. Literacy is that springboard that must propel all students in order for them to navigate their educational journey successfully. Regrettably, without acquiring the tools of literacy one is imprisoned and those around also are serving this sentence. Literacy is a potent tool to eradicate generational poverty. Literacy also serves as a vehicle for social progress and sustainable development. Unfortunately, many societies do not invest as much in literacy skills as they ought to. The Global South oftentimes is burdened by debt repayment to multi-national lending agencies that cut into the budget that should be set aside as an investment in education. The statistic paints a damning pic
Read more

The Psychology Of Dunce

-
Image
The word ‘dunce’ has always had a fixed address in our local lexicon. The summer holidays are now over, yet the narrative associated with the ‘dunce’ labeled knapsacks has carried over into the new academic year. We often underestimate the power and force of our popular culture to our detriment. Gone are the days when teachers were seen as role models for students; there has been a tsunami-like shift in our values and attitudes over the years and this has given rise to a number of sub-cultures many of which are toxic. Many of the social ills of the society are grounded in our painful past of enslavement and colonialization. Unfortunately, the State has been complicit in the promulgation of some of these social problems. Sadly, as a society we have internalized this trauma and as a result generation after generation have had to deal with social problems of various forms in our post-slavery society. Over the decades we have inherited and we have continued to nurture an elitist educati
Read more

Israel Hamas War

-
Image
“Indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”- Psalm 121:4. It appears we have been hearing about the Arab/Israeli conflict from time immemorial. However, it is important that some historical and Biblical context be interjected into the narrative in order for a better understanding of this current war. In the Bible, the phrase ‘Promised Land’ refers to a specific region of land that God promised to his chosen people of Israel. God first gave this pledge of land to Abraham saying, “I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the desert to the Euphrates River.” This pledge was reiterated to Abraham’s descendants until the time came for His people to claim their inheritance. Abraham knew that he would not see God’s Promised Land with his own eyes. In fact, God made it clear to him that the land would not be given until four generations had passed, and that his descendants would face the hardship of slavery in Egypt before the
Read more